Future Forum Pulse

How we measure the data

The Future Forum survey uses comparative analysis to gauge how different factors—such as working flexibly—influence employee experience and sentiment, such as sense of belonging, productivity, and ability to focus.

To do this, we ask workers to rate their experience and sentiment on a five-point scale, from “very poor” to “very good.” We use responses to this question to calculate average scores for different groups, and then we compare those groups with one another. 

For example, when assessing the effect of flexibility on productivity, we compare the productivity scores of employees with access to flexible working locations and schedules to the productivity scores of employees with fixed, pre-set schedules and working locations.

How do employees perceive the state of company culture?

Flexible workers were 57% more likely to say their company culture has improved over the past two years compared with fully in-person workers—and they cite flexible remote work policies as the primary reason their culture is changing for the better.

Despite this progress, 25% of executives surveyed cited “team culture is negatively impacted” as a number one concern about offering employees more flexibility in an office.

How connected do employees feel to their companies and organizations?

Flexible workers are equally or more likely to feel connected to their immediate teams as fully in-office workers. They are also more likely to feel connected to their direct manager and their company’s values compared with those who are back in the office full-time.

How does the perception of transparency affect employee sentiment?

Transparency—sharing relevant information across all levels of your organization through two-way, ongoing conversation with employees—is key to growing connection and a healthy work culture. Desk workers who believe their employer communicates transparently show markedly higher scores for employee experience and engagement.

• Employees who perceive their companies to be transparent have 8.8x greater job satisfaction than employees who have the opposite perception.
• Employees who don’t believe their company “is being very transparent regarding post-pandemic remote working policies” are 2.3x more likely to say they’ll “definitely” look for a new position in the coming year.
• Among executives, 73% believe they are being “very transparent”—a 16% increase from August 2022—but only 41% of employees agree.

How does investment in technology affect employee experience?

Consistent with quarter-over-quarter findings, people who work at companies they describe as technology innovators continue to show higher employee experience scores on all dimensions (compared with those who describe their employers as technology laggards), including

• 1.6x higher scores on productivity
• 2x higher scores on ability to focus
• 2.2x higher scores on sense of belonging
• 2.8x higher scores on overall satisfaction

Technology also impacts burnout levels. Workers who perceive their companies to be laggards—defined as organizations that generally only use technology after it becomes mainstream—are 31% more likely to report feeling burned out at work than those who say the companies they work for are innovators.

How does schedule flexibility impact business results?

When compared to workers with no ability to shift their schedules, respondents with full schedule flexibility report:

• 39% higher productivity
• 64% greater ability to focus

Conversely, a lack of schedule flexibility dramatically impacts both retention and employee experience scores. Employees with rigid work schedules say they are 2.5x more likely to “definitely” look for a new job in the next year compared with workers who have some ability to adjust their schedules. Compared to those with moderate schedule flexibility, desk workers who say they have little to no ability to set their hours report:

• 4.6x worse work-related stress and anxiety
• 2.6x worse work-life balance

What percentage of the workforce is burned out?

Burnout is still on the rise globally. Forty-two percent of the workforce is reporting burnout—a slight uptick (2% rise) from the previous quarter and an all-time high since May 2021, when Future Forum started measuring burnout. 

How does access to flexibility affect burnout? 

Fifty-three percent of those who are dissatisfied with their level of flexibility say they are burned out compared to 37% of employees who are satisfied with their level of flexibility. Employees with no ability to shift their schedules are 26% more likely to say they are burned out at work than those with moderate schedule flexibility.

How does burnout affect retention?

Respondents who report they are burned out at work are nearly 3.4x more likely to say they “definitely” plan to look for a new job in the next year than those who say they are not burned out at work.

Which groups are at the greatest risk of burnout?

Age and gender are highly correlated with the likelihood of experiencing burnout, with women and younger people significantly more likely to say they are burned out.

• Forty-six percent of women say they are burned out compared with 37% of men.
• The younger you are, the more likely you are to say you are burned out, with 48% of workers under age 30 saying they feel burned out at work compared with 40% of workers age 30 and up.

Where are people working?

Hybrid work is the dominant model, with 49% of global desk workers working in a hybrid arrangement, compared with 35% working full-time in the office and 17% working full-time remote.

Who has access to flexible schedules? 

Fifty-six percent of desk workers say they have little to no ability to adjust their hours from a preset schedule.

The data shows that schedule flexibility is still largely considered a perk or benefit of seniority, with executives significantly more likely to have access to flexible schedules than non-executives.

• Seventy-five percent of executives have little to no constraints on their schedule compared with 41% of non-executives.
• Executives are nearly 3x more likely than middle managers and nearly 4x more likely than individual contributors to have zero schedule constraints.

How do desk workers feel about flexible work?

Eighty-one percent of all desk workers now want flexibility in where they work, including a majority (56%) of fully in-office workers.

Ninety-three percent of employees want flexibility in when they work, a continuing trend from Future Forum’s previous quarterly surveys. (However, as noted above, 56% of employees say they have little to no ability to adjust their hours from a preset schedule.)

Fifty-nine percent of employees surveyed are open to looking for a new job in the next year, a 4% increase since the summer. Among those who say they are dissatisfied with their level of flexibility, 75% say they plan to look for a new opportunity within the next year.

Flexibility ranks second only to compensation in determining job satisfaction.

How does interest in flexibility differ based on race/ethnicity? (U.S. only)

Consistent with our findings quarter over quarter, the desire for flexibility remains strongest among underrepresented groups, including women, working mothers, and people of color.

Based on our recent survey, we continue to see a higher preference for location flexibility among employees of color. The percentage of U.S. respondents by race/ethnicity that prefer these environments: 86% Asian/Asian American, 81% Black, 80% Hispanic/Latinx, and 79% white.

Those same trends play out in preference for schedule flexibility. The percentage of U.S. respondents by race/ethnicity that say they would prefer little to no constraints on their schedule: 71% Asian/Asian American, 68% Black, 66% Hispanic/Latin, and 64% white.

How does interest in flexibility differ based on gender/parental status?

Location flexibility continues to be valuable to parents, including 84% of working mothers. Fifty-nine percent of working mothers say they want to work outside of the office three to five days a week compared with 47% of working fathers.

Sixty-seven percent of parents would prefer little to no constraints on their schedule compared with 62% of non-parents. And 66% of working mothers would prefer little to no constraints on their schedule compared with 69% of working fathers.