New data shows the C-suite is faring much better on nearly every measure of employee experience—and reveals a major chasm between employee expectations and executive-imposed policies.

The “great resignation” is real, and it’s happening now. More than half of respondents to the Future Forum Pulse survey (57%) report that they’re open to looking for a new job in the next year, and other surveys are finding similar results globally. In the U.S. alone, a record 4 million Americans quit their jobs in April, with an additional 3.9 million in June. And employers are struggling to make up the gap; three in four U.S. employers report they’re having trouble attracting talent—up nearly three times from last year.

Among workers who report low satisfaction with their current levels of flexibility on the job, 71% are open to new opportunities. Similarly, 72% of workers who report low sense of belonging at work are open to making a job switch.

Eighty-six percent of leaders are well on their way to determining if and how they intend to bring employees back to the office post-pandemic—and more than half (56%) report they’ve fully completed their plans determining how employees can work in the future. Given the volatility in the job market, it’s no surprise that concern about employee retention and the war for talent is the number-one driver influencing company post-pandemic workforce policies. It’s also no surprise that business leaders are anxious. Employees are closely watching return-to-office policies. They have more options today than they ever had before.

New data from the Future Forum Pulse reveals one driver of the great resignation: the “great executive-employee disconnect.” In the most recent Pulse survey, executives are faring vastly better than middle managers and individual contributors on nearly every measure—from employee experience to perceptions to preferences. In addition, our data shows there’s a major chasm between employee expectations and executive-imposed policies.

Executives are confident that the post-pandemic policies they’re putting in place will satisfy employee demand. Ninety-four percent of executives surveyed are at least “moderately confident” that the policies they set forward match employee expectations, and 59% are “highly confident.”

So what do employees actually want? Flexible work practices are now deeply ingrained and valued, and expectations are not budging. Seventy-six percent of employees want flexibility in where they work, and 93% want flexibility in when they work. These results have not fluctuated over two quarters now—across all geographic areas surveyed. People working fully remotely feel two times better about work-life balance than those working full time in the office and 2.4 times better about work-related stress.

The certainty among both executives and employees about expectations and perceptions of return-to-office policies is extremely high on both sides. At the same time, our data points to a disconnect. Most executives (68%) report they want to work in the office most or all of the time—and 59% of this group report their company intends to bring people back to the office most or all of the time. Of those currently working remotely, 44% of executives want to return to fully in-office work, but only 17% of non-executives agree.

What is driving the disconnect between executives and their employees?

Responses to the most recent Future Forum Pulse survey show that employees are more than four times more likely than executives to want to work remotely full time. And yet the data also shows that the majority of executives are building return-to-the-office plans that favor the perspective of the C-suite over what employees say works best for them. What’s driving the disconnect?

Experience disparities

The differences between the executive and employee experiences are glaring and, alarmingly, this divide is getting wider. This past quarter, as some companies ordered employees back to the office, executive “overall satisfaction with the working environment” rose 3% while non-executive employee satisfaction dropped 5% over survey results from June 2021.

Executive satisfaction is now 62% higher than non-executive satisfaction—driven by flexibility (51% higher), sense of belonging (52% higher) and work-life balance (78% higher)—and is a whopping 114% better on “feeling good about stress and anxiety.” Male executives report the highest scores for most experience indicators, including “sense of belonging,” “level of access to resources,” “ability to focus on work” and “overall satisfaction with the working environment.”

Confirmation bias

CEOs recognize that workforce policies are business-critical; therefore, most CEOs (69%) are personally leading the planning process. HR chiefs, surprisingly, are leading the process in only 3.1% of companies.

The majority of CEOs, however, are not adequately involving employees in post-pandemic return-to-work plans. Sixty-six percent of executives report that post-pandemic planning conversations are happening mostly at the executive level, with little to no direct input from employees or consideration of their preferences.

Lack of genuine transparency

Two out of every three executives (66%) believe they’re being “very transparent” regarding their post-pandemic remote-working policies. Less than half of workers (42%) agree.

Similarly, 81% of executives say their company’s leadership is “transparent about sharing new developments that affect the company.” Only 58% of employees concur.

Given that executives are reporting sky-high employee experience scores, it raises the question of why they’re so motivated to return to the office. When asked to cite their motivations for where they want to work, the data shows executives and non executives hold different perspectives.

All workers, executives and employees alike, cite “better work-life balance” as the number-one reason for preferring remote work.

But non-executives are more than two times more likely than executives to cite “not having to spend time commuting to work” as a main reason for preferring remote work (26% of employees versus 11% of executives).

Whereas executives are more likely to cite “having a quiet space to focus on getting my work done” (23% of executives versus 18% of non executives) and “collaborating with co-workers or clients on specific work projects” (38% of executives versus 32% of non executives) as reasons for wanting to return to the office.

Non-executives are more likely to cite “building general camaraderie or rapport with co-workers or clients” as the reason for office work (27% of non executives versus 23% of executives). This makes sense, given that executives already report the highest scores for sense of belonging. Eighty-five percent say “my sense of belonging at work” is good or very good compared to just 67% of non-executives.