Employees’ Changing Connection With Work and Demand for Control

By HRTech News Desk On Mar 22, 2023

Employees' Changing Connection With Work and Demand for Control

Despite improvements in overall job performance, workers still yearn for independence, according to Connie Steele‘s third annual research report.

American employees say they feel more successful this year than they did last, yet they are passionately protective of the independence they were accustomed to during the epidemic. Sixty-six percent of employees think that work should allow them to live their lives as they choose, and 75 percent of workers feel it’s vital to create boundaries so that work doesn’t interfere with their personal lives.

The third annual State of Work & Career Success research was created to comprehend how American employees’ mindsets, attitudes, and actions are evolving. It includes these conclusions as well as other information. Connie Steele, Principal of Flywheel Associates, is in charge of the State of Work and Career Success research, which is carried out by Rockbridge Associates.

Among the study’s highlights, this year are:

64% of respondents believe they work best when they can work wherever they choose, up from 45% a year earlier.
More than half of respondents (51%) report being happy with their professional growth.
62% of respondents claim that they do their best work during times when they can work whenever they choose.
62% of people feel that work and life are interwoven, and this feeling rises to almost 70% among those in their 20s and 30s.
65% of people think that it’s crucial to match personal ideals with an organization’s principles.
Successful employees believe their employers are more creative in the marketplace.

“For this year’s study, we wanted to look past all the attention-grabbing headlines around trends like quiet quitting to get a feel for how American workers are truly faring,” said Connie Steele. “While workers are trending in the right direction in general, companies still have a lot of work to do to provide team members the support and flexibility they need to succeed.”

The study measures the major success factors as well as what the American worker values and requires from their career. When it comes to predicting professional success, planning (34%) continues to have a disproportionately large impact, followed by culture (18%), experience (15%), education (13%), skills (12%), and remaining current (8%).

“Despite the gains workers have made in the last year, there are a few clear opportunities where they should focus to improve in 2023,” said Gina Woodall, President of Rockbridge Associates. “Collectively, top priorities in 2023 should be for workers to focus on aspects of planning, like getting a mentor and building a network, as well as getting formal education to advance and participating in industry events. The latter two activities are important to career satisfaction, but workers are less successful with them.”

The study investigates the connection between professional and personal achievement as well as that with organizational outcomes, particularly in regard to employee engagement. The possibility of reaching one’s job and life goals increases with career success, which is measured by how content people are with the development they are making. Also, it produces advantageous commercial results for the companies where they work.

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