The advent of cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality, along with remote work scenarios, are changing traditional work boundaries. Deloitte Insight’s 2024 Global Human Capital Trends research sees the human factor as a bridge between knowing the changes shaping the workplace’s future and doing something to create a positive outcome in a new era.

Responses from 14,000 people in 95 countries reveal that empathy and curiosity become important in a boundaryless work environment. The structures, processes and systems previously used to make employees better at work have been swapped for means to make work better for employees in recent years.

However, most workers report that their well-being did not improve this year and may even have gotten worse. Stress remains high, since 40% of workers in 2018 reported its negative impacts on productivity, health and family stability. It often leads to burnout; 48% of workers and 53% of managers say they are burned out at work, and nearly half of millennial and Gen Z workers report feeling stressed all or most of the time. This, in turn, leads to “quiet quitting” (also known as “work to rule”), which the 2023 Gallup State of the Global Workplace study says 59% of the global workforce does.

Although workers in the electrical industry rank their job satisfaction as high, employee engagement is just as important in electrical contracting as in other sectors. Nevertheless, according to Forbes, focusing on satisfaction alone is doing more damage than good because it leads to complacency at the cost of innovation and productivity. Engaged employees exercise creativity and passion that fuels long-term success. Unfortunately, employee engagement reached its lowest point in a decade this year; only 30% of U.S. workers report being engaged and 17% classify themselves as actively disengaged.

One failure the Deloitte study discovered is relying on employee engagement and satisfaction to gauge the relationship between employee and company. A related failure the study uncovered is “productivity paranoia.” Fear that remote workers aren’t productive has risen to 85%.

Instead, it determined that trust is the measurement indicating how far employees are willing to go to help their company, whether or not it benefits them. Furthermore, rather than relying on employee satisfaction, companies should be looking to psychological resilience and collective purpose.

Spotlighting employee development, aligning personal goals with organizational objectives and fostering a sense of belonging are the new standards for successful businesses. The future relies on creating an environment where employees feel comfortable taking risks and pushing boundaries—and where they feel like they belong.

To reach that goal, companies should cease “glossing”—creating an environment of toxic positivity that ignores problems and fails to address issues. Today’s employees want transparency in order to achieve that sense of collective purpose.

Moving beyond employee engagement to measure human sustainability (the degree to which the organization creates value for people as human beings) creates loyal, resilient, innovative, purpose-driven employees who in turn boost a business’ bottom line.