Life Trends 2023 x Accenture

Accenture’s annual Fjord Trends are often heralded as the gold standard in trends reports, with their thought-provoking and insightful observations on work and life, and the factors that impact them, being referenced in many a trends presentation.

In their 2023 Life Trends report, Accenture covers a plethora of factors making life difficult for society. This “permacrisis” means people are continually needing to adapt at a quicker rate than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic, continued economic and political instability, climate change and technological disruption are forcing people to constantly pivot and adjust.

Some notable highlights from the report that employers, leaders, managers and talent acquisition teams may want to take note of include:

• People will increasingly raise their voice against injustice – in some cases, at the risk of significant personal cost. “Some of these situations will catch employers by surprise, disrupt their business and economies even further.” We’ve seen that in many countries recently: protests, strikes, lobbying, social ‘hacktivism’, ‘quiet quitting’, and employees sharing their experiences on social channels.

• Continued challenges with how leaders will solve the RTO-hybrid working conundrum to meet the sometimes-conflicting and fragmented needs and desires of employees. Leaders need to decide which approach will serve their business and their employees best. It’s not about just where people work – it’s how they work, and the value exchange between employer and employee beyond pay. In some cases, leaders will need to make clear that what employees want may, in fact, be detrimental to their own experience of work. It’ll be a hard sell, but an important one. The report highlights the challenging dichotomy that leaders face in balancing the cultural and business benefits of having people together in the office, with the need for individualized flexibility, primarily around where and when we work. Some of this is driven by desire (e.g., for better work-life balance, cost savings achieved from reduced commuting), but much of it is driven by necessity (e.g., challenges with childcare or caring for the sick). A lack of commuting and being “out and about” beyond one’s immediate vicinity could hamper innovation through lack of diverse inspiration.

• Impact of the creator economy. A continued increase in the platforms and tools to enable and empower the creator economy to monetize their value could see traditional talent pools shrink as employers compete for talent – not simply with other employers, but with other ways of making money beyond conventional jobs.

Download the Life Trends 2023 report by Accenture