O.C. Tanner's Global Culture Report shows importance of reconnecting employees

O.C. Tanner, a Salt Lake City-based employee recognition and workplace culture company, has released its 2023 Global Culture Report. Now in its fifth year, the report details the latest trends and strategies to win and retain people, including reconnecting workplace community, creating fulfilling employee experiences, fortifying weary leaders and integrating recognition and symbolism early and often.

Based on data gathered from over 36,000 employees, leaders, HR practitioners and executives from 20 countries worldwide, the report was announced at O.C. Tanner’s annual culture conference, “Influence Greatness.”

“The future of work depends on embracing change and rebuilding community within the workplace. This year’s report demonstrates the importance of reconnecting employees with purpose and meaning,” said Alexander Lovell, director of research and data science at the O.C. Tanner Institute. “Organizations should be deliberate in creating opportunities for employees to feel fulfilled in their work. Not only do they do better work, but we found that highly fulfilled employees want to stay at their organization for an extra three years. We hope this report will act as a guide for organizations and enable leaders to support, challenge and inspire their employees to do great work.”

As organizations continue to adjust to a new era of work and manage the uncertainty of a subsiding global pandemic and looming economic recession, the report highlights what employees want most: connection, community and fulfillment, Lovell said. As organizations prepare for the next crisis, employees are still trying to heal from the disconnection caused by the pandemic. A sense of community is more important now that employees are returning to the office and searching for fulfillment and connection, but unfortunately, many organizations’ current programs are failing to meet evolving employee desires. Successful organizations are the ones reconnecting with their people by adopting a community mindset where employees find meaning in their work, believe that they belong, and experience greater personal fulfillment.

“There’s no such thing as ‘work-life balance’ — it’s just ‘life balance.’ With that, a meaningful focus on employees’ holistic well-being is crucial for organizations to retain and attract talent in today’s environment,” said Gary Beckstrand, vice president of the O.C. Tanner Institute. “Data from our 2023 Global Culture Report shows that when organizations enable life balance, support the growth and development of everyone holistically, create a thriving workplace community and help each person contribute to the collective purpose, great business outcomes are abundant.”

Some key findings of the report include:

• Highly fulfilled employees plan to stay three years longer at their organizations than unfulfilled employees.

• Nearly one-third (32 percent) of employees are unfulfilled in their jobs. These employees have 399 percent greater odds of looking for a job elsewhere, 71 percent decreased odds of promoting their organization as a great place to work and 47 percent decreased odds of putting in extra effort to help their organization succeed.

• When feelings of community, connection and belonging are strong at an organization, the odds that employees will do great work (236 percent), take pride in the organization (318 percent) and want to stay (252 percent) are far better.

• Most employees (76 percent) consider their workplace a community and almost as many (72 percent) say it’s important for them to feel like part of a community at work.

• A sense of belonging leads to better retention (+43 percent), higher satisfaction with employee experience (40 percent), less burnout (-38 percent) and more great work (+20 percent).

With numerous new responsibilities and expectations placed on them, many leaders are succumbing to stress and burnout”:

• Leaders are 43 percent more likely to say work is interfering with their ability to be happy in other areas of their lives.

• While 79 percent of leaders think they have a “good sense” of what their employees want, only 48 percent of employees agree. Nearly one-third (29 percent) of employees say there is a notable conflict between what their managers want and what their coworkers want and only a little more than half (54 percent) believe their managers are “on my side.”

The Global Culture Report can be accessed at the O.C. Tanner website, www.octanner.com.