By Allison Sadlier // SWNS
Two in five office workers plan to resign and take a new job as soon as they can because of their company’s response to the pandemic, new research revealed.
The study of 1,500 office workers (many of whom are now working remotely) and 500 C-suite level executives examined the differing perceptions between the two groups when it came to their companies’ pivots as a result of COVID-19.
Eighty-six percent of C-suite respondents thought their organization demonstrated commitment to their employees during the pandemic.
That was in stark contrast to one third (35%) of office workers who said they could not agree with a statement saying they felt valued as an employee based on their employer’s response to the pandemic.
Over half of workers admitted they had hoped their company would offer more support to employees in their initial pandemic response.
The survey conducted by OnePoll on behalf of SilkRoad Technology revealed the top ways workers thought their company could have improved their response to the pandemic.
Better technology provisioning for the transition to working from home came out at the top of the list with clearer policies and more communication between departments rounding out the top three.
The pandemic continued to bring surprises for workers as they adjusted to working remotely. Sixty-three percent took on additional responsibilities during this period.
Of those juggling new duties, one in four (27%) said they received no training or support while another 25% only received “some.”
While the transition to working from home was challenging for all, one in five (20%) workers started a new job during the pandemic and that posed its own hurdles.
Of those who started a new job, one in two (52%) felt like they didn’t receive enough training to perform effectively and 56% still have unanswered questions about their position.
Over half (52%) confessed they have also struggled to form personal relationships with their coworkers as well.
“This survey has confirmed and even emphasized what we were hearing from enterprises around the urgent need for adopting digital business models to help them compete in our new world”, said Robert Dvorak, President and CEO of SilkRoad Technology. “Successful digital operating models emerging in 2021 will be centered on people and delivering an exemplary employee experience. Workforce transformation and change management are integral to planning and designing digital operating models, but are often overlooked, contributing to recent high failure rates (per BCG research).”
The pandemic has had a noticeable impact on how all the respondents connect to their company.
The majority (33%) of C-suite respondents said they have felt “much better” about their connection to their company than they did prior to the pandemic.
Workers did not share that enthusiastic sentiment as the majority of them (42%) felt “about the same” level of connection and almost one in four (23%) even felt it had worsened.
When asked how they’d like to see their company increase communication and connection the two groups had differing opinions on how best to achieve that goal.
The number one way workers wanted to increase communication within their company was through regularly scheduled meetings with their manager (23%).
Meanwhile, the top way c-suite respondents thought connections could be strengthened within the company were with regularly scheduled meetings with the c-suite (26%).
Both groups felt regularly scheduled meetings with internal teams and departments would also be a help.
Lilith Christiansen, Chief Strategy and Product Officer at SilkRoad Technology added, “either way you look at it, increased communication is needed. Most people aren’t as comfortable with making a surprise phone call as they are with simply stopping by a colleague’s workspace. Therefore, it requires more planning and structured conversations to achieve the same level of collaboration and connectedness. Leaders and managers should leverage technology to organize and conduct these conversations to yield better results and improve the employee experience.”
