It's Clear. Companies Need to Communicate Post Pandemic Plans Now

Image Credit | Ekaternia Bolovtsova | Pexels

A recent study by Mckinsey looked into how well companies have communicated about their plans to return to work, work in a hybrid environment or continue remote work and the impact that had on employee satisfaction, engagement and productivity. The report looked at numerous different factors around communication and timing and was able to draw several important conclusions. The most important of which is that companies need to communicate their visions for the future as soon as possible, even if they are not fully complete. 

There is no surprise here as one of the things that employees often feel is that companies are not being transparent with them. When employees don't understand what is going to happen in the future with their company, department, or individual job, they tend to invent potential scenarios and that leads to focusing on the most dramatic potential outcomes. That focus on the potential future instead of the work to be done now has a natural downside in decreased productivity. This study confirms that is the case for many organizations. 

Let's take a closer look at what the study looked into and what conclusions we can draw based on their findings. 

More Communication Improves Employee Well Being

There is no surprise here. When employees are communicated about the future of their organization and job regularly they will feel more supported and more secure in their role. Without the distraction of rumors or conjecture about the future employees are free to focus on the work that needs to be done now. Further, if the employee feels secure in their job, they are more likely to feel less anxiety and stress. This has a compound effect of making them feel happier at work and have more effective interpersonal relationships both at and away from work. That more balanced employee is likely to see higher productivity than employees with companies that are secretive or withhold plans for the future. 

Clear Communication is Not Happening

The majority of folks that responded to the McKinsey survey said that they have received either no communication around the vision of the future or the communication they got was very vague. The exact breakdown is 40% no communication and 28% vague communication.  That leaves just 32% of organizations communicating a clear vision of what work-life will look like post-pandemic. Based on the expectation that employees with a clear vision are more productive and those with poor communication are less productive there is a tremendous risk for most businesses in seeing short-term and potentially long-term productivity declines. 

Anxiety is on the Rise

For organizations where they are lacking in clear communication, the employees feel more anxious. Based on the number of organizations that haven't communicated clearly that would then reason that most employees across the workforce are feeling increased anxiety about the future. There is a direct negative impact on productivity, happiness at work, and ability to work well with others when employees feel stress and anxiety as a result of work. It can manifest in simply reduced productivity or even rise to the level of active disengagement, where employees begin to sabotage and work against the organization. 

Employees Have Become Accustomed to and Expected Flexibility

The Pandemic dramatically changed the work landscape forcing millions into sudden remote work environments. While this was more difficult at first, many employees have made the transition and now prefer a fully remote or at least flexibility in their work environment.  The number of employees preferring a flexible work environment increased by 37% post-covid-19.  Before the pandemic, more than half of employees preferred to work on-site or in an office. Now the inverse is true with more than 60% of employees preferring to have the ability to work remotely as necessary or preferred. 

This is likely to become a key differentiator and attractor of talent going forward. As we learned in the study by WeWork and that I wrote about previously, 75% of employees would give up some benefits to be able to work remotely. If such a high amount of the workforce prefers to work remotely and some employers will offer this while others won't, that reasons that those employers that offer remote work may be able to use this as a competitive advantage in the hiring market. They will be able to get better talent and at a potentially more cost-effective basis vs organizations that require employees to return to the office. 

The study backs this assumption employees were clear that the return to the office would impact their future employment. 30% of employees said they were either likely or very likely to consider switch jobs if they were forced to return to on-site work. 30% turnover in any office would have a potentially devastating impact on productivity. That doesn't include the impact of employees who return to work because they haven't found a new job yet and work at a less productive rate due to lower job satisfaction. 

Employees Want to Stay Home

The McKinsey study again lines up with the WeWork study in identifying employees' preference for working from home. In both studies, they were able to determine that more than 50% of employees would prefer to work home for 3 or more days per week. In fact, 31% would prefer 4 days per week and almost 20% of employees would prefer to work from home 5 days per week, or effectively full-time. Employees learned during the pandemic that they can live in more affordable and family-friendly areas and that working from home afforded greater flexibility to take care of their families and children. This resulted in happier home life and when employees are happier at home they are more likely to be happy at work as well. 

What Can We Conclude?

Based on this study and others like the one done at WeWork, we can see that employees greatly prefer and expect flexible/hybrid work environments and in many cases fully remote work environments. Employees need to make a decision what the future of their work from office or remote policies will be and communicate them clearly as soon as possible These policies should ensure that all employees understand how their role will be impacted and why. 

Organizations that choose to require a full return to office work should understand that they will experience multiple negative impacts. They will struggle with decreased employee productivity and satisfaction as well as finding themselves at a competitive disadvantage in the hiring marketplace. They may have to increase compensation or other benefits to attract talent. 

As we begin to exit the pandemic and start to return to a more normalized workplace there are still many unknowns. Has your organization communicated what the future of work looks like? How has their communication or lack of communication impacted your satisfaction and productivity? Tell me below!