The 6 Faces of the American Worker
Today’s workforce is changing. We’ve talked about the demographic shifts, but that’s not the only thing that’s changing — so are worker attitudes, beliefs, motivations, and approaches. What people want and expect out of work, in addition to how they work, just aren’t the same as they once were.
To better understand those common characteristics among workers, we conducted a segmentation analysis of the latest State of Work & Career Success 2022 survey. Our goal was to classify U.S. workers into groups with distinctive attitudes and beliefs about their careers and the activities they are doing beyond those provided on the job. The analysis included factor and cluster analysis to identify groups of workers who think similarly about their career, as not all workers have the same mindset simply because of demographics such as age or gender.
Our analysis netted six distinct groups:
Entrepreneurial Planners (39% of the workforce) are comparatively successful, forward-thinking workers who strive to get the most out of their careers. They are strong at career planning activities but they also expect their employers to prepare them for career growth. Entrepreneurship is a goal for many of them.
Career Pivoters (18% of the workforce) are less satisfied workers who are actively searching for a career that has meaning for them.They are unhappy with their work culture and struggling to get promoted to the job they want.
Highly Skilled & Collaborative (13% of the workforce) workers are ambitious and goal-oriented, with a drive for learning and working together. They are eager to advance and prioritize skill development both in and outside of their job.
Social Impact Communicators (13% of the workforce) are driven by their personal values and strive to create an impact in their work and career. They’ve been more successful with using their technical skills to perform meaningful work.
Flexible Contributors (9% of the workforce) are independent thinkers with a desire for meaningful work. They value flexibility when it comes to working when and where they want.
Lost and Struggling (8% of the workforce) are dispirited workers who feel stuck and need more experience and company support. They’ve been unsuccessful at mapping out their career plan given their lack of support from a career sponsor or mentor that advocates for them.
We break down each of these profiles in-depth in the full brief, which is now available for download, but I wanted to share a little bit here about what these groups want to achieve, how they’re going about accomplishing that, and their general outlook.
Entrepreneurial Planners
Entrepreneurial Planners participate in career planning activities more often than other segments. In particular, 41% discuss their career with a mentor and over half (53%) network with others in their field every 1-3 months. These activities happen to have a strong positive relationship with career success.
When it comes to career goals, they have been more successful in being promoted, starting a successful business, and having multiple successful careers simultaneously. They are more likely to start gig or creator work in the next year than other workers, so entrepreneurship is a goal for many of them. The mindset of a portfolio career is prevalent, reflecting Gen-Z and Millennial workers’ desires to manage multiple careers simultaneously.
More so than others, they have been successful at creating wealth, staying on track for retirement, leading a fulfilling life, and getting the most out of it.
But Entrepreneurial Planners still expect their employers to prepare them for career growth and do not want to be constrained by formal hierarchies or robust structure. They also feel they need to go beyond their current job and role to get training and access to new opportunities (61% believe this), but are not necessarily looking to gain new skills, and have a desire to make a social impact and expect their employer to provide volunteer opportunities.
Career Pivoters
Career Pivoters perceive themselves to be less successful than average in their work and career. They are more likely to be in the earlier stages of their career, as over half (52%) are under the age of 30, and many are still trying to figure out what they want to do and find that right fit.
Company tenure is one of the shortest of these attitudinal segments, with over a third having been at their company for 2 years or less. But this isn’t just because many of this group are new to the working world — they’re also just not satisfied with their current organizations.
Career pivoters are generally unhappy with their work culture and feel less successful in obtaining and using formal education to aid in their career. They also feel less successful in having a variety of roles throughout their career to gain a greater breadth of skills and knowledge. As a result, they are most likely to be monitoring the job boards to advance their careers, and successfully managing multiple careers simultaneously is an important goal for them.
They are also struggling to get promoted to the job they want and tend to feel like they aren’t doing meaningful work. However, they do feel successful in fully developing and using their skills and being on track for retirement.
Career Pivoters believe in the importance of constantly building up skills outside of their field, which requires going outside of their current work to receive necessary training. Their professional ambition isn’t tied to being part of any company, so they’ll have to change jobs often to advance in their career as quickly as possible. They believe that formal hierarchies and robust structures are too limiting and value collaboration across all levels.
Highly Skilled & Collaborative
Highly Skilled & Collaborative workers feel successful in working in a variety of roles and assignments throughout their career to gain a breadth of experience and have been able to develop the technical and leadership skills needed to advance in their career, although they are also the least likely to have a college degree. They are also strong in learning new techniques, tools, and processes to keep their skills up-to-date, as well as setting specific career goals with plans to achieve them.
Highly Skilled & Collaborative workers want to work in an environment that is collaborative at all levels of the organization, one that has a sense of connection and community. They highly prioritize skill development both in and outside of their job and are less likely to rely on formal education for this. Eager to advance, they believe it is necessary to expand their network inside and outside of work. They expect employers to provide job perks, such as a nice office, as well as volunteer opportunities, and they are less likely to find formal hierarchies and robust structure limiting.
Highly Skilled & Collaborative workers have more success in being able to choose jobs that result in more interesting and meaningful work and are moderately more successful at being able to spend time with their family and focusing on their personal growth.
Social Impact Communicators
Social Impact Communicators are more tenured, college-educated workers who tend to work for nonprofit and government organizations. They are experts in developing communication and problem-solving skills, and rely on these skills in their dealings with clients and customers. They are successful in getting and using formal education but less successful in having a career mentor or sponsor to guide them through their career.
Social Impact Communicators are driven by their morals and expect to make not only direct and meaningful contributions to their organization but also have a social impact in their career. They want their work environment to be collaborative, as well as have an atmosphere of connection and community. In addition, they believe in building a strong network and improving their technical and soft skills. Availability of job benefits, such as healthcare and retirement plans, heavily influences where they choose to work, and formal education is necessary to advance in their career.
Flexible Contributors
Flexible Contributors are successful in developing problem solving skills and advocating for being treated fairly and equitably, but they have less success in using career planning resources like a mentor or someone to advocate for them throughout their career, which likely contributes to higher levels of dissatisfaction with their work.
They are more likely to be independent workers, which may lead to them having more success in achieving flexibility in where and when they work and selecting jobs and assignments they find meaningful. However, they do not consider themselves successful in managing multiple careers at the same time, perhaps because it has not been rewarding financially, preventing them from being on track for retirement.
Flexible Contributors value flexibility when it comes to working when and where they want. Formal education is less important in their field, but they need to continuously build their skills. They are not in a rush to advance in their career and don’t feel the need to switch jobs often.
Lost & Struggling
Lost & Struggling workers feel the least successful of these six segments. They have the longest tenure with their company, over a third having been at the current company for 10+ years and 19% having been there for 20+ years. They are the most likely to work in the largest enterprise companies, with over 24% working in companies sizes of 10K+ employees.
Despite having a high degree of formal education, they do not think they have successfully used their education in their job, and they’ve also been less successful in gaining experience across a wide breadth of industries and in the form of leadership. They have been unsuccessful at mapping out their career plan, but they haven’t received support from a career sponsor or mentor that advocates for them either.
While they have been moderately successful earning a steady income, they have not yet been promoted to a position they desire, created wealth, or kept on track for retirement, and the work they do is not meaningful or interesting to them.
Lost & Struggling workers believe they are valuable to their company because they make meaningful contributions and contribute directly to company objectives. They value flexibility and collaboration in the workplace, and rely on their job to achieve their professional ambition as well as for benefits. Soft skills are critical to succeed in their career. Availability of job benefits has a significant influence on where they choose to work.
Where do we go from here?
So, why conduct this analysis? I believe that if you want to get unstuck and find your fit, it’s important to first understand yourself and what might be limiting you from moving forward in the way you want. As a starting point, identify which segment seems to align with you most to help you get grounded in where you are.
Based on the profile that best describes you, take some time to think about the following:
If I am not happy with where I am, is it because of my environment, my role, my abilities for advancement, or something else?
If I don’t feel fulfilled, does this feel like a result of how successful I am in my career? Does it feel like I’m missing something else?
Are there other people I know that fit those profiles who feel more successful? What can I learn from them and how can I apply that to my own life?
To create the traction you are looking for, remember that having a clear plan around what you are looking to achieve and the people who can help you get there is key. That plan, however, starts by clarifying what you want to achieve, not just professionally but personally, as career and life are integrated.
And if you are a leader within an organization, identify how your workforce stacks up against these different segments (noting that what they need, expect, and are striving for will change). Some questions to think about include:
How do these profiles compare with our internal understanding of worker needs and expectations?
What have we done to help support them personally as well as professionally?
Do our work environments align to one particular segment over another and why?
How have our approaches changed to meet the needs of the new worker? Are the policies, processes, and development opportunities in line with what they want? Does what we have even work?
Are we truly giving employees opportunities for advancement or is there a disconnect between what we believe and what employees believe?
Are we constantly challenging our workforce and giving them breadth of opportunities and not just depth?
Just like your current and potential customers aren’t all the same, neither are your people. Depending on their age, lifestage, career goals, and life goals, what they want and need will inevitably be different. So your solutions will need to vary and evolve — a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work.
Bridging the gap between people and company performance requires collecting and analyzing information about your workforce beyond the perks and benefits you deliver. And that should include those that currently have a relationship with you as well as those you want to attract. Determining the best approach will have to be an iterative one.
Understanding the landscape of your workforce is more than just harnessing data on their demographics and work environments. Their attitudes, aspirations, and preferences matter. These are people, not just workers, and engaging their whole self at work necessitates linking the broader set of factors that enable you to create a work environment that is flexible, adaptive, and human-centered.
To download the brief with additional findings from the study, and for more information on the annual research report I conducted on what workers want, please visit www.conniewsteele.com/research.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn as part of Connie Steele’s monthly newsletter, The Human Side of Work. You can find the original article and subscribe to the newsletter at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/6-faces-american-worker-connie-wang-steele.