DEI, Belonging, and Flexible Work: Sentiment, Ratings, and Rankings
Young American Workforce Wants to Have Cake and Eat It Too!
The Belonging Barometer, recently published by EY, shares results from a survey of 5,000 globally employed adults. Takeaways include low levels of belonging at work, a desire for flexibility in the workplace, and the importance of DEI. Comparing these findings with our own work, we are able to dig deeper into how employees value various attributes of a job.
Survey and Sample
In October 2023, I worked with Christina Elson and The Center for the Study of Capitalism at Wake Forest University and YouGov to survey 2,000 young adults aged 18-42. Two-thirds of this sample (1,321 individuals) are currently employed, 891 in full-time positions and 430 working part-time. The demographics of these respondents reflect the general American workforce of young professionals; 53% are male, 58% are white, their average age is 30, 40% have a four-year degree or higher, 48% have never been married, and they have an average annual household income of between $60,000 and $70,000.
Value of DEI and Social Issues
According to the Belonging Barometer, 73% of Gen Z and 68% of millennials would choose an employer who prioritizes DEI over an employer who does not. This is not surprising. If anything, we would’ve thought this number would be higher. But what if someone has to decide between working for a company that values social issues or another that offers a high salary? Therein lies the rub. When asked to rank how an employer’s value of social issues stacks up with other benefits of employment, social issues, including DEI, fall to the bottom of the list. In our survey, we asked participants to rank the importance of the following six job attributes: salary and benefits, flexibility, the employer is involved in social issues important to you, the work is not demanding, opportunities for career advancement, and the work provides a sense of purpose.
43% of our respondents ranked salary as the most important element versus 9% ranking employer involvement in social issues as most important. In fact, “social issues” was the least frequently ranked most important attribute among the provided six options, falling just behind “the work is not demanding”.
Belonging and Exclusion
The importance of belonging, highlighted in the Barometer, is also reflected in our data. 72% of the young American workers we surveyed feel positively about the phrase “Bring your whole self to work” and 85% believe work is important for developing friends and personal relationships.
Compare these findings with the EY headline that 75% of respondents have felt excluded at work. Perhaps feelings of exclusion arise from rising pressures for organizations and leaders to take a stance on charged political issues. When evaluating their current place of employment, 70% of young American workers feel comfortable speaking their mind about work issues while only 54% feel comfortable discussing their political ideology.
Flexibility
According to the EY Barometer, there is a positive relationship between workplace flexibility and feelings of belonging. Flexible work is defined by arrangements where employees can choose where and when they work. Considering where work happens, 51% of our survey respondents indicate that their employer provides an option for remote work and, of those respondents, just over half set their own remote work schedule.
When asked about the productivity of remote workers, 15% of all respondents (and 19% of respondents who have a remote work option) believe that people who work remotely are as productive as people who work in an office. And 53% of all respondents and 66% of those with a remote work option believe remote workers are more productive than those in an office.
What about flexibility in terms of when work happens? 71% of our respondents describe their current work schedule as flexible and 78% of respondents indicate that their employer is supportive when they have a personal issue requiring flexibility.
How Can We Use This Information?
The young American workforce wants an environment where diversity is valued, where they belong, and where they have flexibility in terms of where and when they work. When asked to make tradeoffs between these desires, a clear preference emerges for salary and benefits. Flexibility comes in at a distant second, ahead of purposeful work and career advancement. If young American workers are able to have their cake and eat it, too, they’ll take it all! If not, they’d prefer a paycheck.