Employee loyalty is strongly tied to how staff believe their employers handled the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new study.
Among staff who agree that their employer handled Covid-19 well, around half (49%) say they would like to stay at their company for more than a decade; compared to just 28% of those who say their companies handled it poorly, according to The Guardian Life Insurance Company.
Its 10th Annual Workplace Benefits Study, shows how the pandemic prompted rapid change in areas that had already been gathering momentum pre-pandemic, including flexible work arrangements, employee mental health support, and technology adoption, resulting in profound, enduring shifts for both employers and employees. Those that handled it well, offered flexibility, engaged in employee communications and offered adequate support, noted the report.
PAID LEAVE & FLEXIBLE SCHEDULES
Paid leave programmes and flexible schedules were and still are key to employee wellbeing, revealed the study. The significant number of employees who took extended leave due to Covid-19 meant 75% of employers changed their unpaid leave policies to paid. There was also a significant uptick in companies prioritising flexible schedules; 58% of employers agree flexibility is important for employee wellbeing versus 48% in 2019.
More employers also responded to the worsening state of workforce mental health. More than a third of employers say the pandemic negatively impacted employee wellbeing (35%) and morale (34%). As a result, 56% agree that expanding employee use of mental and emotional health resources is a priority. However, only 16% added mental health benefits as a result of the pandemic.
As for employees, more than a quarter (28%) agreed they have experienced increased anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues as a result of the pandemic. In particular, Generation Z and young millennial workers were more than twice as likely to say Covid-19 impacted their emotional health than baby boomers (36% versus 17%).
REMOTE WORK PREFERENCE
The survey found that although many prefer in-person work, the majority want the option to work remotely. The percentage of employers offering a remote work arrangement increased from 30% pre-pandemic to 73% currently, with 58% planning to continue remote work in some capacity post-pandemic. Meanwhile, although 42% of employees prefer working on-site, 56% of employees agree they’d prefer to work remotely at least part of the time in the future.
The pandemic also spurred a significant increase in benefits technology adoption, noted the study. More than a third (37%) of employers said the pandemic accelerated their organisation’s use of benefits technology. Another 55% increased their use of collaborative tech during the pandemic to enable better communication.
“Covid-19 created disruptions that deeply impacted productivity and morale; and the extent to which those are positive or negative is directly tied to how employers responded. Our findings showed that more than half of employees who rate their company’s culture ‘highly empathetic’ have flexible work schedules,” stated Chris Smith, Head of Group Benefits at Guardian Life. “Employers today must examine how the pandemic has changed employee expectations; and focus on promoting flexibility through strengthened paid leave polices, expanded telecommuting or hybrid work arrangements, and stronger mental health support to bolster their employee’s quality of life and promote wellbeing.”
Click here to download a copy of the report. Stress and burnout are the main reasons behind half of business leaders planning to leave their jobs over the next year, according to a new US study. Click here to read more.
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