Work of tomorrow: between security concerns and stress

A balanced relationship between work and private life has become more of a focus for employees during the pandemic.

At the same time, a high salary is not necessarily the decisive factor in accepting a new job.

These are two results of a study by the management consultancy Bain on the future of work.

To this end, the consultants, together with the market research company Dynata, surveyed 20,000 employees in Brazil, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Nigeria and the USA.

There were also more than 100 expert interviews.

According to this, 58 percent of the employees who took part in the study want to think intensively about their work-life balance due to the pandemic.

Good pay is the decisive criterion for only 20 percent.

Interesting work, secure employment and flexible working hours are becoming increasingly important.

This is particularly true for respondents in Germany, who now attach almost as much importance to these factors as a high salary.

The latter, in turn, still ranks first in the US and Japan.

In France, on the other hand, interesting work ranks at the top.

“The world of work is constantly evolving.

But the changes that the pandemic has triggered in many places had been in the making long before that,” the study says.

For companies, it is now a matter of rethinking the meaningfulness and structure of work.

This is the only way for them to remain attractive to talent and assert themselves in the tense market for skilled workers.

The study identified five key issues that companies need to address if they want to remain competitive.

Five key issues for tomorrow's work

1. Attitudes towards work are changing.

In the wealthy countries, expectations of employment have risen steadily over the past few decades.

The workplace has become an important source of social bonds.

Younger generations in particular are increasingly looking for meaning and fulfillment in their jobs.

At the same time, the relationship between working hours and income has reversed since industrialization.

In the USA, for example, the 10 percent who earn the best work the longest today, averaging 42 hours per week.

Being busy has become a status symbol in this group.

With an average of 34.4 hours, the working hours of the 10 percent with the lowest salary are now significantly shorter than in the past.

One reason is, however,

that the desired stable full-time employment is often not found.

In Germany, 89 percent of those surveyed with top earnings are satisfied with their job, but only 60 percent with low income.

2. Traditional classifications of occupations have had their day.

There are now six archetypes with different priorities: pragmatic users, empathetic team workers, autonomous specialists, flexible experimenters, ambitious climbers and courageous pioneers.

The latter are particularly risk-averse and make up around 25 percent of executives in the US, while promoters are particularly money- and status-oriented.

3. Automation leads to more demanding tasks.

Thanks to technical progress, routine activities are increasingly being taken over by machines.

Creativity and social skills are therefore gaining in importance.

In the western industrialized countries in particular, such qualities will be in greater demand again in the future, for example in the healthcare sector.

However, this sometimes requires extensive retraining and further training of the workforce.

For many, colleagues are also friends

4. Physical presence in the company is no longer the measure of all things.

The pandemic and more flexible labor markets have led to more people working from home.

That's why the boundaries between work and private life are blurring.

According to the study, almost half of all respondents regard their colleagues as friends.

At the same time, many employees lack direct contact with their team.

In Germany, after the pandemic, 35 percent do not want to work from home at all or only rarely - significantly more than the global average.

On the other hand, 20 percent want to stay in the home office permanently in the future, 45 percent prefer hybrid models.

5. Younger workers are becoming increasingly stressed.

Even before the Corona crisis, many younger employees were suffering from increasing psychological stress.

In western industrialized nations, 61 percent of under-35s are currently worried about their financial situation, job security and their own career goals, while the figure for older people is only 40 percent.

In addition, fewer and fewer young people expect to earn more than their parents later on.

Companies would have to change from "talent seekers" to "talent developers" due to these changes.

Managers should invest more in the further training of their employees, enable more diverse career paths and promote growth thinking.

"In view of the different needs of employees, top management has to master a real balancing act," says the study.

Because it is important to maintain the familiar working environment and corporate culture even without the physical presence of parts of the workforce.