Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Well, recently, at
Speaker 1: our Bloomberg Live Work Shifting two point o event that
Speaker 1: Tim and I participated in, there was someone else there.
Speaker 1: Jared's Pitaro. He's corporate VP of Microsoft and Modern Work.
Speaker 1: He provided an update on what they're seeing when it
Speaker 1: comes to how the world is working post pandemic, and
Speaker 1: we've reached out to him several times over the last
Speaker 1: couple of years to figure out what's going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've got some great data. The reports surveyed thirty one
Speaker 1: people in thirty one different countries. It just came out
Speaker 1: a few days ago. Uh. The question is, you know,
Speaker 1: how can we make remote work or hybrid work work
Speaker 1: across different sectors and across different regions. Jared's Pittaro is,
Speaker 1: as Carol mentioned, corporate vice president from Microsoft three sixty five.
Speaker 1: He joins us now. Jared, good to talk with you again.
Speaker 1: Great expectations. Making hybrid work work is the subject of
Speaker 1: your report. What did you learn after surveying thirty people? Well,
Speaker 1: great to be here with you. You know, the big
Speaker 1: takeaway for us is that we're just not the same
Speaker 1: people who went home to work in our expectations about
Speaker 1: what work is, what role plays in our lives, and
Speaker 1: kind of what we're willing to give up for our
Speaker 1: professions and careers has really changed over the last twenty
Speaker 1: four months. I think that was one of the most
Speaker 1: surprising things for me is I looked at the data. Well,
Speaker 1: it's interesting, you know, we're we're finding out to what
Speaker 1: really matters too workers, right, And I think for such
Speaker 1: a long time in our world, Jarred, it was all
Speaker 1: about money and making as much money as you can.
Speaker 1: We know that that's certainly not the case anymore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. We asked employees, so again, thirty one people
Speaker 1: across thirty one country, so a really nice swath of
Speaker 1: people across the planet, trying to get a sense for
Speaker 1: how their priorities have changed. We asked them, he besides pay,
Speaker 1: what is important to you? Here's what they told us.
Speaker 1: Number one was a positive culture, Number two well being,
Speaker 1: three a sense of purpose and meaning, and four flexible hours.
Speaker 1: So you can see there that there's been quite a shift.
Speaker 1: We also asked them kind of if they changed in
Speaker 1: their attitude towards work of the people we surveyed said
Speaker 1: that they're more likely to prioritize their health and well
Speaker 1: being now overwork when compared to before the pandemic. So
Speaker 1: some big shifts in the mindset. Okay, Jared, So we
Speaker 1: know what you gathered with the survey, We know the takeaways.
Speaker 1: What about the takeaways for managers for companies here, what
Speaker 1: do they need to do in order to make sure
Speaker 1: that in this incredibly tight labor market they're tracking and
Speaker 1: retaining talent. Yeah. One of the things that surprised me
Speaker 1: the most was really the friction that we have set
Speaker 1: up between employees and their managers. Are leaders in particular,
Speaker 1: we found that even though employees want this flexibility that
Speaker 1: we talked about, they're very focused on well being. Over
Speaker 1: fifty percent of leaders told us that they're planning to
Speaker 1: go back into the office five days a week, full time,
Speaker 1: no flexibility. So there is this sense that we're going
Speaker 1: to be set up for a little bit of a showdown.
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, and again, if you're a manager,
Speaker 1: want to think about you know, what to do. We
Speaker 1: think it's important to just understand that minds at Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. I think there is a little bit of
Speaker 1: a shield down coming here over the next few months
Speaker 1: as we all work this out. Well, So, how do
Speaker 1: leaders kind of make it worth it to a worker
Speaker 1: who says, listen, I can work at home such as
Speaker 1: you know, as easily I can be as productive. How
Speaker 1: do leaders and companies make it worth it to say, Nope,
Speaker 1: get on the train and get in your car, come
Speaker 1: to the office. Yeah, I think that is the big question.
Speaker 1: You know, we have people who are already working hybrid,
Speaker 1: so they sometimes have gone into the office. Those people
Speaker 1: have told us, in fact, the largest percentage of them
Speaker 1: told us, Hey, I'm thinking about stopping the hybrid thing
Speaker 1: going into the office. I think I'll just be remote.
Speaker 1: And we asked them why is that the case? And
Speaker 1: what they've said, Carol is while go into the office
Speaker 1: and I sit down, and I'm on a team's meeting,
Speaker 1: and I'm you know, working through zoom with all the
Speaker 1: people that I know, but they're not here physically, and
Speaker 1: so there's there's really a need for managers and leaders
Speaker 1: to start to think differently about the office, the physical
Speaker 1: space and help people understand why they would come back together.
Speaker 1: And the big finding from the report is social capital
Speaker 1: or these connect shoes. We create one more in person
Speaker 1: matter a lot, and they actually really are formed best
Speaker 1: when you're in person. So we don't think that all hyper,
Speaker 1: they're all remote, were all in person. We think a
Speaker 1: combination is important. Jared, a very wise individual said to me,
Speaker 1: what's interesting is that? And I think this was Frank
Speaker 1: Kassudis at Cisco and said that coming into the office
Speaker 1: was more important for men because so much of their
Speaker 1: social network was the case and forgive me, friend, if
Speaker 1: it wasn't you, it might have been somebody else at
Speaker 1: work shifting, and that for women that we tend to
Speaker 1: have a pretty vast social network outside of the office.
Speaker 1: And that's why there's still a lot of men running
Speaker 1: companies who are like, get to the office. Why can't
Speaker 1: we be in the office. I'm curious your thoughts on that,
Speaker 1: or if any of your data shows any inside on that. Well,
Speaker 1: we did show that friendships at the office are important
Speaker 1: and that they're impacted when you're not physically there, so
Speaker 1: that that much is true. I can't comment on the
Speaker 1: men women's but I can also they'll comment on something
Speaker 1: that jumped out at me, and that's how people felt
Speaker 1: about their productivity. Eight percent of the people that we
Speaker 1: survey said that they've been as productive or even more
Speaker 1: productive at home. But over fift those managers that we
Speaker 1: servey said no, not so fast. We don't think so.
Speaker 1: We think there's been a drop in productivity. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot going on. I think it's friendships. Like you're saying,
Speaker 1: the social aspect. I also think it's kind of a
Speaker 1: hard nosed looked at productivity, and leaders are are a
Speaker 1: bit worried about that. Hey, Jared, I want to go
Speaker 1: back to what you said about these about the social
Speaker 1: capital here and how that looks in a hybrid world.
Speaker 1: How do you create those connections physically if let's say
Speaker 1: people are required to come in three days a week,
Speaker 1: but they're not coming in on the same team those
Speaker 1: three days. Yeah, this has been the really big question
Speaker 1: for these folks who are starting to experiment. What we
Speaker 1: found is that things like team agreements, they're quite simple,
Speaker 1: but can make a big difference. I know on my
Speaker 1: team is a simple example. We have what we call
Speaker 1: team Thursdays and parts of the team, so they're just saying, Hey,
Speaker 1: on Thursdays, why don't we get together. I'll be there.
Speaker 1: You can count on me being being there in the
Speaker 1: office if you show up, and that's a bit of
Speaker 1: a draw for people because the last thing that you
Speaker 1: want is to show up and John and Sally aren't
Speaker 1: there when you're when you've been expecting them. All right,
Speaker 1: So I have a question for you, Jared, and I
Speaker 1: keep wondering. It's a really tight labor market, and you
Speaker 1: ask any leader of an institution or CEO of a
Speaker 1: company that one of the things that's always on their
Speaker 1: minds is making sure they have enough access to talent
Speaker 1: getting the workers that they need right now. That's that's
Speaker 1: what's potentially holding them back. If, if anything, so, what
Speaker 1: happens in a looser labor market? Does all of this
Speaker 1: go away? And companies are like, you want a job,
Speaker 1: you've got to be in the office. And I don't
Speaker 1: mean when do we get to that looser labor market?
Speaker 1: But everything is a cycle, right, So I'm just wondering,
Speaker 1: if that happens, is it like all of this that
Speaker 1: we've been talking about goes away? You know? That is
Speaker 1: probably the single most frequently asked questions that I get
Speaker 1: from business leader CEOs on down. And what I would
Speaker 1: say is this, if if if we have been experiencing
Speaker 1: this for three months, maybe six months, it would have
Speaker 1: been something that we all kind of just waited our
Speaker 1: way through. At this point, what we're seeing, and that's
Speaker 1: the big finding of the report, is that people's mindset
Speaker 1: have changed. In fact, even deeper, their values have age.
Speaker 1: As a simple example, fifty two percent of gen Z
Speaker 1: and millennials told us that if they don't get the
Speaker 1: flexibility they're looking for, they will leave and go find
Speaker 1: it elsewhere. And that's not a statement about, you know,
Speaker 1: what a tough labor So we think that employers who
Speaker 1: are smart are just going to realize, oh, we should
Speaker 1: think of this as part of the deal we can
Speaker 1: offer to create a differentiated employee experience. As you think
Speaker 1: about it that way, I think it's less about the
Speaker 1: labor market type we're not much more about how you're
Speaker 1: attracting talent. I love that you guys found that meetings
Speaker 1: now start later on Mondays and finish earlier on Fridays.
Speaker 1: There are fewer meetings at lunch time. To note, eleven
Speaker 1: am is the most used meeting time. Two to three
Speaker 1: pm is rising in popularity. Right, yeah, me too. It's okay,
Speaker 1: I'm okay with it. All right, Jared, thank you so
Speaker 1: much there for hanging around for us today. We really
Speaker 1: appreciate Jared's Pitaro. He's corporate VP over at Microsoft. Through
Speaker 1: via zoom from Redmond, Washington. What do you think do
Speaker 1: like I wonder in a tighter labor market? Absolutely, you
Speaker 1: know it's not gonna it's gonna change a little bit.
Speaker 1: It has to write. Yeah, unless it's just so hard
Speaker 1: to imagine a tighter labor market, unless you already place
Speaker 1: right and it's just entrenched to the system. All Right,
Speaker 1: we're almost there, bebe almost almost a Friday, alright, everybody,
Speaker 1: have a good and safe evening. This is business week.