If being an employer was ever easy, it is not anymore.
In the not-too-distant future, Millennials and Gen Zs will dominate the workforce and they want hybrid or remote jobs, a good work-life balance, and to see their employers do more to fight climate change. You probably already know this as hybrid work is already widely adopted because of the flexibility it offers. But did you also know that Millennials and Gen Zs are less engaged than previous generations and more likely to quit even without another job lined up? Most organizations do not and that is where things start to get difficult. If businesses fail to adapt to the demands and expectations of Millennials and Gen Zs, there is a big risk they will become disengaged or quit, leaving businesses with enormous costs.
The trillion-dollar workplace problems
Disengaged employees pose a trillion-dollar workplace problem. According to Gallup, unengaged employees cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity in 2021. In addition, a record number of people have left their jobs since the beginning of the pandemic. The trend is called the Great Resignation and while it has slowed in recent months, many workers continue to leave their jobs voluntarily.
Like disengaged employees, employee turnover costs organizations huge sums of money. The cost of replacing an employee is up to 213% of an employee’s salary and covers recruiting and training. However, employee turnover also leads to lost productivity, missed sales opportunities, and lower employee morale.
Keeping employees engaged and loyal is not a new thing, but with the generational shift in the workforce, organizations need to find new ways to keep employees satisfied and technology is the key.
1. Technology boosts productivity
76% of Millennials and 75% of Gen Zs prefer hybrid or remote work as they see flexible work as an important strategy to enable better work/life balance. In the survey by Deloitte, Millennial and Gen Z respondents said, that their top reason for choosing to work for their current employer is a good work/life balance. In addition to where they want to work, Millennials and Gen Zs would also like their organization to offer flexible working hours and potentially reduced work weeks.
With hybrid work comes shared desks, but how much time do employees waste looking for an available desk? Two weeks! Those minutes trying to find a desk add up to an average of two weeks a year of wasted time per employee, meaning that the money saved by reducing the amount of unused office space is quickly eaten up by lost productivity. That is why technology plays a key role in making hybrid workplaces work.
By integrating your room and desk booking solution with an indoor map, you make it fast and easy for employees to find and book available resources, increasing productivity. In addition, indoor maps enable ‘find my colleague’ solutions that ensure collaboration which can otherwise be threatened in hybrid workplaces.
2. Technology improves well-being
Another key to productivity (and well-being) is making sure your employees have a comfortable working environment.
Lighting is proven to have a major impact on productivity and well-being and bad lighting is associated with ill-health problems, such as headaches, fatigue, stress, and anxiety. Especially stress and anxiety levels are high among Gen Zs and Millennials. Hence, 46% of Gen Zs say they are stressed or anxious all or most of the time while the same goes for 38% of Millennials. Is this due to poor office lighting? No, but in a research report on the impact of lighting in the workplace, 68% of office workers said they would feel more valued by their employers if they considered their health and well-being and invested in suitable lighting.
Smart lighting solutions that adapt to the amount of natural sunlight and allow employees to control lighting has been shown to increase levels of happiness and productivity. Like lighting, temperature and air quality also impact productivity and well-being. By combining indoor mapping and smart building technologies, employees can easily get an overview of the temperature and air quality in meeting rooms and open office spaces and find a place that matches their preferences. Furthermore, employees can control lighting and blinds from their smartphones and they can even add their preferences, so the light automatically dims or brightens accordingly when they enter a room.
3. Technology increases loyalty (and sustainability)
About three-quarters of Gen Zs and millennials agree that the world is at a tipping point when responding to climate change, but only 14% of Millennials and 15% of Gen Zs think that large organizations are taking substantive actions to combat climate change. However, studies show that fighting climate change improves employee loyalty.
When asked what they feel their organization should invest more resources in to help combat climate change, Millennials and Gen Zs say they want their employer to commit to “achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within the next decade” which can benefit organizations financially too.
Buildings consume half of the world’s electricity, use a third of all energy, and produce 40% of the planet’s total greenhouse gas emissions. However, energy consumption in buildings can be reduced by as much as 30 to 80% using proven and commercially available technologies, such as smart building technology.
By implementing smart building technology to monitor, control and optimize energy usage and replacing old equipment with low-emission equipment, organizations can significantly cut costs and reduce their carbon footprint while meeting employee expectations.
If you want to know more about how you use indoor mapping to adapt to the needs and expectations of the Millennial and Gen Z workforce, reach out to us to book a quick chat.
March 3, 2023
