Two in five employees would rather have variety in their day-to-day job than take a promotion, according to O.C Tanner’s annual Global Culture report.
The poll of more than 14,000 employees from 12 different countries revealed that employees want to work on special projects as part of their desire to have variety in their working lives.
The highest percentage of employees wanting variety in their day-to-day job over a promotion were Generation Z at 52%, closely followed by Millennials at 45%.
Half of the respondents have worked on a special project at work and out of those: three in four agreed that special projects help them grow in ways their day-to-day job cannot and near three in four say that working on a special project allowed them to connect with people they would not have normally met.
The research found that employees who are able to participate in special projects are 50% more likely to believe they learn new and valuable things in their current role and there’s a 20% increase in overall job satisfaction.
There were several positive impacts to an employee participating in a special project, according to the research. Employees were 50% more likely to believe they learn new and valuable things in their current role and 26% of employees feel they have an increased sense of opportunity. More than three-quarters of the employees who participated in a special project were more likely to believe their job is preparing them for their future career.
There are mutual benefits for both the employee and employer when it comes to participating in special projects, remarks Alexander Lovell, manager of research and assessment at O.C Tanner.
From an employee perspective, it allows employees to move beyond their day-to-day work. This type of variety, as well as a chance to work on projects that have higher visibility and importance, engenders a sense of opportunity that is important to employees. From an organizational perspective, special projects help innovative work get done. In a world of resource constraints, organizations need talented employees more than ever. The one caveat here is that employees should not be given special projects simply as a way to have work done.”
One in three respondents think that only the favorite employees have the chance to work on a special project, according to the research. This perceived bias towards employees could be addressed by employers being more transparent in communication, advised Lovell.
In our research, we often found that these special project opportunities were often assigned in secret and not talked about in larger groups, leaving the employee participating responsibility for talking about the new project and other employees free to create the narrative surrounding that assignment. Openly talking about why a certain employee is working on a project can be great; leaders should encourage employees as part of their one-to-ones and team meetings to seek out possible avenues and projects for their own development.”
The top three functions that had the option to work on special projects outside of their day-to-day responsibilities were IT (61%), HR (57%) and executive/general administration (56%).
