Flexibility is key

What’s inside:

| What’s the ideal home-office work balance to boost engagement?

| Top engagement drivers—and where employers are missing the mark.

| Case spotlight: How EY leverages data and AI to engage employees.

Flexibility is key to creating space for people to thrive

In today’s work environment, where the boundaries between life and work are increasingly blurred, flexibility has become a crucial and non-negotiable factor for organisations seeking to attract and retain talent.

Flexibility and hybrid policy are causes of dissatisfaction in

50%

of employee responses.

The majority of employees (82%) are satisfied with their employer, and the biggest factor in this satisfaction is their company’s hybrid policy.

Interestingly, the satisfaction with their hybrid policy has over a 5x larger impact on overall satisfaction with the employer than how often the employee is working from home. In fact, employees who work remotely 1-2 days a week have the highest satisfaction in their employer’s home working allowance, but those who work 5 days at home have the lowest. This suggests that a balanced approach to hybrid work is generally preferred over fully remote or fully in-office models.

Drivers of employee engagement and motivation
in the workplace

Furthermore, the survey identifies key themes contributing to employee dissatisfaction, with greater flexibility again being a clear trend. Half of responses say a desire for more flexibility or being dissatisfied with their current hybrid work policy is employees’ biggest cause of dissatisfaction with an employer.

Many employees express unhappiness with rigid arrangements that limit their ability to choose when and where they work, seeking greater control to achieve a better work-life balance.
In fact, the importance of work-life balance is shown in it being the biggest driver of employee motivation and engagement in the workplace, particularly in APAC and Europe.

Other factors that drive employee engagement include an attractive hybrid workplace, which links with the fact that many employees say facilities and office services would encourage them to be in the workplace more often (see Reimagining the office).

Currently, a quarter of employee responses cite a dissatisfaction with their office environment and facility conditions. If employers do not match these expectations in terms of flexibility and the attributes of the workplace, it can lead to disengagement and employee churn, therefore negatively impacting business outcomes.

Areas of dissatisfaction with employer

What is your workplace strategy at EY Nordics?

“We have a hybrid model. It gives guidance, so it’s not a policy, and it is very Nordic as it is trust-based. We empower our people to make decisions with their leaders and teams about where, when, and how to work. We’ve focused a lot on hybrid leadership because it’s really a leadership job.

Leaders need to be role models, provide guidance, and encourage these conversations within their teams for it to work.”

Why is leadership important in a hybrid work model?

“Effective hybrid leadership is crucial. Teams that are good at having conversations and have empowering leaders perform better. They are more productive, spend more time with clients, and thrive better individually in terms of health and well-being. They simply do a better job across all domains.

We’ve focused a lot on hybrid leadership because it’s really a leadership job. We use ‘leadership’ in its broad sense, including self-leadership, teaming, and traditional leadership.

We all have a role to play, and we want everyone to adopt a leadership mindset. We should all have an ambition to act as role models.”

How does EY Nordics use data to improve workplace experience?

“We connect experience data with operational data to understand behaviours and their impact on performance and well-being. For example, we found a strong correlation between the experience of having lunch or coffee with a colleague and overall workplace experience. This also relates to outcomes like a sense of belonging, inclusion, and retention. By analysing these correlations, we can design targeted interventions and plan activities to enhance employee engagement and retention.

This data-driven approach helps us understand employee needs and preferences, identify trends, and inform future workplace strategies. Leveraging data in this way creates a more personalised, efficient, and effective workplace experience, leading

to improved productivity and job satisfaction.”

What does the future of workplace experience look like?

“Great and difficult question. With the speed of technology, especially AI, it’s impossible to predict. However, we will see new challenges and opportunities, with technology and AI driving change.

We’re focusing on sustainability, both environmental and social. AI is transforming our company by supporting people wherever and whenever they work. We’re moving from hybrid to a flexible, AI-powered workplace experience. We’re considering shifting from ‘hybrid’ to ‘flexible work model’ to avoid misunderstandings. We’ve mostly solved ‘where’ to work and are now focusing on ‘when’ and ‘how’ to work.

Photos by Felix Gerlach

We’re developing harmonised yet hyper-individualised solutions enabled by AI. Meeting rooms, for example, will be customised for fully digital, fully face-to-face, or hybrid meetings. AI will increasing efficiency. However, new challenges like isolation and the ‘always on’ culture will arise. We need to create spaces where people can disconnect and slow down, like face-to-face meeting rooms or coffee club experiences.”

What are the priorities for sustainability at EY Nordics?

“EY aims to be NetZero for CO₂ emissions by end of 2025 for scope 1, 2, and 3 (travel). We’ve reduced our emissions by 40% compared to a 2019 baseline, which we’re very proud of. Globally, EY has set ambitious goals, including reducing supply chain-related emissions by at least 25% by 2030.

In terms of social sustainability, we’ll increase our efforts beyond minimum reporting requirements. We’re already doing a lot in equality and well-being. We recognise the future challenges
in social sustainability due to social media and changing lifestyles. We’re becoming more aware of the needs and opportunities for neurodiversity and supporting factors like chrono-diversity and individual sensitivities.
We aim to support these aspects more in the future.”

Photos by Felix Gerlach