Are employers failing to utilize the power of the office?

“This is compared to 46% of the 45–54 age bracket and 27% of the 55 and over demographic,” said the report.

The survey showed that younger workers have shifted to a flexible working set-up. Perhaps office leaders should shift their focus from the physical work space to something that might make the younger cohort more satisfied with their jobs.

“This generation want, first and foremost, the flexibility [and] they want to have a great and meaningful work experience, so that means a great career progression, where they will learn a lot and then they will grow professionally a lot,” said Maggie Da Prato, HR leader and business partner at Dialectica, an information services company in Montreal that specializes in providing market knowledge to companies.

“They want to see that fast-track career progression. For them, it’s all about the meaning of that experience. If you just have something transactional, and you say, ‘You will you be doing that, and that’s the schedule, and that will be your paycheque,’ most of them won’t want to join,” she said.

This way of engaging workers must begin early on, said Da Prato. “We need to engage them from the very first contact we have with them. When we were talking 20 years ago, [it was] about ‘Let’s offer XYZ to employees’; now, it’s all about the employee experience, so making sure that we engage them from the get-go with a great package from a total compensation standpoint, but as well, learning opportunities, the experience, wellbeing, the flexibility, and of course, a great and vibrant culture.”