How do employees feel about AI coworkers? Does remote work make employees more productive? Will frontline workers ever love their jobs again? According to Marcus Wolf, senior employee experience scientist at Qualtrics, the answers to these pressing questions are found in five employee experience trends for 2024.

Wolf spoke in a thought leadership spotlight at From Day One’s December Virtual conference, where he offered actionable tips on creating employee experience strategies. His findings are based on Qualtrics’ 2024 Employee Experience Trends Report, which studied responses of 37,000 employees from 32 countries.

How Employees View AI

The first trend relates to employees’ evolving relationship with AI. “Employees would rather have AI as an assistant than a manager,” Wolf said. “Organizations will need to pay attention to where the technology feels like it’s an overlord and where it feels like it’s an enrichment for the individual.”

The report indicates that most employees preferred AI that they could control and direct. This means there is a lot more acceptance for AI technologies in tasks related to writing, for instance, than for using AI to evaluate performance.

Only one demographic, employees with disabilities, reported a greater level of comfort when being interviewed by an AI assistant. Wolf says this is because AI is perceived as offering non-judgmental interactions, which is especially crucial for a group that may have experienced biases in the past.

What can organizations learn from these insights? “These findings may really help us understand how to begin to adopt these tools and think of new use cases for them,” Wolf said. “Think of which ones will be a lower effort to adopt and which scenarios may need more due diligence.”

The Plight of Frontline Workers

The second trend relates to frontline workers. “You might have seen some of the commercials in 2020 about how much companies and communities cared about our frontline workers,” Wolf said. “They’re not feeling the love lately, unfortunately.”

Employees in customer-facing jobs, or those expected to be on their feet all day, report a lack of recognition, lower satisfaction with rewards, and fewer growth and development opportunities.

At the same time, the cost of job switching is low. Combine this with career growth assuming priority and younger populations struggling to afford basic necessities, and companies may find it hard to retain frontline workers in the coming years.

The solution? Listen to your people.

“A whole population of burned-out people may cause that next viral video for bad customer interaction. And if we don’t know where things are bad, we can’t really prioritize the support,” Wolf said.

The Missing Honeymoon Phase

The third trend indicates that the “new-job honeymoon phase” is on the decline.

In the past, fresh employees would rank higher on almost all metrics. But, according to the report, things have changed. Employees with less than six months of tenure have shown the lowest intent to stay at their organization.

One reason for this is the deprioritization of onboarding processes. “CHROs are being tasked with other jobs. Processes that were created before the pandemic haven’t really been reviewed or refreshed,” Wolf said. “People get their laptop, but not much else when it comes to onboarding and training.”

Austerity measures further reduce training resources and force already overworked employees to learn on the job.

In this case, the key to success for organizations lies in thoughtfully redesigning onboarding processes. “Much like when we design with accessibility in mind, we improve the experience for everyone. By considering the onboarding journey, we can sustain and improve experiences for long-tenured employees.”

Similarly, an organization that supports its employees with formal and informal development opportunities will see the most success in 2024.

Employees are Willing to Share

A surprising trend from the report, Wolf says, relates to “passive listening,” or the process of analyzing employee chats, instant messages, emails, group chats, or social media, to identify and close experience gaps.

“I would have guessed that no one was ready to really reveal more. As it turns out, I was wrong. People are actually incredibly willing to let their companies use this information, so long as it’s to make their work life better,” Wolf said.

As many as 72% of engaged employees said they were ready for their instant messages to be reviewed, and 80% were okay with sharing their emails. And while the numbers weren’t as promising for disengaged employees, Wolf believes they too can be won over.

“We can bring people along for this journey as long as we make the benefits clear of what improving their experiences is going to be like and what barriers we’re going to be able to remove for them,” he said.

That said, employees draw a clear line when it comes to social media. Organizations must respect this boundary or risk pushing employees to use other channels to maintain their privacy or stop sharing ideas altogether.

The In-Office Vs. Remote Work Debate

The report’s final trend for 2024 relates to a question on every organization’s mind: What is the most productive work model moving forward?

The report gives us a definite answer, which is the hybrid model. “Those with a blend of experiences, a couple of days in the office and a couple of days remote, are having the highest levels of engagement,” Wolf said.

The reasons for this may include a need to socialize or create more pronounced boundaries between work and home. Alternatively, it could boil down to employees finding more purpose–a reason to get up and get dressed for the day.

In 2024, organizations that have returned to completely in-office models must show more flexibility to boost employee engagement.

“I’ve even seen organizations with warehouse and distribution centers figure out flexible and remote work policies for their employees,” Wolf said.

It isn’t just enough to provide the hybrid schedule, however. “We need guidelines for leaders and managers to work with. Having a policy that speaks to flexibility doesn’t have the same impact as when your leaders and managers bring it to life by encouraging employees to take advantage of it,” he said.

Wolf left the audience with some crucial advice–he urges leaders to focus on communication and follow through. Show employees that leaders keep the same commitments they expect of employees.

Editor’s note: From Day One thanks our partner, Qualtrics, for sponsoring this thought leadership spotlight. 

Keren's love for words saw her transition from a corporate employee into a freelance writer during the pandemic. After having made her mark as a Top Rated Writer with over 2000 positive reviews in the extremely competitive Upwork space, and having been featured on various magazines and publications, Keren has now moved on to bigger and better with her own digital marketing agency aptly named Epic Owl. When she is not at her desk whipping up compelling narratives and sipping on endless cups of coffee, you can find her curled up with a book, playing with her dog, or pottering about in the garden.