As the world marketplace continues to evolve, company practices and employer desires are misaligned.
A new survey by Mercer spoke with 7,500 employees, executives and HR professionals in 37 countries, to gauge the state of workplace satisfaction and company efforts to change workplace structures.
Recommended For You
One part of the survey looked at specific changes companies are looking to make in the next year. 41 percent are moving support functions to shared services, 33 percent are flattening their organizations structure, and 31 percent are eliminating roles and departments.
And looking into the next year, the state of digital workplaces will likely not evolve much. Right now, less than 10 percent of companies consider themselves a digital organization. Just a little more than half of employees, 54 percent, report having access to new and innovative technology for career development.
When it comes to employee desires from their workplace, almost all surveyed, 97 percent, say they want their employer to recognize and reward more than just financial results. Right now, 51 percent of those surveyed say their company does this now.
In addition to recognition in all areas of their job, employees also want better pay structures. 47 percent of employees across the world say the most important thing that would improve their work situation is competitive and fair pay. In fact, 38 percent of employees surveyed say pay is most important when considering workplace happiness, the number one priority. On the other hand, executives who answered the same question said culture is most important.
Part of this issue is employees feeling a huge gap between themselves and leaders at their work, so this year, 83 percent of companies reported the will take efforts to improve transparency of executive pay. But when it comes to responses from HR leaders, only 16 percent said trying to improve equitable pay made their list of top five priorities.
Employees also want more flexibility when it comes to their job, something 40 percent of HR officials say would improve an employee's success. Sixty-two percent of companies say they have some sort of flexibility available, but 35 percent say it's not a core value for their company.
Putting more efforts into these employee desires could help a company in the long run when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. Sixty-one percent of employees surveyed say their health is their first priority, followed by wealth and career. According to the survey, stress-related absences resulted in 11.7 million lost working days in Great Britain last year.
Most companies aren't making efforts to support their employees' health. Forty one percent of of companies focus on physical well-being of employees, 37 percent offer psychological services and 35 percent address financial well-being.
While some of the attitudes are misaligned, 93 percent of executives report plans to make some sort of change to their company in the next two years.
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
