Gaby Giessen from Boston Consulting Group, discusses work at BCG Henderson Institute on the future of work, particularly the relationship between employee joy, toil, and attrition.
Gaby explains what the research says about the importance of hybrid work models, the role of generative AI in reducing toil, and the need for continuous employee feedback. It highlights how organisations can drive better business outcomes by aligning work models and tools with employee preferences, while ensuring leadership adapts to evolving work norms.
There is a need for a balance between cost management and fostering employee satisfaction for long-term success.
Read the research paper -> Here
Find out more about BCG and BCG Henderson Institute -> Here.
Key Takeaways
- Employee joy significantly reduces attrition: Enjoyment at work leads to a 50% reduction in attrition for office-based workers and 60% for frontline workers.
- Focus on flexibility over mandates: Empowering teams to decide their working model increases satisfaction and effectiveness more than broad, top-down return-to-office mandates.
- Toil vs Joy balance is critical: The ratio of joyful tasks to toil tasks strongly impacts employee retention, with workers being highly sensitive to increases in toil.
- Generational shifts in work preferences: Older generations prefer in-office work, while younger employees expect flexibility and hybrid models, requiring leadership to adjust their management styles.
- The commute is part of the workday: Employees see their commute as part of their work time, so making the commute worthwhile is key to maintaining engagement in hybrid models.
- AI should target toil, not joy: Generative AI (Jenny) can reduce burdensome tasks, but removing joyful tasks risks reducing engagement, making balanced implementation critical.
- Team-driven hybrid models are more effective: Hybrid work models driven by team decisions rather than company-wide mandates lead to higher joy and better effectiveness.
- Continuous measurement is crucial: Frequent employee feedback and pulse checks ensure organisations stay responsive to changing work preferences and maintain a focus on reducing toil.
- Leadership needs to unlearn old norms: Executives who grew up in in-office cultures need to adapt to managing distributed teams and empower their employees for optimal performance.
- Cost pressure shouldn’t overshadow employee needs: While cost control is critical, companies must avoid sacrificing employee engagement, as it directly impacts long-term productivity and retention.
- Attrition cost vs productivity gains: While the cost of replacing employees is easy to quantify, companies often underestimate the revenue uplift from engaged and happy employees.
- Employee-centric innovation drives success: Long-term business success comes from focusing on the employee experience, particularly in customer-facing industries like retail.
Innovation
- Generative AI for toil reduction: AI tools like Jenny can streamline administrative tasks without impacting the more enjoyable parts of work, enhancing productivity while preserving engagement.
- Joy-toil analysis in tool design: By aligning AI tools with what employees enjoy, companies can enhance adoption and increase satisfaction.
- Team-specific hybrid models: Instead of blanket office policies, allowing teams to set their own working norms increases both flexibility and effectiveness.
Key Statistics
- Attrition rate reduces by 50% for office workers and 60% for frontline workers when they enjoy their work.
- Office-based workers are as sensitive to a 1-hour increase in toil as a 1-hour decrease in joy.
- 90% of executives cite AI as a top-three investment priority for 2024, but only 39% have a people plan for its implementation.
- Joyful work needs to comprise at least 25% of an employee’s time (10 hours out of a 40-hour week).
Key Discussion Points
- The role of joy in reducing attrition and increasing employee retention.
- The importance of empowering teams to create their own work models rather than enforcing top-down office return mandates.
- Differentiating between toil (low-value tasks) and challenging but engaging work.
- The need to align new tools, such as AI, with employee preferences to boost both adoption and satisfaction.
- The generational gap in work preferences and the need for leadership to adapt.
- Commuting as part of the workday and how it affects perceptions of toil.
- The interplay between increasing joy and reducing toil for overall employee productivity and engagement.
- The risks of focusing too much on cost control and neglecting employee needs, particularly during economic downturns.
- The impact of employee engagement on customer experience and business outcomes.
- Ongoing evolution in employee preferences, particularly as hybrid work becomes more embedded post-pandemic.
- The need for more frequent employee engagement measures beyond traditional annual surveys.
- The importance of leadership buy-in for implementing AI and hybrid work successfully.
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