Workplace culture in 2024 - what trends are set for the year ahead? This deck calls out five big trends that we need to understand for 2024. - Work isn’t a happy place for most - Don’t turn back the clock on flex - Coordinated office time should be treated as special - Trust is the basis of good culture - Managers, managers, managers hello@brucedaisley.com

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Building better
workplace culture
Work in 2024

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01 Work isn’t a happy place for most
02 Don’t turn back the clock on flex
03 Coordinated office time should be
treated as special
04 Trust is the basis of good culture
05 Managers, managers, managers
Five themes for 2024
There’s no doubt that Artificial
Intelligence is imminently going
to start transforming our jobs, that
makes it even more urgent to
address issues of workplace culture.
The question of how we motivate
and inspire our teams has never
been more pressing.
We’re in a critical moment when it
comes to work. For many leaders
their workplace culture doesn’t
feel right now and they’re debating
turning back the clock.
A preoccupation with returning work
to an imagined harmonious past
is holding leaders back from
addressing the cultural challenges
of the moment.

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Work isn’t a happy
place for most of us

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Source: 1
Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report (2023)
Work isn’t a
happy place
for most
We need to recognise that the
baseline for work happiness is a
low one.
Work wasn’t a calm, stress-free
place. Not in 2019, not in 2022,
and won’t be unless we strive to
make it so.
Gallup’s Global Workforce Survey
says work in the UK was an
unhappy place for many in 20231
:
feel emotionally
detached from
work.
of Brits say they feel
anger for a lot of the
day at work.
say their
experience is
all day stress.
of Brits are
actively engaged
with their jobs.
19%
60%
11%
38%

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So who *is*
engaged
at work?
There are vital signals for leaders
here. We want to be seen at work -
either by friends or by bosses.
Of workers who are
engaged with their job1
:
report having received
direct feedback from
their boss in the
past week.
report being
treated with
respect all day.
80%
95%
87%
report ‘smiling
and laughing a
lot.
Source: 1
Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report (2023)

6. Source: 1
Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report (2023), 2
HR Review
18%
Biggest predictor of engagement
is whether someone reports having
a best friend at work.1
40%
BUT, only
of workers didn’t
have a single close
friend at work2
of hybrid workers report
having a best friend at
work (the lowest level
we’ve seen.)1
A UK survey
found that So who *is*
engaged
at work?
There are vital signals for leaders
here. We want to be seen at work -
either by friends or by bosses.

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Don’t turn back the
clock on flex

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RTO? The conflict
of the moment
Flexible working has been
immensely popular but in a
weak economy bosses are getting
anxious that flexible working is
impacting business performance.
Leaders should avoid reopening the
debate. Proposing a Return to The
Office (RTO) will repel top talent
and make recruiting significantly
harder.
The future of work doesn’t look
like work five years ago.
Pre-Pandemic few people felt
work was in a happy equilibrium.
The benefits of flexibility need
to be acknowledged and
preserved.
2/3
of CEO’s think staff
will return to the
office five days
a week by 2028.1
of workers don’t
want to go back
to old ways
of working.2
90%
Source: 1
KPMG CEO Outlook Survey (2023),
2
Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report (2023)

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Productivity angst
is risking flex
Why do bosses still worry that they need to bring workers
back to the office? Broadly, in the absence
of ways to measure productivity when bosses can’t
see workers they worry that they’re not working.
Microsoft call this “Productivity Paranoia”.1
We need to give leaders the scope to agree clear
objectives with their team members that aren’t
based on digital presenteeism.
87%
Recent research by Slack
suggests that we don’t really
know how to measure
productivity, so we use
guesses based on visibility,
message response time &
hours spent online.2
Source: 1
Microsoft Work Trend Index Pulse Report (2022),
2
Slack State of Work Report (2023)
Productivity
Paranoia:
of workers say they
are fully productive
working from home.1
But only
of bosses have full
confidence in their
team working remotely.1
12%

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Commuting is
miserable. We’d
give money to
avoid it.
Mandating more days back in the office
ignores the fact that the worst part of
many people’s day is the unproductive,
expensive time spent on the commute.
The UK has some of the longest commute
times in Europe.
brucedaisley.com
Sources: 1
Office for National Statistics, 2
National Bureau of Economic Research (2023),
3
Stanford University, 4
Trust for London
On average, of the
time we save, we
allocate:
40%
of it to our jobs.2
Workers see hybrid working
(2-3 days at home per
week) as equivalent to:
7-10%
pay rise.3
Commuting is really
expensive: in London
full-time workers spend:
7%
of their salary
getting to work.4
74
57
The average daily
commute (each way) is:1
min
in Britain
min
in London

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Workers
are silently
resisting
bad policy
When employees are frustrated with
spending time and money to come to the
office to sit on team calls all day they’re
choosing to play chicken and resist
company policy.
Source: 1
Gartner (2023), 2
Microsoft Work Trend Index Report (2022)
50%
of workers trust
their company.1
Only
Only
26%
of organisations report
that their employees
fully comply with on-site
attendance requirements.1
73%
41%
of HR leaders say that
employees’ connection
to culture is impacted
by hybrid work.1
of employees say they
need a better reason to
go into the office than just
company expectations.2

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Flexibility is a diversity
& inclusion issue
Work by Future Forum found that minority
ethnic groups were several times more likely
to experience anxiety about being in the office
(through a combination of microaggressions
and surveillance).2
Remote and hybrid working sees minorities
reporting increases in feelings of belonging
and ‘feeling fairly treated’.3
The focus for organisations is to ensure that
the office time that remains serves to
consciously foster a sense of inclusivity.
A report by Open Access Government
suggested that flexible working has helped
reduce barriers related to race and
socioeconomic status.4
Remote working can play a significant role in
enhancing diversity by overcoming
geographical limitations and making
organisations more accessible to diverse
talent, including those from minority ethnic
backgrounds, women, and workers with
disabilities.
Source: 1
McKinsey Quarterly (2022), 2
Future Forum (2022), 3
Harvard Business Review (2022), 4
Open Access Government (2020)
Research from McKinsey found that younger
employees, LGBTQ+ employees, women, and
workers with disabilities were significantly
more likely to leave their jobs if hybrid work
options were not available.1
Data suggests groups who feel they need to ‘code
switch’ and adapt their identities in the workplace
report strong preference for hybrid work.
Beware! Going with gut instinct might run
against D&I goals. 83% of UK CEOs say they’re
likely to reward employees who make an effort
to come into the office with pay raises or
promotions.1

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Coordinated office time
should be treated as special

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Coordinated office time
should be treated as special
So while we shouldn’t be trying to
get a full return to the office, there
remains plenty of evidence to suggest
that the time we do spend together is
valuable. The critical lesson seems to be
that teams need to coordinate this
time, synchronising office time. And
ideally they should make office time look
and feel different.
A Gallup meta-analysis of more than
100,000 business units found that the
units with more bonded workers
Source: 1
Gallup Q12 Meta Analysis, 2
The Quarterly Journal of Economics
achieved higher performance and had
lower quit rates.1
In-person social time has the largest
impact on mood but the total amount
of time matters less than the event
itself.2
Office time is especially important for
inclusivity initiatives and for resolving
conflicts. But if your efforts at fostering
team cohesion solely rely on visits to the
pub, beware.
24%
Sales people who were
paired up with random
team members to eat lunch
together once a week saw a
increase in their
sales figures 2

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The benefits of some face-
to-face time are inarguable
Work by Professor Raj Choudhury at
Harvard Business School and a study
by McKinsey suggest that:
Face-to-face time should be
25-50% of a month.3
Zoom calls can be very effective for
‘convergent’ meetings - focussed on
information sharing and alignment, using
face-to-face time for ‘divergent’
meetings with debate, discussion and
potentially disagreement can be a
powerful way to preserve trust and
resolve conflict.
Source: 1
McKinsey (2022), 2
Nick Bloom, 3
Professor Raj Choudhury, Harvard Business School
Face-to-face time has been proven
to have benefits for creativity, team
cohesion and mentoring. Inclusivity
initiatives can also be strongly
impacted by face-to-face time.1
Professor Nick Bloom looked at the
impact of WFH on mentoring - both
being mentored and providing
mentoring were a higher priority in the
office than when working remotely. He
found ‘those who came into work
reported spending as much as 35%
to 40% more’ time mentoring.2
Zoom
meetings
for ‘convergent’
meetings: focussed
on information sharing
and alignment
Face-to-face
meetings
For ‘divergent’ meetings:
focused on debate and
discussion

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Some organisations are
carving out meeting-free
days on time together
A study of 76 companies
(each with between 1000 and
100,000 employees) asked
them to introduce one or two
meeting-free days a week.
Meeting-free time was seen
to lead to big increases in
productivity, engagement and
autonomy.1
Research by Stanford’s Nick
Bloom suggests that hybrid
workers are spending half of
their week in meetings - for most
people this represents 20h of
scheduled meet-ups & calls a
week.
But firms can think about
designing their work to
transform this experience.
Source: 1
HBR ‘You’re Holding Too Many Meetings’ (2022)
AUTO
NO
M
Y
C
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M
M
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A
T
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N
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N
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A
G
E
M
E
N
T
P
R
O
D
U
C
T
I
V
I
T
Y
S
T
R
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Reduction in
meetings1
:
-20%
-40%
62% 45% 28% 35%
-26%
-43%
78% 57% 32% 71%
Effect
on:
Reduction in
meetings1
:

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Trust is the basis
of good culture

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Getting culture
right has a
serious impact
A study by Glassdoor
found that over half of
workers said that
‘company culture is
more important than
salary when it comes to
job satisfaction’.
77%
Happy workers are
significantly more
productive according
to research from Oxford
University. Saïd Business
school studied workers
at a BT contact centre for
six months.
Happy workers made
more calls and turned more
of their calls into sales
leading to a
increase in
productivity.1
13%
Business units with
engaged workers have
Additionally, teams with
thriving workers see
significantly lower
absenteeism, turnover &
accidents; they also see
higher customer loyalty”3
higher profit compared
with business units with
miserable workers.
would consider a
company’s culture
before applying for a
job there.2
23%
Sources: 1
Oxford Saïd Business School, 2
Glassdoor’s Mission & Culture Survey,
3
Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report (2023)

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At high-performing firms,
employees were over 10 times
more likely to say they trust their
senior leadership, and senior
leaders were 11 times more likely
to say they trust their employees.2
Sources: 1
Bloomberg, 2
I4CP Research 2023
Trust and autonomy
drives better results.
A huge study of 26M workers
(across over 500 companies)
found that “fully flexible” firms
— which are either completely
remote or allow employees to
choose when they come to an
office — increased sales 21%
between 2020 and 2022, on an
industry-adjusted basis”. Fully
onsite companies only grew at
5%.1
The fundamental question
is ‘do we trust our team?’
(and ‘do they trust us?’)

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In Slack’s August 2023 survey of
over 10,000 global office workers,
trust was the top determinant of
employees’ productivity scores.
Employees who felt trusted were 2X
as productive as those who didn’t.1
Source: 1
Slack Workplace Productivity Survey (2023), 2
HBR ‘The Neuroscience of Trust’ (2017)
106%
PRO
DUCTIVITY
ENG
AG
EM
ENT
50% 76%
40% 74%
BURNO
UT
STRESS
The fundamental question
is ‘do we trust our team?’
(and ‘do they trust us?’)
ENERG
Y
AT
W
O
RK
Employees at “high-trust companies”
report more energy at work, higher
productivity, more engagement,
less burnout and less stress.2
They were 30% more likely to put
in extra effort at their jobs. If we
don’t feel trusted we’re twice as
likely to say we’re looking for
a new job.1
Trust drives employee engagement and productivity.

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Managers,
managers,
managers

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The job of manager has
never been more complex
Newly promoted
managers arrange
1
Source: 1
CMI (2023), 2
Gartner (2023), 3
HBR (2023)
of HR leaders say
that managers are
overwhelmed with
the growth of their
job responsibilities.2
of new managers in
UK have no formal
leadership/management
training when they take
the role.1
more
meetings than
experienced
counterparts.3
3
82% 75%

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Managers need to understand
that workers want to feel seen
Engagement at work goes up
when we have a close friend
at work or when we’ve had
direct feedback from a boss
in the last week.1
We resign because of our boss.
Gallup’s research shows that 42%
of the reasons people are quitting
are tied to how they feel about
their bosses and team culture.1
"Increasingly the role of the
leader is to be entrepreneurial
and opportunistic about forging
connections in their team."
Dan Coyle
Author of The Culture Code
Source: 1
Gallup State of the Global Workplace Report (2023)

24. While there remains a big job to be done
to make work a less stressed, more
engaged place most workers feel that
we’ve moved in the right direction in the
last four years.
While economic circumstances are trying
leaders should hesitate before thinking
that what we need is more office time.
However we need to change our mindset
about the time that we are together. If your
office time is spent on Teams calls all day
then connection is likely to suffer. Can we
treat office time as special, as different?
How much are we designing how we work
and how much are we leaving it to who
schedules a meeting in a gap in the
calendar?
The task of making all of this work falls to
great managers. They’ve never been
needed more.
Not only should managers take the lead
in recognising that trust is the
foundation of great working (and that
trust is a two-way street) but the
challenge for leaders is to strive to forge
connections in their teams.
Great managers in 2024 need to be
entrepreneurial about building team
connections.
Work in 2024
Conclusion
brucedaisley.com

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Building better
workplace culture
Work in 2024

26. B
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About Bruce
Bruce Daisley is a Sunday Times
bestselling author, keynote speaker
and technology leader from the UK.
He talks to companies about how to
build energised and connected
workplace cultures.
He has become regarded as one of
the most respected thought leaders
on the subject of workplace culture
and the future of work.
Bruce’s prior business career saw him
spend 12 years as one of the best known
technology leaders in the country, first
running YouTube in UK and then Twitter
across Europe, Middle East & Africa.
He left Twitter as the company's most
senior leader outside of the US.
Following the remarkable success of
his debut title, The Joy of Work which
reached number one in the Sunday
Times bestsellers, in 2022 his second
book, Fortitude, was described by the
Financial Times as the ‘best business
book of the year’.
Bruce has been appointed as an
Honorary Visiting Professor at Bayes
Business School. He has frequently
taught at London Business School.
hello@brucedaisley.com