A new survey by Gallup, a D.C.-based analytics and advisory company, recently asked 15,001 full and part-time U.S. employees about their feelings on working during COVID-19, including whether they felt their employer cared about their wellbeing. The results showed clear pandemic-related effects. The results were gathered from self-administered web surveys taken in February 2022 by a broad range of employee types, “from production and front-line to white-collar professionals,” according to a Gallup write-up of the survey.
According to Gallup data from May 2020, just months after COVID-19 started rapidly spreading throughout the world, 49% of employees said they felt their employers cared about them. This was a marked increase from 2019, when just 29% of employees felt that their bosses were mindful of their wellbeing. Of the survey respondents who reported feeling that their employer cared about them in this most recent sample, the main reasons boiled down to decisiveness and communication, in that their “employer communicated a clear plan of action in response to the coronavirus” and “their supervisor kept them informed about what was going on in the organization,” per the write-up. “At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, employers responded quickly with a plan, communication, and what many employees believed was genuine concern for them, their work, and their lives.”
While not every employer responded in such a proactive way, and not every industry or role allows for people to work remotely, the pandemic was indeed the catalyst in a monumental shift to remote and flexible work. There was a sharp increase in people making flexible working arrangements. This period was a much-needed reset for many people, spelling out the opportunity to carve out more balance in a demanding professional schedule, spend less time commuting, and establish trust with their employer in the way they could complete tasks without the need to be in a traditional workspace.
Flexible working aside, there was also a greater focus on mental health at the onset of the pandemic. The isolation, childcare demands, physical health issues, and more that came with the pandemic meant that many of us were under more mental stress than usual. Many employers were motivated to be more mindful of employees’ mental health and establish more support and initiatives to emphasize well-being. Both the shift to flexible working and a renewed focus on mental health had some people seeing their bosses in a more favorable light.
READ RELATED: Lee Yu-bi Height, Weight, Age, Body Statistics
But as restrictions gradually eased and vaccination rates increased, what has this meant for our return to work? According to the survey, by February 2022, employees’ trust in their employers plummeted. Just 24% of people reported feeling like their employers cared about their well-being at that time. And this decline was apparent across all industries in the survey.
Researchers noted how successful employers (or those who were more likely to achieve employee satisfaction) were able to consistently improve their work culture, even (or especially) in the face of declining employee happiness. Some of the strategies included taking a “whole person” approach to management and considering the career, social, financial, physical, and community demands placed on the employee; being transparent and creative in communicating within a team; and training managers to better guide employees through their strengths. As the country processes the last two turbulent years and moves into the future while the virus still circulates, it will be an illuminating time for employees to see how their employers adapt and respond to these changes.
Related:
Source: SELF
