PwC: The pace of change at work is pushing employees to consider quitting

Employees are grappling with unprecedented amounts of change.

PwC’s 2024 Hopes & Fears Report surveyed 56,000 individuals in 50 countries; it found that 53% feel that too much change is happening all at once, and 62% said the pace of change at work has increased over the past year.

Workers are struggling with high workloads (45%), their job security (47%), and their financial situation (52%).

The good news is that three quarters feel ready to adapt to new ways of working, but there is still almost half (44%) that frankly do not understand why the workplace needs to change at all.

PwC’s report stated that there is a real risk of change fatigue and overwhelm – and all this change “may make it difficult for employees to fully engage in their present work, let alone invest in how their jobs may evolve in the future”.

Therefore, it is no surprise that over one in four (28%) are considering switching job and employer in the next year – that’s a much higher figure than during the ‘Great Resignation’ in 2022 (19%).

Of course, a return to high attrition rates is bad for business, especially in this challenging economic environment – but it is also costly for organizations to try and achieve transformation without their people being on board.

The Hopes & Fears report shared six actions for organizations to take to help their people navigate this level of change and come out the other side thriving.

Six top tips on HR change management from PwC

According to PwC’s report, the first thing that organizations, and specifically leaders, need to do to address this employee disengagement and change fatigue is to ensure that wellbeing is a core value of the organization.

But rather than dialing in on pushing employees to take action on their own wellbeing, organizations need to create a culture of work-life balance and set realistic expectations so work loads don’t get out of control.

At the end of the day, having happy, healthy workers is an “enabler of performance”.

This advice is in line with two separate reports from Workday and Deloitte.

The second recommendation is to “engage and inspire employees by sharing your vision for the future of the company and their role in that future”.

Leaders must double down on making the case for change to their most important stakeholders: their workforce. Unless employees understand and help drive change, transformation plans are unlikely to succeed”, stated the PwC report.

Also, PwC calls for employers to co-create the future of work at your organization with employees – the best ideas don’t always come from the C-Suite.

The report them turned to AI, and the need to encourage experimentation.

That’s the third piece of advice, and the fourth is getting a responsible AI strategy in place to establish trust around AI use at work.

Speaking exclusively to UNLEASH about the report US Workforce Transformation leader, Anthony Abbatiello, shares: “Empowering employees to contribute innovative ideas and addressing AI concerns is also crucial”.

This echoes conclusions of a recent AI and Workforce study from Slack.

61% of workers have used generative AI in the past year – this is because they see it as helping to free up their time from doing inefficient admin work.

But leaders need to role model desired behaviors around AI and actually provide access to tools – a quarter of those surveyed said they had no access to generative AI tools at work.

HR leaders need to “democratize generative AI training and unleash the power of the workforce to innovate”, states Abbatiello.

Focusing on upskilling and reskilling in AI was PwC’s fifth piece of advice.

Abbatiello notes: “Providing opportunities for skill-building and fostering engagement will help foster a change-ready mindset at a time when it’s needed most.”

51% of workers think that the skills they need for their jobs will change in the next year, but less than half (46%) said their employer was supporting them there.

In fact, PwC found that “almost half of employees say that having opportunities to learn new skills is a key consideration when it comes to their decision to stay with their employer or leave for another job”.

So, HR leaders really need to ensure their learning and development plans are up-to-date and reaching everyone.

This is where a transition to skills, not jobs, as the currency of work, and skills-first organization can really help employers and employees thrive now and into the future.

And the sixth recommendation from the PwC report was for organizations to rethink their tech stack.

“That could involve simplifying the overall technology setup, such as through centralized systems that replace disparate tools”.

This can help “reduce the need for extensive training on multiple platforms and lead to more efficient ways of getting tasks done” and would be “especially helpful at a time when employees are experiencing increased workloads and being asked to spend more time learning new technologies”.