U.S. Workers to Senior Leaders: "You Have No Idea What We Really Want, Do You?"
New "WorkShift" Study Shows Execs Seriously Out of Touch with Workers' Desire for Meaningful Work
New York, NY – Nov. 9, 2023
New research from StrawberryFrog and Dynata reveals a rampant number of U.S. employees feel unfulfilled in their current jobs, and most don't believe their senior leadership is aware the problem even exists.
StrawberryFrog, the renowned creative marketing consultancy that does purpose-driven transformation among employees, together with Dynata, the world's largest first-party data company for insights, activation and measurement, surveyed a nationally representative sample of U.S. workers.
The results in the new "WorkShift" study indicates three out of four workers are either unfulfilled, checked out or fed up. This is bad news for employers, since even if an employee stays, they remain disengaged and contribute less to the organization. It's a situation that may be costing companies billions of dollars.
Worse yet, only 26% of frontline employees agree their senior leadership understands what motivates them to leave or stay, or what makes them engaged and productive. By contrast, the study found most senior leaders believe they do understand what motivates employees.
StrawberryFrog Head of Strategy, Chip Walker says, "In our research we learned that many of these disaffected employees stay only to avoid the hassles of searching for another position. They're essentially sleepwalking through their jobs. Meanwhile, top executives are operating within what we're calling a 'Thriving Bubble,' where senior leadership feels fulfilled and believes their organization offers clear purpose and direction—a sentiment at odds with their checked out and fed up workforce."
The study found that a sense of meaning and purpose was the strongest predictor of employee loyalty—more than quality of daily experience, benefits or even pay. The research showed the pandemic was a primary driver in this fundamental reassessment of work, leading to a deep desire for more fulfilling daily routines among employees. But unfortunately, workers view senior leadership as distracted at best and oblivious at worst in establishing real meaning and purpose in the workplace.
Study researchers contacted workers from a range of industries and positions, and from companies of all sizes, to provide insights into:
- The overall mood of U.S. workers
- The 4 Workers Mindsets for 2023-24
- Emerging drivers of employee retention
- Why meaning matters most to workers
- Barriers to more meaningful work
- Implications for company leaders
"What we ultimately discovered," says StrawberryFrog Founder and CEO, Scott Goodson, "is that more meaningful motivators—things like purpose, belonging and personal growth—are what employees desire most in the post-pandemic era. It's not that compensation or benefits aren't important now, they certainly are. But today they aren't what drive employees' emotional commitment to stay. Moreover companies can solve issues such as retention, RTO, employee mental health, transparency and many issues with creativity and Movement Thinking."
New York based StrawberryFrog is the pioneer of Movement Thinking™, an innovative process using the concepts of social movements to galvanize your people, build trust and belief and help businesses thrive.
The link to access an on-demand webinar recording where StrawberryFrog and Dynata review the major findings of the study can be found here.
To download the full report go to: purposepowerindex.com
About StrawberryFrog:
StrawberryFrog designs Movements for growth. The award-winning independent strategy, full-funnel marketing, advertising, and design agency focuses on galvanizing employees and mobilizing consumers, applying creativity and innovation such as AI to create "Movements" that mobilize and engage people to help companies transform and grow.
Visit www.StrawberryFrog.com for more information.
About Dynata
Dynata is the world's largest first-party data company for insights, activation and measurement. With a reach that encompasses nearly 70 million consumers and business professionals globally, and an extensive library of individual profile attributes collected through surveys, Dynata is the cornerstone for precise, trustworthy quality data. The company has built innovative data services and solutions around its robust first-party data offering to bring the voice of the customer to the entire marketing continuum — from uncovering insights to activating campaigns and measuring cross-channel marketing ROI. Dynata serves more than 6,000 market research, media and advertising agencies, publishers, consulting and investment firms and corporate customers in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. Learn more at dynata.com.
About the Purpose Power Index
The Purpose Power Index is an annual study focused on brand purpose. Created by the world's first Movement Thinking™ company StrawberryFrog, the report has become a key benchmark for brands seeking to improve their relationship with their customers and employees.