“In the boardroom: current boardroom thinking and workforce alignement” (an Eversheeds Sutherland report)

During August 2021, the Firm interviewed board members, senior executives and younger employees (aged 25-40) from over 2000 of the world’s leading companies.
The final report explains the current thinking of board members and senior managers and checks its alignment with the thinking of their workforce.

The aim of the conducted survey was to see how individuals at all levels viewed their company’s current strategies, culture and purpose, their priority and proposals for changes, as well as their expectations..

The first and most important outcome is that senior management and employees have a common vision, with a close alignment between members of the Board, management, and other employees, as well as across age groups.

This alignment is also found in reference to shared values and visions: 87 per cent of the surveyed see their own values aligned closely or very closely to their company’s declared vision and 68 per cent feel valued and respected at work.

It is interesting to underline that 90 per cent of those surveyed see the focus of their company shifting beyond just profit, and 76 per cent would forgo 5 per cent of salary or payrise if that money was used by their company for a good cause.

The respondents considered the following top three priorities post-pandemic: corporate growth, refocus on core areas and Diversity & Inclusion, as well as environmental issues.

The second part of the analysis focuses on workforce priorities: 43 per cent of those surveyed reported that their people-related priorities are professional skills development and training and career development, while financial priorities are holiday entitlement (20%), salary (19%) and financial bonus/incentive schemes (19%).

The report also includes some suggestions for boards for the future, such as:

- Develop strong people strategies to support recruitment and employee retention;

- When formulating reward strategies, take account of factors other than salary that are meaningful to the workforce, including clear frameworks for career progression.

- Ensure that employee engagement and communication is prioritised to build trust and loyalty;

- Develop and implement environmental programmes and decarbonisation policies that are appropriate for the company and are measurable.

- Continue to focus on non-financial matters and the wider stakeholder base.