A guide to employees’ most pressing needs and how your organisation can meet them based on the finding of Mercer’s Employees’ Minds study.
After two years of continual upheaval — the pandemic, a war in Europe, inflation, and political and social unrest — employees are more focused on securing their financial, physical, and emotional health and wellbeing than ever before.
During the height of the pandemic, organisations supported their employees in four critical ways:
This support increased employees’ belief in career development and their trust in leadership and empowered them to challenge the status quo. But now, cumulative stressors and fears are causing employees to feel less satisfied, less motivated and less committed to their organisations than previously.
61%
are satisfied with their employee experience
40%
are seriously considering leaving their current employment
58%
are motivated to go ‘above and beyond’ for their current employer
The labour shortage and the “Great Resignation” are taking their toll, particularly on frontline employees. Although three in five employees say they can maintain balance between their personal and work lives, work-life balance remains one of the top two concerns, and more than half of employees say they feel exhausted on a typical day.
All these forces combine to bring the UK worker to an existential inflection point. Our results show that after financial concerns driven by the current economic climate, employees are most concerned with finding a greater balance between work and life. With all this change, it’s clearer than ever that employees are not living to work — they’re working to live.
Where does that leave employers? Organisations certainly can’t return to pre-pandemic mindsets. Instead, employers need to embrace a new contract with employees: the lifestyle contract, where people can find sustainable healthy experiences at work.
The six key findings from this year’s Inside Employees’ Minds study reveal where employers should focus to keep up their end of the lifestyle contract:
This report delves into these key findings to provide actionable insight into the mind set of UK employees. Download the full report to discover what more you can do attract, retain and engage employees today.
This study includes 2,021 full-time employees in the United Kingdom working for organisations with more than 250 employees.
The study was fielded in late 2022.
Industries with more than 200 employees:
If you would like to discuss any of the issues or topics highlighted in this report, please provide your details below and one of our consultants will be in touch with you.
Partner, UK Career Leader
Mercer
Partner, Employee Experience Leader for Europe
Mercer
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