Australian workers are exhausted and uninspired, and are increasingly disillusioned with their workplaces’ focus on technology and AI, according to a new report.
Gartner’s Global Talent Monitor for the second quarter of the 2024 financial year includes a survey of more than 850 workers in Australia.
The research firm reveals that the jump in creativity and innovation fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic and felt across the workforce has now abated, and Australian workers are feeling disengaged from their work and lacking in motivation.
The number of Australian employees who feel their work environment is innovative has now dropped to the lowest levels recorded by Gartner at 14 per cent.
This is a significant drop from the 24.5 per cent of workers who thought their work environment was innovative in the third quarter of 2023.
According to Gartner vice-president of research and advisory, Aaron McEwan, the decline in engagement is partly the result of a “post-pandemic hangover”.
“The whole pandemic was hugely disruptive and on top of that you’ve got this cost-of-living crisis, so you’ve got a workforce that is generally feeling quite exhausted,” McEwan told Information Age.
“We’re seeing record levels of change fatigue and there’s a bit of malaise in the workforce. “There is a depleted, exhausted and uninspired workforce.
“This is concerning because just when you need your workforce to step up, not just with discretionary effort but with innovation and new ideas and finding ways to continue growing, they’re not feeling particularly inspired or energised.”
Workers also no longer see their companies as being agile, with less than 19 per cent saying this.
This is down from a peak of more than 30 per cent in the third quarter of 2021.
Of those surveyed, more than three-quarters do not consider themselves “highly” engaged in their work.
Innovation through AI not humans
Much of this lack of inspiration among the workforce is due to companies focusing on growth through the use of technologies such as generative AI, rather than encouraging workers to be creative and innovative, McEwan said.
“CEOs are being quite bullish on growth.
“This is more about expansion, and a lot of CEOs have put significant faith into AI, particularly generative AI, to deliver these productivity gains,” he said.
“This data comes in at a time when AI is hitting the workforce, and we’re starting to slide down the slope into a trough of disillusionment.
“They’re not seeing the productivity returns that they were quite bullish on.
“The message then being delivered to the workforce is that we don’t see the workforce as the growth lever.
“Now you’ve got a workforce that isn’t feeling particularly inspired, and they’re not feeling like they can be innovative.”
‘Job larping’
The survey also found that discretionary effort among the workforce has remained nearly unchanged at the low level of just over 18 per cent, indicating that Australians are still turning up to work, but not going above or beyond.
“What’s worrying is that they’re not inspired, they’re not delivering increased discretionary effort – they’re just staying where they are.
“It’s like productivity theatre or job larping,” McEwan said.
Despite the data indicating a deeply unhappy workforce, the survey found that the number of employees intending to stay in their current role has remained relatively steady in this quarter at 36.8 per cent, slightly up from 36.1 per cent in the last quarter.
“We’re in this very strange period where people are concerned about job security and are not particularly confident that there are jobs in the market to go to, but they’re also feeling uninspired so they’re not delivering additional discretionary effort and going above and beyond,” McEwan said.
McEwan said that Australian bosses and companies need to make it clear they are still prioritising the growth of their employees and encourage the creativity and innovation that was fuelled by the changing work conditions due to the pandemic.
“It’s time for business leaders to be more explicit about what they’re trying to achieve and to remind the workforce that they’re actually the most important growth mechanism for the business – it’s really about providing a bit of a spark to the workforce,” he said.
“Bring some inspiration to the workforce by reminding them how important they are and how valuable the work they do is, instead of championing the robots.”
He said that businesses should also reconsider return-to-office mandates and embrace the newly legislated right to disconnect in order to better inspire their workforce and boost creativity.
