Despite Collaboration Overload, Workers Still Want a Hybrid Workplace

Welcome to the Workspace Connect Wrap, our regular round-up of news in the new workplace. In today's edition: Citrix reports on the high-priority workers give flexible workplace policies, and Workhuman finds that recognition programs have a benefit valued in the millions. Also, Zivver identifies collaborative overload as a major workplace stressor.

 

Now that workers have had a taste of flexibility in where and when they work, they now consider it an important part of the job, the most recent Citrix-OnePoll survey found.

 

Citrix surveyed 6500 workers in the U.S., U.K., France, Australia, Germany, Netherlands, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Japan to determine what the global workforce prioritizes. Among the findings: 69%of respondents would consider leaving their job if they aren't offered the freedom to choose how often they work in the office.

 

This isn't to say that workers are rejecting the office. A strong majority (71%) plan to work in the office between one and four days per week, while less than half (49%) plan to work from home permanently. Workers want more control over where and when they work — better work-life balance led the reasons the respondents want a hybrid work model. Additionally, wanting to save time and money on commuting, reducing distractions, boosting productivity, and not going to an office where there were no colleagues were also leading reasons.

 

“Employees have seen the positive impact flexible work can have on everything from engagement and productivity to work-life balance, mental health, and the environment,” said Traci Palmer, VP of people and organization capability, Citrix. “And they are looking to employers to embrace it, and invest in tools and processes that empower them to work when, where and how they work best."

 

The cloud-based human capital management company conducted research with Gallup on how companies are managing their workforces. The key finding: While employee recognition is not a strategic priority for 80% of managers, a formal employee recognition program integrated into the company culture could save large enterprises up to $16.1 million in turnover-associated costs annually.

 

40% of employees surveyed say they are not receiving enough recognition from leaders at their organization and 52% of employees who feel they're not sufficiently recognized within their company are actively looking or watching for new employment opportunities.

 

"The Gallup data clearly show that when recognition is truly embedded in workplace culture, people feel its full impact — they feel seen and valued, motivated to put in a little extra, and supported to reach their full potential," said Chris French, Workhuman EVP. "In today's world of distributed and hybrid work, keeping employees connected and engaged is a major business priority. By implementing and nurturing a strong and strategic recognition program, many problems organizations face could be overcome. Recognition is no longer a nice-to-have program, but rather a business imperative."

 

The secure digital communications provider recently surveyed 6,000 end users and 850 IT decision-makers in Europe and the U.S. and discovered a majority of employees (78%) felt that their current IT environment had too many IT security protocols and IT systems, thus hindering overall productivity.

 

The survey also found digital communications tools to assist employees in hybrid work environments are causing collaboration overload: employees reported high levels of distraction (34%), increasing stress (29%), and difficulties in disconnecting at the end of the day (25%). Why the distraction matters: it's leading to reduced productivity and increased email threats. 59% of employees said they make more email errors at work when they are distracted. Since an overwhelming majority of survey respondents (88%) rely on or prefer email to conduct their work, the distraction can introduce mistakes or data loss into the workflows.

 

Wouter Klinkhamer, CEO at Zivver, said: "We can try to design cybersecurity, so employees don't make errors, but errors are ubiquitous. IT teams need to engage with employees without security measures getting in their way and create an effortless and frictionless experience by tailoring security policies and technology to them."