Qualtrics study reveals 48% of employees are seriously thinking about leaving their current job

London, UK, October, 2021: Qualtrics (Nasdaq: XM), the leader and creator of the Experience Management (XM) category, has today announced the findings of a UK employee study highlighting how views and attitudes towards the workplace have changed during the pandemic, and what they’re looking for as they all come back into the office.

The most striking findings, of over 500 UK workers, shows that an enormous 48% are seriously thinking about leaving their current job, while almost half (41%) believe office presenteeism will continue to play a major role in their career development with greater visibility to leadership.

In addition, the fact that 49% of employees say they feel pressured to work in-person from the office – even if their employer is offering a hybrid or remote option – demonstrates that when designing the workplace of the future, many businesses have yet to strike the right tone.

Commenting on the findings, Phil Pringle, one of Qualtrics’ leading employee experience strategists in Europe, said: “For talent teams up and down the country, the message is very simple: Get your employee experience right and your organisation is in a prime position to attract the very best talent.”

As organisations battle to develop an employee experience that centres of the needs of the employee over the needs of the business, the study also showed that the majority (61%) of employees would support fewer office locations in exchange for better facilities and amenities in more central centralised locations – though 53% of employees also say they’d be satisfied if their organisation opened more satellite offices for smaller teams.

Parents feel the strain of the not-so 9-5

While working from home had its perks, the toll on ensuring constant availability and early mornings / late nights was felt – one in three employees say they worked longer hours because of the pandemic — and the burden fell mostly on young people, managers, and parents.

It is this latter group that really felt the need to be present – 42% of parents whose children live with them cited an increase in hours worked per week, compared to 14% of those without children at home.

Not ready to be suited but still booted

After more than a year of working from home, for many employees dress code has taken on a new meaning – so it comes as little surprise that ditching leisure wear, wearing makeup again, and getting routine haircuts are three of the top things that will be hardest for employees to change when they return to the office.

This trend continues with a third (33%) of employees saying they plan to dress casual when returning to the office, tied with business casual (also 33%). Over half (54%) meanwhile say that employees can be productive no matter what kind of clothes they’re wearing, while 43% say that they would dress more casually if their office didn’t have a dress code.

“To create a safe and engaging physical and cultural workplace, leaders will need to listen to their employees, understand what they’re saying, then take action to create and design a destination workplace that inspires, motivates, and draws people back in”, concludes Pringle.

See the full study findings

About Qualtrics

Qualtrics, the leader and creator of the Experience Management (XM) category, is changing the way organizations manage and improve the four core experiences of business—customer, employee, product and brand. Over 13,500 organizations around the world are using Qualtrics to listen, understand and take action on experience data (X-data™)—the beliefs, emotions and intentions that tell you why things are happening, and what to do about it. The Qualtrics XM Platform™ is a system of action that helps businesses attract customers who stay longer and buy more, engage employees who build a positive culture, develop breakthrough products people love and build a brand people are passionate about. To learn more, please visit qualtrics.com/uk.