The Young and the Restless: Digital Natives Less Engaged, Eager to Go Back to the Office According to Data From Perceptyx

Results capture sentiment from 500k+ employees globally; Real-time data helps business leaders lead through turbulent times

Perceptyx, the employee survey and people analytics platform helping companies see the way forward, released a new report that finds younger generations are struggling the most when working remotely, apart from colleagues. Based on the responses from individuals from more than 100 global enterprises, the report focuses on the counterintuitive generational differences of people working from home, and their needs in a post-COVID world.

“With access to over 500 million data points, it is clear that there is a difference and disconnect between generations and how they are handling their current work environment – an insight that came as a surprise to many of our clients,” said Brett Wells, Director of People Analytics at Perceptyx. “In light of the rapidly changing nature of the current workforce, along with shifts in the cultural and social landscape, leaders’ need for real-time feedback is paramount. We continue to evolve our research to quickly identify key issues that in turn can drive meaningful change for employees and their organizations.

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Key findings of the report, entitled The Young and The Restless, include:

• Digital Natives (those under 26) are at the greatest risk of feeling disconnected from the effort to meet organizational goals, and achieve their own.
• These same individuals feel less productive and supported in remote environments, leading to pervasive negative sentiment about remote work.
• Return to work preferences vary by age; with Digital Natives favoring a return to the physical workplace, and those 26-45 most eager to see a hybrid work environment in the future.

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After the onset of COVID-19, Perceptyx acted quickly to offer a series of free COVID-19-related employee surveys to clients and non-clients alike, which has resulted in feedback from over 500,000 individuals from every major industry on a global scale. This amount of sentiment data is not only useful to organizations in aggregate, but on a company-specific level, and leaders have used their findings to make decisions necessary and based on direct knowledge vs. assumptions.

“Perceptyx’s unique approach to combining employee survey input with people analytics result in profound insights into employee experiences, providing a roadmap for CHROs and HR teams globally as they deal with the monumental responsibility of creating plans to deal with the current workforce disruption,” said Laura Becker, an analyst with IDC. “Using the data collected from their COVID-19 surveys, including analysis of open-ended comments with AI and NLP, Perceptyx’s findings will drive the ‘back to work’ narrative for organizations. There is no question that organizations with robust employee experience models have more committed, engaged and productive employees.”

This has already proven true for many of the enterprises Perceptyx has been working with over this period. “Prior to these COVID-19 surveys from Perceptyx, we thought we knew where employees were comfortable, but it turns out, we did not,” said one CHRO from a global financial institution. “Now we have data to actually know where in the organization we need to take action. It’s quite important to not get carried away by what we think our employees need, but to actually know. More than ever before, the power of data is so important.”