TRENDS 2020 The Culture Shift What trends have paved the way for this renewed focus on culture realize that their employees are their most important asset, not JOB & HIRING among executives? Even a decade ago, employee culture was the buildings or software that mattered most in the 20th Century viewed by CEOs as fluffy, hard to measure, and a nice-to-have. economy. Meanwhile, as a Glassdoor survey recently confirmed, But three fundamental trends have elevated the importance of workers increasingly prioritize company culture over cash. That employee sentiment throughout the economy in recent years: has made employee culture a non-negotiable core business issue; GLASSDOOR'S • First, online workplace transparency has become an accepted • Finally, an expansive collection of academic and private sector norm among job seekers. That has dramatically changed job research in the past decade has revealed the real-world business seeker behavior and companies’ ability to attract the talent impact of strong workplace culture. Employee culture has been they need. Candidates are investing more time and energy demonstrably linked to better financial performance, innovation, researching company culture before accepting jobs, and talent attraction, ethical workplace behavior, customer that has created a dynamic in which employers with strong satisfaction and more. While a decade ago there were few workplace cultures are enjoying a powerful strategic hiring studies able to draw this data-driven conclusion, today there are advantage; hundreds — an overwhelming intellectual shift that has changed the minds of CEOs about the deep impact of workplace culture • Second, jobs in every industry have continued to shift toward on businesses. knowledge-based work over the past decade — jobs where workers are highly differentiated, and where the motivation We believe these trends position 2020 to usher in a culture-first and knowledge of one individual worker can have a huge decade for employers — not just in tech and professional services but impact on a business. This shift is happening even in non-tech economy-wide, as growing numbers of companies come to rely on fields like health care, transportation, and manufacturing. the individual knowledge and creativity of their people as their core Businesses, especially high-performing ones, increasingly business asset. 10