Jobs and the Future of Work

Attitudes to work are changing. Here's how employers can respond to attract the best talent

Office worker meditating on the floor, rear view; workplace culture

People's expectations about work are changing and workplace culture needs to reflect this shift. Image: iStockphoto/DragonImages

Sander van 't Noordende
CEO, Randstad
This article is part of: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting
  • How people think about work and the workplace is changing in the Intelligent Age, according to Randstad’s Workmonitor 2025 report.
  • To attract the best talent, businesses must adapt workplace culture to meet changing expectations around personalization, community and learning.
  • This means investing in workplaces where people feel empowered to thrive, innovate and contribute to solving pressing challenges.

As we begin 2025, the world of work stands at a pivotal crossroads. Talent scarcity continues to challenge efforts to address critical global challenges, such as sustainability issues and how we embrace technological innovation.

The solution lies in empowering people.

To meet the demands of this new era – the Intelligent Age – businesses must invest to create work environments that foster trust, equity and connection. This starts with a better understanding of what people want from work.

Have you read?

For 22 years, Randstad's flagship thought leadership report, Workmonitor, has captured the evolving priorities of workers across the globe. The 2025 edition of Workmonitor, which gathers insights from more than 26,000 people in 35 markets, reveals a clear shift: While markets have faced macroeconomic headwinds and are beginning to acclimate, people continue to have multifaceted expectations about work. This is reshaping the foundation of workplace culture and strategy.

Understanding people’s relationship with work means recognizing that their focus has shifted away from what is done at work. Instead, it’s now about why work is done, how it takes place and who it’s done with.

At the heart of this transformation lies a new baseline for how people see work, which has three pillars:

  • Personalization: Work that aligns with individual values, ambitions and life circumstances
  • Community: A workplace culture that fosters belonging, growth and thriving relationships
  • Future-ready skilling: Opportunities to build and sustain relevant skillsets for tomorrow’s challenges

This new baseline offers businesses an opportunity to attract and retain talent. Success requires a commitment to fostering environments where people feel valued, empowered and prepared for the future.

Year after year, our research shows these trends becoming more pronounced. For instance, barely half of people reported an acceptable level of flexibility in their roles in 2021, compared to more than 60% in 2024.

In this Intelligent Age, where new technologies are rapidly transforming jobs, trust is the most vital component for success. Employers who prioritize personalized benefits, actively support career progression and demonstrate genuine care for their workforce’s wellbeing will be best positioned to thrive in this dynamic landscape.

Motivating people at work

Traditional motivators like pay are becoming less important to people. Work-life balance continues to nudge past pay as a key motivator, with 83% of workers identifying it as essential in our research, compared with 82% for pay. Among Generation Z (people born between 1997 and 2012), this gap widens further, reflecting their strong preference for roles that accommodate their personal aspirations.

Further, our research shows that more than a quarter (27%) of people have quit a job because they didn't feel comfortable expressing themselves – this has jumped from 16% in 2024.

More people say they have quit a job because they didn't feel comfortable sharing their viewpoints at work in 2025 versus 2024.
A growing percentage of people have quit a job because they didn't feel comfortable sharing their viewpoints at work. Image: Randstad

The importance of personalization is also clear: 44% of talent say they would quit a job if they disagreed with leadership’s values – an 11-point increase from last year. Further, 42% would leave a job if their employer failed to support their career ambitions.

For employers, getting personalization right will define success in attracting and retaining top talent.

Fostering a sense of community

Beyond personalization, our findings show that people want their workplaces to be genuine communities where they can thrive and belong. Our data shows 44% of workers have quit a job because of a toxic workplace.

Looking forward, 83% of respondents want their workplace to provide a sense of community. More than a third are willing to trade higher pay for stronger friendships (36%) or social enrichment (37%) at work.

8 in 10 people perform better with a sense of community at work.
Research shows people perform better if there is a sense of community in their workplace. Image: Randstad

This emphasis on connection can be beneficial for people and for business performance. A strong sense of community boosts workplace productivity and supports mental health and wellbeing, according to the data.

Failure to foster this sense of belonging has significant costs: 55% of workers say they would quit if they didn’t feel they belonged in the workplace – an 18-point jump from last year’s results.

Gaining opportunities through upskilling

Given the exceptional pace with which technology is developing and the impacts this has across industries, the ability to future-proof skills is critical.

The Workmonitor 2025 report reveals that 40% of employees would quit if their employer failed to offer upskilling opportunities, particularly in emerging areas like artificial intelligence (AI). This is a tremendous jump from 29% last year. While employers are making some strides in this area – 64% of respondents report receiving training to future-proof their skills, up from 52% in 2023 – there is still room for growth.

It’s promising to see that employees are taking more responsibility to keep pace with technological advancements themselves (35%) rather than relying on their employer (25%) for digital skills training. Even so, training and upskilling are still seen as primarily the employer’s responsibility by more than a third of talent (39%), while just a quarter acknowledge it as their own.

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Building trust-focused workplace culture

Trust is a central theme throughout Workmonitor 2025, spanning all three pillars of the new baseline.

More than half of people surveyed (56%) would trust their employer more if they provided more personalized benefits, such as flexible working hours, for example. But 49% trust their employer to create a workplace culture where all colleagues can thrive.

When it comes to reskilling and upskilling, less than half (44%) currently trust their employer to invest in and provide opportunities for continuous learning, particularly in AI and technology. However, more than half (58%) of organizations say that, although they'd like to, they're unsure of how to provide this kind of reskilling anyway.

Randstad gap analysis on learning opportunities: 44% of people trust their employer to provide continuous learning opportunities.
Many employees are trusting their employers to provide continous learning opportunities but employers often don't know how. Image: Randstad

It’s clear that there is an enormous opportunity for businesses to gain the trust of their employees and enhance motivation by fostering an inclusive, collaborative and flexible culture. In such a workplace, lifelong learning is not only encouraged but integrated into daily work life. To do this, employers will need to overcome some of their own hurdles, including ensuring the provision of equitable and future-facing talent development.

If businesses can make the leap and adapt to growing expectations around personalization, community and lifelong learning, they can build workplaces where people feel empowered to thrive, innovate and contribute to solving the world’s most pressing challenges.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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