What employees want: 2020 edition
There are a myriad of articles about this, about what an employee wants from their employer, how they want to be treated, how they want to feel valued. Truthfully, I am always amazed at how much of these articles stay the same year after year as employers react much slower than the opinion suggests they should.
Nothing much new there then...
One of the most succinct articles on this particular issue I have linked from Forbes here. For summary, in 2018 the key takeaways for employers were that staff wanted the following:
- Flexibility
- Commitment to health and wellbeing
- Working with a purpose
Now, on the final point, I can't really help you. However, on the first 2 points, what was true in 2018 is absolutely true in 2020. Certain events (which I doubt need reiterating) have pushed the argument for flexible working, home working, and a commitment to health and well being from a fringe issue for the 'cool start up' to a 'necessity for the continued survival' of the workforce.
That is something new.
As I remarked in previous musings, confidence in the office space is ridiculously low at the moment, with some people shielding, a somewhat disjointed approach to best practice coming down from on-high. With that, the agile company is the company that will survive this weird year. I doubt there are many companies who:
- Genuinely believe they will have a 2019 working environment in terms of 'in office working' any time soon
- Have a workforce who are unanimously behind the idea of crowding back into the office space
ABC news reported that occupancy in washington is at around 5-10% in this article revealing the true impact of 2020 on the full time office worker. So, are we as a collective, adjusting to this new normal?
over the years people have wanted to work from home, but there was a question of value return on tech investment to facilitate this. Now however, people need to work from home. Shielding, social distancing, all of it, employers need to facilitate the health and safety of their workers. To reiterate, this is no longer a 'nice' to have, it is very much a 'need' to have. Inflexibility for workers in these times will surely be the number 1 reason an employee considers a change in employer, mark my words on that.
The best bit is, there is a plethora of solutions to enable you to do this, safely, securely, and inexpensively. I cannot stress the number of avenues open to business to allow them to keep their staff healthy and happy in the most uncertain of times. Agility and productivity will ensure survival, if you don't know the how, then ask.
I can't imagine rushing everyone back to the office is going to be a winner, so find out how to adapt to the change the right way.