WHAT THE DATA SAY: 44% say it's time for company cultures to evolve with the times

By: Ray Day

CONTACT:

Ray Day
ray.day@stagwellglobal.com 

We wanted to share our latest consumer and business insights, based on research from Stagwell. Among the highlights of our weekly consumer sentiment tracking:

FITTING IN

While most hiring managers want new hires to fit with an existing company culture, many are growing more open to adapting to a more modern era, according to our Harris Poll research with Express Employment Professionals.

• 44% of employees say it’s time for company culture to evolve with the times (59% of women and 49% of men).
• 84% of hiring managers say their organization is open to changing its culture to meet business needs.
• Top reasons for changing company culture include: retaining current employees (42%), boosting morale across the board (41%), attracting more qualified candidates (39%) and broadening their appeal to job seekers in general (32%).

AI ADVANTAGE

As AI becomes increasingly popular in the modern workplace, Gen Z stands out as the top adopters, according to our Harris Poll research with UKG.

• 70% of Gen Z employees say they’ve taught themselves most of the AI tools they use at work (58% of Gen X and 40% of Boomers).
• 49% say their bosses don’t understand the benefits of AI.
• 89% feel AI should be viewed as a tool, not a co-worker.
• AI appropriate tasks include highly repetitive or routine responsibilities (49%), data-intensive duties (42%), time-consuming tasks (38%), tasks that require little judgment, empathy or nuance (35%), and tasks that are often prone to human error (34%).
• 79% believe AI tools could free up time to focus on more important or rewarding parts of their jobs (90% for Gen Z).

SUMMER BLUES

Younger Americans are relying on a variety of mostly online tactics to combat emotional overwhelm, according to our Harris Poll survey with Naropa University.

• 68% of Gen Z agree they often put other people’s emotional needs ahead of their own.
• 61% say they don’t know where to turn when they feel emotionally overwhelmed.
• 63% of Gen Z and Millennials find mental health information on social media (compared with 43% of Gen X and 18% of Boomers).
• Gen Z coping tactics include listening to music (64%), binge watching TV (47%), doomscrolling (29%) and retail therapy (27%).

DELIVERY NOT INCLUDED

Most Americans now prefer to buy big-ticket items in-store rather than risk receiving them via unsafe delivery, based on our Harris Poll research with Position Imaging.

• 70% of Americans buy big items in-store due to delivery concerns.
• 68% of apartment residents would shop more online with secure delivery rooms.
• More than 80% of younger buyers are speeding up purchases to avoid tariffs and shortages.

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