In the latest research “Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends 2014”, a clear message comes out: companies are struggling to engage the 21st century workforce. But why? Why all these talent challenges at the beginning of an economic recovery? Shouldn’t people be pretty excited to see new jobs being created? Josh Bersin’s answers in an article on Forbes.com “Our conclusion, after looking at the data and talking with many companies, is that workers today want more. They want something different. They are demanding, they want meaningful work, and they expect their employer to make work more rewarding in many ways”.
Another topic that came to up in the research is the fact that 2/3 of today’s employees feel “overwhelmed.” The concepts of work-life balance have been lost, thanks to a proliferation of technology and the breakdown in barriers between work and life.
People are
- working too hard (40% of men work more than 50 hours per week and 80% would like to work fewer hours)
- too distracted (mobile device users check their phones 150 times per day)
- flooded with too many emails, conference calls, meetings, and other distractions
Recent research shows (Neurologist Larry Rosen) that the average office worker can only focus for seven minutes at a time before they either switch windows or check Facebook. And this research also shows that 65% of business and HR leaders rate this an important or urgent challenge, yet fewer than 10% of organizations know what to do about it. And this problem impacts our personal lives, our children, and our family. Anxiety is now the top issue facing children – driven largely by our “always on” lifestyle.
We will celebrate International Happiness Day in several days, on March 20, in some but not yet soo many companies. Time to think for companies for a better work-life balance, increase happiness@work and thus performance. How about “technology moratorium” day at work on March 20?
Read the full article « Why Companies Fail To Engage Today’s Workforce: The Overwhelmed Employee » written by Josh Bersin, Founder and Principal at Bersin by Deloitte