Introduction
The work, the workplace, and the workforce are changing. In recent years, we’ve seen a shift in how organizations operate and the types of skills in demand. These changes will only continue in the years ahead as businesses face new challenges and opportunities.
To stay ahead of the curve, we conducted a research survey with our elite partner Culturelligence. This article outlines our journey. We highlight the ‘why’ of the research, the process, the demographics, and what the report entails.
The ‘Why’
We live in a highly disruptive changing world. New needs and expectations at the workplace are emerging rapidly, thus adding to the current complexity and disruption.
In today’s complex and disruptive world, customer and consumer expectations are ever-evolving, and so are workforce aspirations. These evolving aspirations and the complexity around workforce composition rapidly disrupt the existing workforce structure that many leaders and organizations traditionally define.
Leaders and People Operations (PeopleOps) practitioners must know the future of the workforce, the workplace, the multigenerational workforce composition, and the associated dynamics to manage the new needs and expectations of the evolving workforce. Here is where our research ‘The Future of Workforce 2023’ would help as the expected outcomes were to gain insights on:
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- Any significant similarities and disparities between how different age groups perceive their workplace environment
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- Any preferences toward working with specific age groups
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- Mode of work preferences
The Process
The team designed the survey with only five (5) questions using the Likert scale to research the desired outcomes mentioned above.
The overall research includes the following:
- Team structure and Composition – For instance, what age groups do the respondents prefer their peers to be, their managers, senior managers, and CEOs?
- Workplace environment – We asked individuals to select their desired level in the first (or next job) based on factors like the latest technology, learning opportunities, salary and great perks, and supportive managers & leaders. The scale ranged from doesn’t matter to most preferred.
- Mode of work preference – What work setup (full-time in the office, fully remote, or hybrid) are they interested in working in?
The Demographics
350+ respondents distributed across 11 countries participated in the research, as shown below. They varied in age groups: 20-25, 26-35, 36-45, 46-59, and >60.
The Report Analysis
We divided the analyses into 3 phases to consider different perspectives and ensure analysis is drawn accurately without missing any data points.
Stage 1: The team involved in survey distribution and data collection conducted their analyses on the overall results. Each member shared their insights as a draft report.
Stage 2: APF Research Team conducted further cross-categorical analysis by slicing & dicing data into different categories across different age groups – 20-25, 26-35, 46-59, and >60.
Stage 3: Agile PeopleOps and Culturelligence thought leaders spent hours discussing the report and its recommendations with the Research & Analysis team.
Next, the team reviewed and organized the research data and worked with the design team to represent results as stacked charts and finalize recommendations into simple categories (Avoid and Adopt) to help organizational leaders and Agile PeopleOps practitioners reflect, ideate, and design the future organization.
The contribution of all research team members is fully appreciated. We can’t wait to hear how this report was helpful and adopted by leaders in organizations to design the workforce in 2023. You can download the research report here.
A glimpse of the research report is below..
Please watch this space for our second article, The Top 10 Insights from Future of Workforce 2023, by our research team. Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.
Conclusion
The team worked in an agile mode with weekly sprints and check-ins. The entire journey was exciting: brainwriting and brainstorming the research theme, survey design, launch, and data analyses.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to every member of the team at APF™ Research, our esteemed thought leaders, and our exceptional partners at Culturelligence, both internal and external. A profound thank you goes out to our invaluable respondents whose contributions made this research possible.