Ivanti, the provider of the Ivanti Neurons automation platform that discovers, manages, secures, and services IT assets from the cloud to the edge, announced the findings of its 2023 Report: Elevating the Future of Everywhere Work.
Ivanti partnered with Future of Work experts and surveyed 8,400 office workers, IT professionals and C-level executives worldwide to understand the attitudes, expectations and challenges facing forward-thinking organizations and their employees. The goal: Explore what happens when employees want to work anytime, anywhere…but their company isn’t equipped to do it.
The number of employees who want control over where they work has remained constant from 71% in the Ivantis 2022 Everywhere Workplace Report, but research finds that employers and employees remain locked in a fight over who can define the time, place and the way to work.
- 71% of employees want to work in a hybrid or remote program of their choice
- Only 43% of employees can work at the location of their choice
- The difference between the two numbers above creates a preference gap of 28 points
Furthermore, the report finds that the benefits and flexibility of Everywhere Work have not yet been fully democratized when, when looking at executives and IT professionals, the preference gap narrows to 12 points and 13 points, respectively.
When it comes to how and where employees work, leaders who don’t embrace and allow for flexibility where they also risk not reaping the benefits of a more engaged and more productive workforce, said Jeff Abbott, CEO of Ivanti. Attracting and retaining the best talent will always be a top priority for executives, but organizations that embrace an Everywhere Work mindset and supportive technology stack will have a sustainable competitive advantage. There has been a dramatic shift in how and where employees expect their jobs to be done, and it is imperative that leaders break down the cultural and technological barriers to enable this.
Employees are clamoring for new ways of working. They want to safeguard personal time and minimize the most taxing parts of working life: long commutes, time away from family and negative impacts on health and well-being. But so far employers are slowly moving forward, still treating virtual work as an experiment that could yet be reversed. Indeed, research finds rampant burnout and disengagement among knowledge workers, especially younger employees:
- 1 in 3 office workers under the age of 40 admit to quietly quitting
- More than 1 in 4 employees under the age of 40 are planning to quit their job in the next six months
- Top reasons for ready-to-walk mentality are workload burnout (35%) and mental health distress (35%), Best Pay ranks third with 33%
There is growing acceptance that hybrid and remote work options increase employee satisfaction and make work-life balance more achievable. As many as 71 percent of organizational leaders Ivanti surveyed say remote working has a positive impact on employee morale. Furthermore:
- 66% of office workers say they have experienced no negative side effects from hybrid/virtual work, a 15-point increase from the 2022 survey.
- Only 2% of employees believe they’ve been passed over for a promotion due to hybrid working, a significant decrease from 9% in the 2022 survey.
- Office workers would be willing to take an 8.9% pay cut to be able to work remotely, up from 5% in 2022.
The report also outlines four ways companies enable Everywhere Work:
- Invest in a technology that can be done anywhere: it’s time to think about collaboration not only in terms of communication but also in terms of process. A streamlined solution for organization-wide service management makes working life easier and more productive, regardless of location.
- Challenge the way organizations think about security: When employees work virtually, there is less oversight of their activities, meaning organizations take on additional risk. To ease some of that pressure, employers should invest in an organization-wide risk-based remediation strategy.
- Beware of IT Burnout: Business leadership will be taming complexity and simplifying technology stacks and workflows to minimize employee burnout for years to come.
- Narrow the preference gap Listen to employees and look for innovative technologies like dynamic collaboration tools, workflow automation, and even AI-powered robots to empower workers to be more effective and efficient.
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