Low employee confidence in organizational leadership, culture, and resilience throughout pandemic
Increasing productivity, connectedness, and responsiveness to customer needs
New trended national polling of the U.S. workforce by Eagle Hill Consulting finds sustained low employee confidence in their organizational leadership, along with low confidence in their company’s culture and resilience.
Despite the pandemic, employees are finding ways to increase their productivity, connect with their colleagues, and meet customer needs. But as employees begin to return to the workplace, they increasingly want a voice in decisions and prefer that returning to the workplace be a choice.
U.S. employees have sustained low organizational confidence amid continuing COVID-19 crisis
Few employees believe their company has trusted leaders and managers to navigate a crisis.
Employees report sustained levels of low confidence in their organization’s resilience to withstand the COVID-19 crisis.
Less than a quarter of employees say their organization has a culture the fosters innovation and collaboration to deal with a crisis.
The pandemic and its impacts aren’t going away anytime soon. Employers must find an approach that builds confidence in their workforce and shifts their culture if they hope to emerge intact on the other side of the pandemic.
Melissa Jezior, President and CEO of Eagle Hill Consulting
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, U.S. employees are finding ways to navigate the crisis
Not all is bleak. Employees are reporting increased levels of productivity, connectedness, and client service as a result of changes to their working lives caused by the response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Employees continue to feel more productive.
Workers say they are increasingly attentive to customer needs.
Employees continue to report that connectiveness with colleagues is improving.
U.S. employees want to give input into return-to-the-workplace plans
What can employers do to make employees feel safe in terms of returning to their workplace? Increasingly, employees want temperature checks, a voice in decisions, and the ability to opt in to physically returning to the workplace.
Workers increasingly want to see employee temperature checks.
Employees want a voice in going-back-to-the-workplace strategies and decisions.
More workers say coming back to physical locations should be optional.
Employee sentiment remains stable on other return-to-workplace safety measures. Here’s what they say:
59%
provide hand sanitizer, masks, and gloves.
58%
mandate that employees with any symptoms stay at home.
53%
make COVID-19 testing available to employees.
51%
limit the number of people (e.g., employees/visitors) allowed in the physical workplace at any given time.
49%
require physical distancing in workplace design.
46%
implement flexible sick leave and supportive policies and practices.
Another critical area for employers will be engaging employees on what returning to the workplace looks like. If employers don’t get this right, morale and productivity could take a big hit.
Melissa Jezior, President and CEO of Eagle Hill Consulting
The findings are contained in the 2020 Eagle Hill Consulting Trended COVID-19 Employee Survey conducted online by Ipsos. This survey of U.S. employees has been fielded throughout the pandemic, with the first conducted from March 17-19, 2020, and the most recent conducted from August 13-17, 2020.
