Over the past several years, there has been a revolution in how employees work. The COVID-19 pandemic drove an overnight shift to remote work, and many employees became accustomed to the flexibility and freedom this shift provided. While a growing number of companies are now requiring employees to return to the office, this doesn’t mean they will return to the pre-COVID status quo. There has been a fundamental shift in employee demands and expectations, and HR teams must adapt.
For example, flexible work arrangements and benefits are having a significant impact on how employees blend work and leisure this summer. Although work-from-anywhere policies and hybrid work arrangements have given employees greater freedom, these changes have also contributed to the development of workplace cultures in which employees feel like they can never truly disconnect and relax. At a time when employee stress and burnout are on the rise, HR teams need to determine how to help employees strike a healthier work-life balance. HR teams can also provide more portable and customized benefits that help employees improve their financial well-being.
Employees are confronting unprecedented changes in the workplace, from “always-on” company cultures to the rise of AI. In this uncertain and rapidly evolving work environment, HR teams must provide the support employees need to pursue their professional goals while striking the right balance between their work and personal lives.
Reject the “Always-On” Workplace Culture
While the availability of digital productivity and communication tools gives employees more flexibility than ever in how they choose to work, these tools have a dark side: they keep employees tethered to the office at all times. According to a 2024 survey, 60 percent of employees say they struggle to fully disconnect from work when they take time off. Eighty-six percent say they would check an email from their boss during a vacation, while 56 percent have taken work calls or participated in meetings. It’s no wonder that nearly two-thirds of employees say they find it difficult to strike a balance between work and personal time.
A global survey of 26,000 employees published last year found that work-life balance is an even bigger motivator than pay. This makes employees’ struggles to find balance all the more alarming for HR teams, which need to help employees take full advantage of their time off and fully disconnect from work. There are several ways this can be done: HR teams can encourage employees to take all the time they have earned without distractions, implement company-wide no-meeting policies on major travel days, provide mental health days and resources, and urge managers not to demand employees’ attention when they take PTO. Summer is a time when PTO requests surge, which makes now an ideal time for HR teams to address cultural issues around time off.
A key focus for HR teams in the coming years will be providing robust support for employees in a new era of work. This will require cultural shifts, but it will also call for new policies and the implementation of flexible benefits that enable diverse employees to pursue their unique professional, personal, and financial goals.
A New Era of Flexible Benefits
The drastic shifts that have taken place in the workforce since the COVID-19 pandemic have revealed that many benefits are too rigid and underused. Over three-quarters of employees say they don’t use all the PTO they have earned—a status quo that leaves some companies with large unfunded liabilities, as many states require the full balance of unused PTO to be paid to employees upon separation. Companies in states that don’t impose this requirement have another problem: their employees are being denied the full value of a core benefit. Either way, it’s clear that static benefits like PTO need to be updated.
Flexible benefit programs such as convertible PTO allow employees to reallocate the value of any unused time off toward other purposes: student loan repayment, retirement contributions, health savings accounts, or even company-wide leave pools that enable employees to support colleagues in need. HR teams must address cultures of overwork in which employees report that the pressure to meet deadlines and the fear of generating backlogs of work deter them from taking time off when they need it. However, many employees say they simply don’t need all their time off, and they should be free to exchange PTO for other benefits.
There are many other types of flexible benefits, such as on-demand pay. Ninety-four percent of hourly workers say immediate access to wages would be helpful, which is yet another reminder that HR teams need to move beyond traditional assumptions about benefits. Seventy percent of employees say benefits customized to meet their needs would make them more loyal to their companies, and this is the sort of data point that HR teams should be focusing on this summer.
Helping Employees Navigate a Changing Workplace
After several years of widespread remote and hybrid work, 83 percent of CEOs say they expect a full return to the office within three years. But this doesn’t change the fact that many of the most dramatic shifts in how employees work are here to stay. Beyond the demand for greater flexibility and autonomy, employees are bracing for the impact of rapidly emerging technology like AI. According to a recent Microsoft survey, two-thirds of company leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone without AI skills.
Although many employees have embraced AI—75 percent of global knowledge workers are using it—there’s also a general sense of fatigue with such dramatic shifts in the nature of work. Sixty-eight percent of people say they struggle with the pace and volume of work, while 46 percent feel burned out. HR teams can make a huge difference by providing employees with professional development resources and education to help them learn about tools like AI. A key component of flexibility is the ability to support employees as they transition to new modes of working.
When companies make investments in their own workforces, they will simultaneously ease the anxiety about AI-caused job displacement and ensure that they have employees who are capable of fully leveraging the most transformative technology in a generation. HR teams should view this summer as a pivotal time in the development of next-generation workforces and workplaces. By giving employees the resources and flexibility they need to navigate a rapidly changing global economy and technological landscape, HR teams will put their companies in a much stronger competitive position for years to come.
Rob Whalen is the co-founder and CEO of BNFT.