beqom: This is a ‘pivotal moment for HR leaders’ in terms of remote working, pay transparency, flexibility, and connection

Employees are remaining in their roles for longer while assessing what they actually want from their employer, according to new research from beqom’s 2025 Compensation and Culture Report. 

Lars Pedersen, beqom’s CEO

The report, which polled more than 1,800 employees from the US and UK, states that this marks a “pivotal moment for HR leaders,” requiring them to embrace lessons learned from the pandemic, such as remote working, transparency, flexibility, and the importance of connection. 

In an exclusive conversation with beqom’s CEO Lars Pedersen, UNLEASH explores what the report’s findings mean for HR leaders.

Flexibility, pay, and communication in the workplace

beqom’s report cast a wide net over the current state of the workplace in terms of compensation and culture, however, particular trends stood out to be the most pressing for HR leaders to focus on.

The first being that flexibility and work-life balance is no longer a perk – it’s an expectation. 

The key deciding factors as to whether an employee switches job roles was found to be heavily down to flexibility and career growth, with 72% wanting more flexible working hours, 70% asking for better-defined career mobility and promotion opportunities, 68% asking for unlimited paid leave, 67% need professional development security, and 65% requesting more flexibility in working location.

This is also a reflection on the 45% of employees with significant caregiving responsibilities, as 30% considered leaving the workforce due to their caregiving challenges. 

“It’s not surprising that the percentage [of employees] who looked for a new job has dropped by half since 2021, when 85% reported looking to switch jobs,” Pedersen shares.

“Yet at the same time, desire for flexibility in working hours, which shot up during COVID, still is strong – 72% still say they would switch jobs to have more flexibility.” 

The report also found that 47% of employees said that their pay had not increased over the past 12 months, leaving them feeling financially strained. What’s more, 32% were concerned that new hires were getting paid more than experienced, tenured employees.

More than half (53%) of employees believe their performance reviews are subjective, with only 54% of employees believing they are paid fairly. Women were shown to have particularly low confidence in the objectivity of their performance reviews (49%), compared to 59% of men. 

“Of the 1,877 companies, more than half of employees believe or feel that their performance reviews are subjective rather than objective,” Pedersen adds. 

This, of course, highlights the need to make performance assessments unbiased, as it seems that a significant number of employees feel they are biased in an inappropriate way. This number is higher than I had anticipated.

“Of course, there is and always will be bias – it clearly happens – but if more than half of employees feel that’s the case, it’s probably a combination of it being so, as well as a perception issue. So it’s not just a challenge in how performance assessments are made, but also as to how they are communicated so that employees feel they are done fairly.”

“The other surprise for me came in terms of pay inequity. It’s not surprising that some people feel their pay is not fair, but I found it shocking that so many – nearly half – feel this way.

“Again, it’s probably a combination of it actually not being fair and a lack of communication; communication around this topic is very important.”

In a similar vein, employees were found to be unclear about their compensation, with economic pressure fueling further frustration.

This is because 39% of employees asked feel their company’s pay rates are below industry norms, with 40% sharing they’ve had a salary adjusted to keep pace with inflation. 

Pedersen concludes: “I think the takeaway is that, on such a crucial question as compensation, if more than half of your employees either are unhappy– feeling it’s not fair or that they are underpaid – then companies need to do a better job at communication. 

“And, of course, in some cases, also address actual gaps, if they exist.”