PWC recently released a Future of Work report that outlines how employers can win the war for talent by addressing the things that are important to employees (download it here). PWC surveyed 1800 Australian employees across Australia, industries, and positions to find what matters most to employees.
An interesting overall observation is that for 25% of workers, the reason they joined an organisation is not always why they stay, revealing and important implication for employers to recognize and continually address.
Grouping the key factors discovered in the survey into seven levers, PWC managed to get employees to rank these based on what they value most from an employer. Following is the list in order of importance:
- Remuneration and reward (25%)
- Wellbeing (22%)
- Experience (16%)
- Ways of working (12%)
- Career development (11%)
- Brand (8%)
- Workspaces and places (5%)
However, within these ‘levers’ are a number of anomalies between what workers want, and what leaders think they want. There is a sizeable gap the shows leaders are quite out of touch with their workforces. For example:
| Preference | Leaders Beliefs | Employees Ranking |
| Values alignment between worker and organisation | 1st | 16th |
| On-the job learning | 2nd | 13th |
| Pay | 8th | 3rd |
| Working with good co-workers | 13th | 1st |
The report provides a number of excellent suggestions for leaders to consider in how to create an environment where workers are feeling valued and rewarded for their contributions. Implementing these can save an organisation considerable employee turnover and the associated cost associated with that. There are three big themes noted but the report breaks these down into manageable suggestions and ideas. The these are:
- Striking the right balance
- One size fits nobody
- Attraction trumps retention
This is a great resource for leaders looking to improve how their organisation manages its workforce.