Work Trend Index 2022 – Microsoft

Microsoft’s 2022 Work Trend Index: Annual Report discovered the chance and challenges business leaders face when managing people in the hybrid work era. Data from this report was gathered from more than 30,000 participants in 31 countries.

Some main findings from this report include:

• More than half of the surveyed business owners claimed to have put more focus on employee health and well-being compared to pre-covid. Similarly, more than half of the participants noted that health and well-being are now more important than work, especially for parents and women.
• Half of the gen Z and Millennials participants reported planning a job change in the next 12 months.
• Nearly half of the survey respondents agreed that they will prioritize family and personal life over work.
• According to the data, in the next 12 months, half of the hybrid workers would prefer to work remotely, while remote employees would open to the idea of hybrid work.
• Even half of the surveyed business executives expressed the desire for work flexibility by willing to apply for jobs that are not close to where they live.
• Apart from Salary, Positive Culture and Mental Health are the two most critical benefits employees are expecting employers to offer.
• Nearly two third of surveyed leaders stated that they haven’t got the ability to implement changes for their people in the organisations. Also, more than half of them believed that there is a communication gap between them and their employees regarding their expectations.
• 50% of organisations intend to ask employees to go back to the office in person full time for work.
• Although a majority of employees believed that there will be no change to their productivity working remotely, more than half of business executives had concerns about this.
• More than one-third of surveyed workers pointed out that being able to justify the time and reason why they have to be in the office in person is the most challenging aspect for them. Despite this, less than one-third of organisations currently have these agreements in place to clarify this for hybrid workers.
• While nearly half of remote employees didn’t feel included in meetings, less than 30% of organizations have set up new hybrid work meeting protocols.
• Over the last 2 years since the pandemic, an average Microsoft Teams user has spent more than double the weekly time they used to spend in meetings.
• It is also reported that after-hours work have increased nearly 30% in the last 2 years.

Full report here.