Apparently, Friday 14thSeptember is now better known as Leave Work at 4:00pm Day. No, I didn’t know either, but apparently it is, indeed, a thing and a thing, what’s more, in its second year. I’ll make a note to mention it to my boss. Sponsored by Red Bull, the idea of the initiative is to encourage employers to shut up shop early to encourage people to better experience the weekend.
So, what do we think? Cheap piece of publicity for a hedonistic brand such as Red Bull or an important concept increasingly of its time?
Possibly a little of both, but it shares DNA with a lovely idea from New Zealand’s Westpac. ‘Leave loudly, leave proudly’ is about encouraging its people not to shuffle sheepishly to the exit, or pretend to be going to a meeting when they have to leave early. Whatever their reason, be it the school run, caring or health-related, people should not be embarrassed, rather they, and the rest of Westpac, should embrace the issue. Rather than skulking out of the workplace, Westpac wants its people to ‘tell everyone you’re leaving’. The scheme has been running for the last year and this month Westpac announced that it had impacted positively on both recruitment and retention. One of the key factors behind its success is the sense of support and endorsement from Westpac’s senior leaders.
This feels very much in keeping with the recent announcement from PwC about encouraging its people to work the hours they want. Closer analysis of the scheme suggests that this is perhaps more about creating an internal gig economy, with people listing their skills and preferred hours of work. The scheme, however, has proved hugely popular with no less than 2,000 people subscribing to the network within two weeks of its launch. The initiative was significantly influenced by a PwC survey which suggested that 46% of its candidate base saw flexible working hours and a positive work life balance as priorities when making recruitment choices.
The scheme has echoes of recent headline-grabbing initiatives from the likes of Netflix, Hubspot and Virgin Group around creating a non-policy zone around holidays.
Both hard metrics and more anecdotal research seems to back up this direction of travel.
A survey from Gartner’s Global Talent Monitor suggested that not only do 18.8% of UK employees have a low intent around remaining with their current employer, the highest figure since pre-Brexit days, but that 47% of UK workers viewed work life balance as their highest employment-based priority.
This tallies closely with qualitative research I have been undertaking over the last month. Speaking with a number of graduates just a year into their careers, via a series of in-depth interviews, it was hard to avoid the importance such a demographic attaches to flexibility and the balance they want to achieve between work and play. I’ve been speaking too with an even younger audience over the course of the last two weeks – apprentices. Whilst on the one hand, they attached huge importance to job security and stability, they wanted their time valued and respected.
There’s an irony too in findings from Totaljobs/Jobsite this month – whereas 25% of employers are committing to refurbishing their offices over the next 12 months, 51% of employees would prefer remote working options.
So more and more people want less and less to do with smarter and smarter offices.
And why should employers listen closely to what both their employee and candidate base are looking for? Because the market says so.
The ONS report that there are now 883,000 vacancies in the economy for the most recent quarter – there have never been more since comparable records began. This coincided with a record-breaking monthly decline in the arrival into the UK of EU migrants seeking work.
And the Gartner research adds more context to the sense of competition. Last summer, it reports that roles for medium skilled roles attracted an average of 19 applicants, this year, the figure is 10. And for highly skilled roles, the average response 12 months ago was 8, today it is 6.
Finally, REC in its most recent monthly JobsOutlook suggests that 50% of UK employers expressed concern around candidate availability for permanent roles, at the same time as employer’s job creation intentions rose to their highest levels in six months.
Those organisations not enhancing the flexibility options of their people are unlikely to find the current labour market as sympathetic as their business plans might wish them to be.
But why do we all increasingly want more flexibility around when and where we work?
For me, there is a close relationship between this flexibility and the experience economy.
Simply put, we are increasingly favouring experiences over products and goods. According to McKinsey, our spend on experience-related services has increased at four times that we allocate to goods.
Whether it’s spending time with our children, having a weekend break with our friends, going to sporting or cultural events or taking holidays, we want more of this. And we want our work to fit in around this – increasingly more than the other way around.
Fascinating research from Cornell University suggests that the way we evaluate the purchase of material goods declines from the moment it is ours – it quickly ceases to be new and shiny. This contrasts with the value we attach to an experience, which tends to rise over time. A key factor in this observation is that such experiences generate sustainable stories and tend to bind and enhance social relationships.
What do we share, for example, on social media? It’s not about buying a new pair of shoes or a car fresh out of the showroom, it’s about spending time with family, being there for sports days and piano recitals, going on breaks, attending a concert, enhancing our health and fitness. This is increasingly what defines us, what we share, what creates our personal narrative.
If my work is preventing me – whether through long hours or inflexibility – from taking part in such experiences, should I be looking elsewhere?
It feels as though there is plenty of room for improvement and for differentiation from one employer over another. According to research from Mercer, employers do not necessarily offer as much flexibility as they might imagine. (Or such flexibility is unsuccessfully communicated to those who wish to take advantage of it). Research from the US suggests that 96% of employees are looking for flexibility, yet just 47% felt they actually had access to it.
It is entirely easy to make the case that flexibility relates purely to those with families and, in a sense, ring-fence this. We really shouldn’t. Employees of all ages, backgrounds, commitments and interests are looking for employers to provide more flexibility. From apprentices and graduates upwards.
Why? Because they don’t want the sum total of their experiences to be office based.
The key to preventing people from leaving? Send them home.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 