Businesspeople working at office with glass partition dividing them
As the pandemic enters its second year, a new survey found 66% of employees in the U.S. are worried about their health and safety when it comes to returning to the workplace. More than 60% support mandatory vaccine requirements at work and fear employers may relax Covid measures too soon.
These were among the major findings of the Envoy Return to the Workplace Report that was conducted by independent research firm Wakefield Research. More than 1,000 U.S. adults ages 18+, employed full- or part-time, were surveyed through an online survey between February 8 and February 16. The overall margin of error for the findings is ±3.1% at a 95% confidence level.
Latest In Series Of Surveys
This is the latest in a series of recent surveys that gauged the interests, desires, and concerns of employees in returning to the workplace during the pandemic. Last week I reported on a national survey that found 85% of U.S. workers are looking forward to returning to the office and 61% want employers to strictly enforce Covid-19 workplace regulations. A sizable minority — 26% — said employees who violate Covid-safety rules should be demoted or fired.
In October, another survey for Envoy found that 73% of Americans were afraid of putting their personal health and safety at risk by returning to the workplace, with 75% saying they would consider quitting their jobs if the Covid-19 prevention measures by employers were inadequate or inappropriate.
Sending A Message To Business Leaders
Larry Gadea, founder and CEO of workplace platform Envoy, said, “One of the most surprising findings from our survey is that nearly half of employees say they would likely leave their job if it didn’t offer a hybrid work model post-pandemic. This sentiment sends an incredibly important message to business leaders in that for the first time, employees are expecting significant changes from the workplace when they return.
“They want to be sure the workplace provides more value, offers more flexibility in where and when people get their work done, fosters more community and social connection and, of course, ensures improved health and safety. The pandemic has shown that many employees are perfectly happy and productive working from home. The data reveals that the workplace needs to prove itself to employees, or companies risk losing their best workers. The time to address this is now,” Gadea said.
More Than One Way To Run A Business
Matthew Crayne is an assistant professor of management at the University at Albany’s Massry Center for Business. He observed that, “The pandemic has, in many ways, pushed forward an inevitable transition to more flexible work environments.
“For years research on remote work and hybrid work models have shown that the traditional in-person, five-day work week is not the only way to operate a business effectively. Additionally, research on job applicants and employee satisfaction have consistently demonstrated that people are willing to trade higher compensation for more flexibility and control in their work lives,” said.
A Standard Premise
Crayne said, “Some firms recognized this and have used telework or flexible scheduling as strategies to attract and retain employees for years, but very few have made those models the core of their operations. Although the arguments have taken different forms over the years, a standard premise across many industries has been that hybrid work models would be unmanageable from a logistical perspective.
Trying To Stay Afloat
“The adaptations many industries had to make to stay afloat during the pandemic has pulled back the curtain on this—it would be much more difficult to argue that you can’t have a hybrid work arrangement in the future when you have already established and tested the infrastructure to do so in the present. Now that such significant numbers of workers have been exposed to the hybrid work approach, it is unsurprising that this is something they will expect of employers moving forward rather than viewing it as a novelty or an uncommon benefit,” he said.
Nuanced Approach Needed
Crayne noted that, “The flip side of this is that flexible work and hybrid models are only most useful for employee satisfaction and productivity when they are optional. Research on flexwork has shown that flexible arrangements are highly productive both for employees and firms when employees are given the choice to opt in or opt out of that model.
“When hybrid arrangements are forced onto everyone, however, you can run into serious problems. Some individuals are not willing or able to productively work from home for a variety of personal, social, or health reasons, so organizations have to be nuanced in their approach to this post-pandemic hybrid work world,” he concluded.
