American Workers Want Stability, Safety, Leadership, Flexibility And Better Benefits—And They Don’t Miss The Office

via Forbes

Traci Fiatte is the CEO of professional and commercial staffing at Randstad USA. The recruitment giant provides outsourcing, staffing, consulting and workforce solutions within the areas of engineering, accounting and finance, healthcare, human resources, IT, legal, life sciences, manufacturing and logistics, office and administration and sales, marketing and other sectors. The North American operations, which is part of a €20.7 billion global organization, has around 5,700 associates and a deployed workforce of more than 86,000 in the U.S. and Canada.

Given the size and scope of Randstad’s reach, it serves as a bellwether for what workers are seeing and feeling. To gain a sense of how American workers rely upon employers to make them feel comfortable when and if they return to work, the talent and staffing company conducted a survey on this matter. 

Here are the highlights of its findings, along with a Forbes Q&A with Fiatte to gain a deeper perspective.

• With the Delta variant delaying many companies’ plans to re-open their workplaces, nearly three-fourths (73%) of American workers remain concerned about the level of workplace safety standards and cleanliness as protection against Covid-19. The findings strongly suggest that workers are most concerned about factors outside of their control and that employers and business leaders will be responsible for mitigating those concerns. 
• More than one-in-three workers (38%) would like to see their employer require proof of vaccination before re-opening their workplace, while a similar percentage (34%) consider the behavior of their co-workers their first or second concern about onsite work. Nearly one-in-four workers (23%) cite uncertainty regarding the vaccination status of their colleagues as their top concern.
• The majority of people also do not miss working in an office. Most workers (62%) who were able to work off-site during the pandemic do not miss the office—though they do miss in-person interaction with colleagues—and the vast majority (81%) believe they are more productive or as productive as they were prior to Covid-19. At the same time, in what is a bright spot for employers, nearly three-in-four (73%) will not look for a new job if their boss mandates a return to the office full time.
• The new survey data is consistent with previous Randstad USA studies, which have found that U.S. workers are expecting new benefits and perks from their employer. Nearly one-in-four American workers (23.8%) consider flexible hours as the most important benefit, and one-in-five rank childcare or stipend benefits as their most important benefit.

Karen Fichuk, CEO of Randstad North America and Randstad NV executive board member, said about the survey, “After the uncertainty they’ve experienced over the last 18 months, American workers are signifying that they are still counting on their employers for stability and workplace safety. Workers are looking to their employers for clear leadership in communicating the company’s Covid-19 protocols and ensuring that all workers follow those standards—not always a simple task. This comes at a time when employers are juggling other priorities, like implementing new benefits and enabling more flexible schedules, alongside recruitment and retention challenges amid the continued tight labor market.”

Here are the highlights from the Forbes Q&A

Jack Kelly: In light of the 0micron variant, in addition to Covid-19 and the Delta variant, do you think that returning to a physical office will be delayed indefinitely by a large number of organizations?

Traci Fiatte: Companies will have to make difficult decisions based on what is best for their businesses and their workforces. But no matter what a company decides, one thing is clear: building workplaces that are resilient and provide our workers the tools and flexibility they need to feel safe, engaged and productive at work—no matter what is happening with the virus—must be a key part of pandemic planning.

Smart employers make real investments in addressing workers’ concerns about safety. Those measures benefit both employees and employers. Our data shows that workers who feel unsafe at their onsite workplaces are three times more likely to look for a new job. In a tight labor market, it can be very difficult to find replacements for workers who leave, creating major problems for employers.  

Kelly: Now that NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio called for mandatory vaccination for all private companies, will this happen in other cities too? Or do you think that there will be legal challenges similar to what happened with President Joe Biden’s vaccination orders back in September?

Fiatte: These are certainly thorny issues for companies. Whatever happens with respect to mandates and legal challenges, the most important thing is to make decisions that are grounded in the safety of the workers. Mandates and regulations can change, but your company’s values shouldn’t. 

Even if the mandate doesn’t apply to your company, or if they don’t withstand legal challenges, the idea of encouraging vaccines has emerged as a highly palatable middle ground for employers. Supporting vaccinations, while providing employees with informational resources and access to shots, has enabled employers to embody the safety-leadership role today’s workers want, while still allowing some breathing room for employees to make their own decisions.

Kelly: What actions should leaders take to ensure that their workers feel safe?

Fiatte: The most important thing is to listen to employees’ concerns, and to clearly communicate about safety protocols. While the world has come a long way from where it was in 2020, our Next Normal survey shows that workplace safety remains a major concern for employees. A recent Randstad survey found nearly three-fourths (73%) of American workers remain concerned about the level of safety standards and overall cleanliness at their workplaces. Nearly the same amount (71%) said they wanted their employers to implement new sanitation practices.   

In many ways, these are unprecedented and unpredictable challenges. The potential for virus variants can’t be ignored and safety recommendations are subject to change. Against this backdrop of mass uncertainty, employees are turning to their employers to provide some semblance of solid ground. No matter the policies you end up creating, if you don’t communicate them clearly, employee adherence to workplace safety rules will suffer, leading to further infractions and a worsening of the very concerns you’re trying to alleviate.

Co-worker behavior was a top concern of those who responded to our survey, which means creating and disseminating clear workplace safety requirements, along with an enforceable code of conduct, is now a must. Communicate your current policies clearly, and share the organizational reasoning behind each one, to get all your employees on board. Make sure your workforce understands that company polices are at the whim of an unpredictable virus as well as yet-to-be-determined federal regulations. That way, if you need to make course corrections along the way, they’ll be backed by understandable reasoning, and not appear to have come out of thin air.

Kelly: In addition to health safety, what do you see corporate management and human resources doing to look after the mental health and well-being of their employees? Do they have mechanisms in place to spot signs of burnout and depression before it gets worse?

Fiatte: This is certainly something that employers are taking into consideration. We are seeing more employees indicating they have used their time during this pandemic thinking about what they value and the role of work in their lives. Employers that don’t cater to workers who have come to expect a better work-life balance, higher salaries and more flexibility in their lives risk losing talent to companies that offer these things.

Kelly: Are C-suite executives teaching and training supervisors to become more empathetic due to all the challenges everyone has had to deal with during the pandemic? 

Fiatte: Absolutely. If a pandemic can have a silver lining, it may be that workers’ mental health became an area of intense focus over the past year. The stresses, strains and anxieties brought about by the pandemic brought mental health to the forefront of many conversations—something many say was long overdue. 

It also has forced executives and managers to adopt new approaches to leadership. I recently read a terrific article in the Harvard Business Review that highlighted the most effective ways to lead organizations today. It’s no longer enough to be what they referred to as the “hero leader” with all the answers to every problem.  

As they said, the most effective leaders today are the ones that focus on being human. They show vulnerability, are focused on connecting with people and demonstrate their commitment to unleashing the potential of those around them. To be successful in today’s environment, companies and executives need to focus on developing this style of leadership among their supervisors and managers.

Kelly: How can management maintain a corporate culture and keep everyone connected when the workforce is remote or hybrid?

Fiatte: The key is to be mindful of the needs of your workforce. The option to work remotely might feel like winning the lottery for some. But for others, the increased reliance on technology that comes with it, along with the isolation and difficulty turning “off” at the end of the workday, make remote work less attractive than being onsite. 

For employers, this means providing remote workers with the tools and benefits they need to be productive, rested and focused will be critical down the line. Some employers seem to have already taken this to heart, as 27% of all remote workers said their employers began offering them work phones during the pandemic, while another 25% said their employers gave them monitors. Twenty percent were also given office chairs. These small gestures can mean a lot, especially to those who may not have the space for a proper home office.

Kelly: With hybrid and in-office work, how can leaders avoid creating two classes of employees—those who are in the office and within close proximity to senior management, compared to workers at home who could fall victim to being out of sight and out of mind?

Fiatte: This is certainly a challenging dynamic to manage. It represents tremendous opportunities to enhance innovation and productivity for companies that get it right. For those that don’t, it can be a real problem. There is no single answer to that question, but a recent Young Entrepreneur Council roundtable summarized many of the best practices that appear to be emerging. 

They focused on the need to communicate a shared sense of purpose and company values, as a way of keeping everyone engaged, regardless of where and how they are working. It is important to include remote workers in meetings and office get-togethers, and to make sure there are regularly scheduled catch-ups with in-person and remote workers. 

Being consistent in setting expectations and holding employees accountable is important, too. They also recommended carving out time for nonwork experiences that everyone can participate in, especially if this was a part of in-office culture before the pandemic. However companies approach this, one thing is clear: they would be well advised to take it seriously because the hybrid office is likely to be around for some time.