Emergent Patterns In The World of Work

To better understand how people think and feel about the work they do every day and their sense of identity as it relates to work, ADP sponsored in-depth field research to learn directly from workers themselves.

With research partner Shelley Sather, a report based on in-depth conversations with working people was developed. The insights gleaned from these engagements are for anyone interested in a deeper understanding of the social and cultural forces shaping workers, work, and livelihoods. They are intended as the first in a series of studies with a focus on workers needs, expectations, and hopes rather than those of employees and employers (particular types of agents defined by their inter-relationship) which has been most commonly the case.

Challenge

The world of work is rapidly evolving. How people work, where they work, why they work, when they work and what they believe about work are questions with many different and dynamic meanings. Over the past several years, people have reflected deeply on the role of workin their lives within the shadow of social unrest and a global health crisis.

We know people have been unequally impacted. We know that many continued to go to a physical place of work with all the risks and anxieties this produced, while others were able to experience the benefits and burdens of working remotely. Hybrid work is now a buzzword, but also a reality that applies to some and not others.

What do we know about the ways workers navigate and reflect upon “the world of work?”

Solution

Based on conversations with a diverse range of people, each of whom has graciously shared how they think and feel about work in their lives, we've identified four territories we believe are worth mapping. It is our hope that the following provides you with new perspectives on an age-old topic.

It was obvious to those we spoke with that people have different opportunities depending on where they're from, what they look like, how much education they have and other factors," Bird says. "While meritocracy is a popular concept, especially as a rallying cry for working harder, it tends to overlook that simply 'pulling yourself up by the bootstraps' and 'working harder' don't happen on even or neutral ground.

My Research Process

01. Fieldwork

Recruitment

Our participant collaborators were recruited using both online classifieds and a dedicated research platform connecting researchers with business professionals across industries.

Our 24 participants represent a range of ages, occupations, ethnicities and genders.

All reside in the U.S. All are currently working.

Research

Fieldwork consisted of three-to-four-hour in-depth video-recorded interviews exploring how people think and feel about work. Just under half were conducted in person across four U.S. geographies, with the remainder taking place through video conferencing (due primarily to Covid concerns).

As is consistent with our anthropologically informed qualitative research methodology, we focused on developing questions intended to encourage spontaneous and open conversation and the sharing of stories.

02. Analysis

• Multiple workshops consisting of affinity mapping and data sorting exercises at regular intervals held over the three-month period of active research

• Team review of 90-plus hours of research video in combination with coding, pattern mapping, and down-selection to surface the themes with the strongest signal. This work was supported by the Temi transcription platform.

• Third-party literature review and trends monitoring are ongoing

03. Reporting

Both the form of research (ethnographic informed by social theory), the practices associated with it (participant observation, interpretation, induction), and the deliverable (100 pages of reportage and storytelling) where completely new to those in my internal partner network. I was tasked with both socializing the approach and the outputs. For instance, reevaluating the content used in NDA's which although sufficient for marketing testimonials were not appropriate for our respondents with whom we hoped to build rapport.

A desire for the photos of the actual participants (and/or stock photos) to be used in a public facing document was also an area where I needed to step in and explain why this wasn't a sound approach.

Ultimately, people came to understand that this research, the insights, and mode of presentation should not be compared with the other types of marketing-driven collateral for which they were more familiar.

04. Impacts

Many internal partners shared that the project gave them a new found appreciation for the value of learning about the everyday lived experiences of others; the people behind the statistics. There was widespread optimism that with continued executive sponsorship more research of this kind would be included in future operating budgeting.

The report and related articles and webinars on The Worker Identity Research Collaboration findings (WIRC) enjoys a dedicated public facing homepage https://info.adp.com/whywework which was submitted to Content Marketing Institute for an award for the best purpose-driven marketing campaign in 2023. The metrics from social media as well as feedback from associates and clients have been very favorable.

05. Learning/s

Introducing new ways of thinking and doing into more traditional settings can be both challenging and time consuming. Because of this It was important for me to take the time to build internal cross functional alliances, identify executive supporters and share why I felt this type of research matters. It was encouraging to discover are real appetite for this type of research both inside and outside of the organization.

While I leveraged quantitative data as secondary signals to what I had been learning in the field, it was clear to me that it is difficult to shift expectations away from the data shown on graphs and through trend lines. In future projects of this kind, I will be more intentional around how I surface the quantitative data in the surface of the qualitative.