By Adam Coleman (opens in new tab)
Earlier this year, we profiled the results of a longitudinal study (opens in new tab) we had conducted with IT Decision Makers (ITDMs) and Business Decision Makers (BDMs) in the US, UK, and AU between April and September of 2020. In June 2021, we met once again with the same group of business leaders to learn how the COVID-19 pandemic has continued to challenge the adaptability and resilience of their organizations in these countries.
Looking backwards since 2020…
The experiences of these business leaders since we met with them last Fall/Autumn continued to be very challenging, but for some were coupled with positive aspects too:
- A consistent ‘mode of work’ for good or bad. Most companies had an employee base that had largely become used to managing the work from home environment, coupled with a stable set of technology platforms to help them do this. By contrast, for several others the past year has continued to be a total rollercoaster ride of having to manage business instability of many different facets. Return to work plans have stalled for much longer than expected, particularly in Australia.
- A shared loss: Some talked about their experience of losing colleagues, friends, and family to Covid-19. Business leaders will need to appreciate this could have an ongoing effect on employees for a long time to come, and in different ways depending on the individual, things will not simply return to “normal”.
- A lack of connection: Many expressed a sense of disconnection from co-workers, driven in large part by the challenge to collaborate effectively, or the lack of focused time to think due to distractions of working from home. In addition, there are genuine concerns over a pending wave of resignations on the horizon if new hybrid work models are implemented without listening to employee perspectives.
- Business and technology growth: Despite the headwinds, many companies have seen an increase in productivity and business performance. Hiring for some has also been particularly strong (though onboarding new team members remotely has had its challenges). The efforts of IT, enabling remote work literally overnight, continue to be recognized and increased in strategic importance over the past year. For some IT Decision Makers that translates to additional staffing, increased budgets, and the acceleration of digital transformation projects.
- Employees more at the center: The continued focus on employees and their wellbeing had in some cases already created positive change in just 18 months. It has shown the need to focus on employees in a way that was simply not considered pre-pandemic.
Looking ahead in 2021…
The next 12 to 18 months will be more challenging than had been expected a year ago:
- From stability to uncertainty: With no clear path forward and a continued impact of COVID-19 on governmental policies, participants expressed a strong unease of jumping back into the unknown. Companies had already been expecting new disruption given plans to return to the office. However, this has been exacerbated by the impact of the new Delta variant creating additional delays which is being felt particularly hard in Australia given their position a year ago. Support for ‘Post Traumatic Growth’ will be key for some employees.
- Attrition: Concerns emerged about policies, or lack of policy clarity, being the root cause of staff attrition. This has led to some companies holding back policy announcements until they are 100% clear on their approach to avoid further resignations.
- Office Relocations: Others were reducing their office footprint or even moving to different locations to accommodate staffing changes.
- Hybrid work: There is now a clear consensus that Hybrid work really will be the future, but with many different flavors. Terms such as ‘Enhanced Flex’ (manager lead), Selective Flex (Monday in office for everyone), and ‘Bi-weekly Rotation’ (different groups switch out days each week) are some of the examples we heard.
Looking to the long-term future for organizations…
When asked to cast their eyes and imagination to the future (five-to-ten-year timeframe), leaders envision ‘a thriving organization’ and describe what that means…. company employees and their needs were consistently front and center in their responses.
- Treating employees as people, not resources: The remote work culture has had a ‘humanizing’ effect on relationships within the workplace which will continue to develop over time in companies that can build positively on this cultural shift.
- Focusing on value and output: This is about trusting employees to get their work done on their own terms and creating a shift from focusing on tasks to driving value; or to put it another way, listening and adapting to the needs of employees and valuing output rather than activity or time being seen as present at the office.
- Optimizing hybrid work: Companies will have honed the right balance by listening to employees and being flexible to change over time to get the right Hybrid work ‘recipe’ for their organization. This will ensure employees can be at their best and want to stay at the firm for longer while delivering even better bottom-line results for the organization.
- Sustainability not just profitability: Employees will want to join and stay at corporations that care as much about employee health, corporate health, and societal responsibility as they do about shareholder value.
In closing, the challenges for senior leaders will be to balance the needs of their business with creating a work culture that is better than it was in February of 2020. The next 12 to 18 months will be a crucial period for individual organizations committed to change to make this transition by listening closely to employees and communicating clearly as they experiment with different ways of working.
What do you think? How have the events of 2020-21 changed your work and workplace? Tweet us your thoughts at @MicrosoftRI or follow us on Facebook (opens in new tab) and join the conversation.
Adam Coleman is an experienced agency and client-side insights leader with a passion for bringing the voice of the customer into business related decision making.