Getting back to the workplace

Missing your office? For most of us, it has been more than two months of working from our homes. Face-to-face interactions and friendly chats with colleagues is what I miss the most, and I’m sure that’s the case for many of you. 

But assume for a moment you’re allowed to or asked to work out of your office starting tomorrow. What would your first reaction be? And how comfortable would you be in sharing a workspace with several others?

With businesses slowly reopening, LinkedIn reached out to members in India to gather their thoughts about returning to the workplace through its latest Workforce Confidence Index. In addition to the usual questions about how people feel about jobs, finances, and career, our latest wave of the survey - based on 1,351 responses in the country between June 1-14 - asked members for their point of view and their primary concerns regarding a return to a physical workplace.

Turns out that perceptions vary among professionals from different age groups. Senior workers aged 40 and above are seemingly more keen to return to the workplace, with 38% of the Gen X (40-54 years old) cohort willing to return. For baby boomers (55+), the share was 29%. Less than one-fourth of millennials, meanwhile, would willingly want to get back to their offices. The younger workforce is more inclined towards working remotely until they feel more safe being around other people.

HR expert Abhijit Bhaduri says Gen Z and millennials are used to communicating both formally and informally through digital media, and while the process may be efficient, it is not fulfilling for many. “The senior professionals probably have better infrastructure - hardware, space, quiet room for office work. But they may be struggling with things such as hiring, learning and managing performance of remote teams.” 

Primary concerns of professionals about returning to the office ranged from large gatherings for meetings and concerns around workplace sanitisation to even lack of support from employers in terms of sick leave and remote work policies. Commuting to work is a concern for over two in five millennials (42%), while nearly half of them are anxious about eating or resting in shared spaces. 

The biggest point of worry across generations, however, is exposure to people not taking safety guidelines and precautions seriously.

Several companies including Dabur, Capgemini, Flipkart and Tech Mahindra have already opened offices with smaller teams and have plans to increase the number in a phased manner, an Economic Times report said last month. 

Uncertainties around economic recovery, job security, personal safety and the impact on compensation will continue to weigh heavy on everyone’s minds. Hence, it’s crucial for companies and managers to engage in frequent and transparent communication with employees. Leadership coach Harsh Johari says companies need to take difficult decisions but they need to be realistic. “The fact is that no one has concrete answers and it is OK to admit that,” Johari says.

The index also analysed how confident individuals are about their employer’s potential. Survey respondents across sectors including education, corporate services, software & IT services, healthcare and finance, were more upbeat about their company’s future for the next one year as compared to the next six months.

“Leaders are assuring people that they will be back on track by the first half of 2021. Employers have told employees that salary cuts will slowly give way to previous levels. That is making people feel more confident when they look at the employer's long term potential,” Bhaduri says.

Would you be willing to head back to the office any time soon, if you have not already? What are your biggest concerns? Share your comments with us with #WorkforceConfidenceIndex.

Workforce Confidence Index Methodology

LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index is based on a quantitative online survey that is distributed to members via email every two weeks. Roughly 1,000+ India-based members respond each wave. Members are randomly sampled and must be opted into research to participate. Students, stay-at-home partners & retirees are excluded from analysis so we’re able to get an accurate representation of those currently active in the workforce. We analyse data in aggregate and will always respect member privacy.

Data is weighted by engagement level, to ensure fair representation of various activity levels on the platform. The results represent the world as seen through the lens of LinkedIn’s membership; variances between LinkedIn’s membership & overall market population are not accounted for. Confidence index scores are calculated by assigning each respondent a score (-100, -50, 0, 50, 100) based on how much they agree or disagree with each of three statements, and then finding the composite average score across all statements. Scores are averaged across two waves of data collection to ensure an accurate trend reading. The three statements are: [Job Security] I feel confident about my ability to get or hold onto a job right now; [Finances] I feel confident about my ability to improve my financial situation in the next 6 months; [Career] I feel confident about my ability to progress in my career in the next year.

Neil Basu and Cynthia Yee from LinkedIn Market Research contributed to this article.