Peakon Reveals Four Employee Expectations Trends for Workplace in 2020
Copenhagen, Denmark, London, England, New York and Auckland, NZ (March 9, 2020) — Peakon, an employee success platform, released its inaugural 2020 Employee Expectations report. With 59% of the global workforce being disengaged as of January 2020[1], the report reveals what employees expect from their employers in 2020.
By analysing more than 14 million employee survey comments, we found that the topics of the environment, flexible working, wellbeing, and diversity and inclusion are rising sharply in importance among employees all over the world.
Climate action — Globally, comments about environmental issues increased by 52% in 2019 (year-on-year). Plastic, single-use and carbon footprint were among the most prevalent topics employees discussed. 2019 also marked the first time that Greta Thunberg was mentioned in employee survey responses.
2. Source: Peakon database – the UK has the highest proportion of comments on flexible work out of six countries analysed, the UK, the U.S., Australia, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand; Germany follows as the second highest.
- Employees in the manufacturing sector were among the most vocal on climate change in the past year, with a huge increase of 595% in environment-related terms year-on-year, followed by the Consumer industry (up 106%) and Professional Services (up 79%). The spike in environment-related comments among manufacturing employees meant it went from being one of the least vocal sectors on the topic in 2018 to one of the most in 2019.
- Employee discussion on the environment grew 128% among Generation Z, followed by Millennials and Baby Boomers with 62% and 59% increases, respectively.
- Australia and New Zealand both saw nearly 220% increases in discussion about climate action between 2018 and 2019. This spike was more than double the growth seen in the UK (85% increase), and almost five times that in Germany. However, employees in Germany still commented the most on climate change overall.
- Generation Z employees saw a 36% increase in discussion on flexible working. Millennials weren’t far behind them with 34% growth.
- Employee discussion on flexible working grew 52% in the Transportation sector.
- Employees in the UK and Germany are the most vocal about flexible working.[2]
- Generation Z employee comments on wellbeing grew by 28%.
- Discussion on wellbeing increased by 51% in the Finance sector.
- Employee comments on wellbeing jumped by 37% in New Zealand.
- Mentions of Diversity and Inclusion increased by 31% among Silent Generation employees. Age, bullied and discrimination were some of the highest-ranking terms they mentioned.
- Mentions of Diversity and Inclusion grew by 43% in the Education sector.
- Employees in Denmark are the most vocal about Diversity and Inclusion overall; this topic rose in prevalence in New Zealand over the past year, with a 44% increase in mentions.
2. Source: Peakon database – the UK has the highest proportion of comments on flexible work out of six countries analysed, the UK, the U.S., Australia, Denmark, Germany, New Zealand; Germany follows as the second highest.