Why Your Company Needs a Flexible Office Culture
January 2022 began with a stunning report out of Washington, D.C.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the number of Americans who quit their job the previous November, the most recent month for which data was available, had leapt to a record 4.5 million, up 300,000 from September 2021’s previous record high of 4.2 million. This means 3 percent of U.S. workers abandoned their jobs by choice, the same percentage that had similarly pulled up stakes the previous month.
And this was before the arrival of the omicron variant. When the final numbers are in, we can expect to find between 40 and 45 million Americans quit their jobs last year. That’s more than a quarter of the U.S. workforce.
But, as multiple studies have shown, the so-called Great Resignation is not just about people getting fed up with work. It’s about people getting fed up with their jobs and how they’re treated by their employers. (Usually, shabbily.)
In most cases, it’s about people reassessing their employment situations, deciding they can probably get a better deal elsewhere, whether this means working more—or exclusively—from home, having more flexibility with hours, receiving greater benefits, and/or simply earning higher compensation.
In fact, thanks to the complications the economy is experiencing due to the seemingly never-ending COVID-19 pandemic, business experts see the 2020s as offering workers a degree of bargaining power they haven’t enjoyed since the labor union heydays of the 1950s.
Certainly, above all else, companies must now offer more flexibility in the workplace if they are to attract and retain workers. This can mean bringing employees back to a central office, but with staggered hours (and/or other safety precautions). It can mean going 100 percent remote. Or it can mean adopting a hybrid work model in which team members work at home part of the time but must “come into the office” on certain days of the week.
A related November 2021 Labor Market Report from the Integrated Workforce Management (IWM) platform PRO Unlimited highlights this need for such flexibility. According to its survey of more than 30,000 workers, 89 percent say they strongly prefer a job with work-at-home options. (In the poll, 88 percent of respondents also listed “Not Having to Commute” as the benefit they’re seeking most in a new position, citing the desire to save time, money, and of course, aggravation.) As a result, Pro Unlimited believes employers who offer this option can capture 96 percent of the labor market going forward, while those who don’t will lose 58 percent of candidates.
Note: if the PRO survey is correct, telecommuting is having an outsized impact on the American real estate market. It found one in five workers—that’s a full 20 percent—have moved or plan to transfer due to pandemic-triggered work-from-home policies. Based on a diminishing need to commute to a central office daily, workers who can are moving to communities with lower costs-of living. Also of interest, it found employees earning more than $65 per hour accounted for more than a third (36%) of relocations in 2021.
Returning to our central discussion, the term “flexibility” connotes more than just where and when people work, but also how. Employees are seeking more input into company policy and operations, as well as desiring greater autonomy. Supporting research from the O.C. Tanner Institute’s 2022 Global Culture Report revealed the following:
Key elements of successful hybrid employee experiences include:
Career development programs (68 percent)
Clear expectations for availability when working remotely (65 percent)
Opportunities for in-person social connection with coworkers (58 percent)
The formula for creating peak employee experiences starts with three basic needs: autonomy, connection, and mastery.
Organizations that meet these demands have a 7.5X percent increased likelihood of improving the employee experience.
Considering this information, tomorrow’s companies must do the following to stay ahead of the staffing curve:
Give employees a say in where and when they work but also set clear expectations of when and how they should be available.
Provide opportunities for greater connection.
Create a career development strategy for remote/hybrid workers.
Without a doubt, office cultures are not the same post-COVID. Imbued with collective powers unseen in decades, workers are demanding flexibility and autonomy regarding when, how, and where they work. Employers who ignore these realities—who think they can return to “The Good Old Days”—will operate at a significant disadvantage in the labor market of the 2020s.
As corporate culture specialists for more than 30 years, my team is well-versed in the strategies and tactics innovative companies can use to win and keep top performers during The Great Resignation. For more information on how we can help your organization meet the unique needs of this unusual period, please contact me at laura@conoverconsulting.com.