The modern employee experience: What does it look like?

To say that the workplace is different after the pandemic is an understatement. But, let’s get a little more granular into the modern employee experience. Where do people work nowadays? How satisfied are employees with their company’s digital tools? How engaged at their job are employees?

To answer these questions, StatsFind conducted a survey from May 16, 2022, until May 27, 2022, and a total of 709 individuals participated.

Let’s see the results!

Demographics of participants

We invited individuals through social media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram) to fill out a survey about their work environment. These are the demographics of the over 700 respondents.

Country

The vast majority of respondents are from the United States. Other countries represented were: Canada, China, Great Britain, Hong Kong, Kenya, Macedonia, Mexico, Nigeria, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

Gender

The number of male and female participants was almost the same, with slightly more females responding than males.

Age

A whopping 65% of respondents are Millenials. Then, almost 18% are Gen X and 14.3% are Gen Z.

age of those surveyed for the modern employee experience

Industry

The industries with the most representation were Arts and Entertainment, Finance and Insurance, Accounting, Architectural, and Education.

Work location

Sixty percent of our respondents work from the office while the other 40% either work from home or have a hybrid work environment.

Where do employees prefer to work?

When asked where they preferred to work, the majority said the office. However, the number of those that wish to work from home is double that of those that actually do. Also, approximately 50% of the workforce prefer either remote work or hybrid work.

We broke down the responses further to see if the current work environment and the desired work environment line up. We found that 68.9% of those that work from home like working from home. Sixty-six percent of office workers like working at the office and 51.3% like the combination of going to the office and working from home.

Next, we’ll analyze why each type of worker likes their working environment, what’s their biggest distraction, and what they feel their company can do to improve their productivity.

The remote worker

When asked why they like working from home the top response from remote workers was the ability to focus. The second most popular answer was being able to attend to household matters when needed. In third place was not having to share a workspace, bathroom, or breakroom.

pie chart answering the question - why do you like working from home?

Next, we asked which non-work activity takes up the most time. The number one answer was caring for family members, followed by doing household chores. The third most popular answer was surfing the Internet.

The next question relates to employee engagement. What is employee engagement? It’s the employee’s enthusiasm and interest in the work they are performing. Are they just putting in the hours or do they care about the job they are doing? We asked, on a scale of one to ten, how engaged are you at work. Impressively, the remote workers didn’t have low engagement. Responses were five and higher, with eight being the most popular answer.

pie chart showing employee engagement when working from home

Finally, we asked what your company can do to help you improve productivity. The top two answers relate to the digital employee experience (DEX). DEX rates how effectively workers interact with their company’s digital tools. The more positive the digital employee experience, the more productive and engaged the worker.

definition of digital employee experience

While the respondents are generally pleased with their work situation, the most requests were for making the remote login process easier and providing better digital collaboration tools.

half pie chart answering how a company can improve the remote work environment

The office worker

When asked why they like working at the office, the top response from office workers was the ability to get quick answers to questions. The second most popular answer was the in-person collaboration. In third place was the separation of work and home life.

Next, we asked which non-work activity takes up the most time. The number one answer was checking social media, followed by talking to coworkers. The third most popular answer was surfing the Internet.

pie chart showing non-work activities at the office

We asked office workers, on a scale of one to ten, how engaged are you at work. Office workers report being highly engaged, with almost 80% of the answers being eight or higher.

pie chart showing employee engagement at the office

Finally, we asked how their company could improve the office work environment. Most of the requests from office workers were for a more flexible work location and schedule.

half pie chart showing how the company could improve in office environment

The hybrid worker

The hybrid worker values the quick answers and in-person collaboration that they get from being in the office and then the private space and ease of household management that comes with working from home.

Between being at the office and working from home, the hybrid worker’s biggest non-work activity is caring for family members and talking to coworkers.

The hybrid worker is highly engaged at their job, with only 6.9% reporting an engagement rate of six and below.

And when asked how their company could improve their work environment, the most popular response among hybrid workers was **flexibility in work location and schedule**.

half pie chart showing how companies can help hybrid workers

Did you enjoy this look at the modern employee experience?

Did you find the state of the modern workplace enlightening? StatsFind regularly publishes articles from various fields, trending topics, and events throughout history that pique interest.

Want to learn more? Subscribe today!