{"id":29839,"date":"2021-04-06T11:03:44","date_gmt":"2021-04-06T16:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ceo-na.com\/?p=29839"},"modified":"2021-04-06T11:03:49","modified_gmt":"2021-04-06T16:03:49","slug":"what-employees-are-saying-about-the-future-of-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/opinion\/what-employees-are-saying-about-the-future-of-work\/","title":{"rendered":"What employees are saying about the future of work"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Andrea Alexander<\/a>, Aaron De Smet<\/a>, Meredith Langstaff, and Dan Ravid<\/p>

Employees want more certainty about postpandemic working arrangements\u2014even if you don\u2019t yet know what to tell them.<\/strong><\/p>

As organizations look to the postpandemic future, many are planning a hybrid virtual model<\/a> that combines remote work with time in the office. This sensible decision follows solid productivity increases<\/a> during the pandemic.<\/p>

But while productivity may have gone up, many employees report feeling anxious and burned out. Unless leaders address the sources of employee anxiety, pandemic-style productivity gains may prove unsustainable in the future.1<\/sup> That\u2019s because anxiety is known<\/a> to reduce job satisfaction, negatively affect interpersonal relationships with colleagues, and decrease work performance.<\/p>

Our survey results make the source of anxiety clear: employees feel they\u2019ve yet to hear enough about their employers\u2019 plans for post-COVID-19 working arrangements. Organizations may have announced a general intent to embrace hybrid virtual work going forward, but too few of them, employees say, have shared detailed guidelines, policies, expectations, and approaches. And the lack of remote-relevant specifics is leaving employees anxious.<\/p>

As organizational leaders chart the path toward the postpandemic world, they need to communicate more frequently with their employees\u2014even if their plans have yet to solidify fully. Organizations that have<\/em> articulated more specific policies and approaches for the future workplace have seen employee well-being and productivity rise.<\/p>

The following categories examine our survey findings and shed light on what employees want from the future of work.<\/strong><\/p>

Feeling included.<\/em> Even high-level communication about post-COVID-19 working arrangements boosts employee well-being and productivity. But organizations that convey more detailed, remote-relevant policies and approaches see greater increases. Employees who feel included in more detailed communication are nearly five times more likely to report increased productivity. Because communicating about the future can drive performance outcomes today, leaders should consider increasing the frequency of their employee updates\u2014both to share what\u2019s already decided and to communicate what is still uncertain.<\/p>

Communication breakdown. <\/em>Valuable as a detailed vision for postpandemic work might be to employees, 40 percent of them say they\u2019ve yet to hear about any <\/em>vision from their organizations, and another 28 percent say that what they\u2019ve heard remains vague. <\/strong><\/p>

Anxiety at work.<\/em> At organizations that are communicating vaguely, or not at all, about the future of postpandemic work, nearly half of employees say it\u2019s causing them concern or anxiety. Anxiety is known<\/a> to decrease work performance, reduce job satisfaction, and negatively affect interpersonal relationships with colleagues, among other ills. For the global economy, the loss of productivity because of poor mental health\u2014including anxiety\u2014might be as high as $1 trillion per year<\/a>.<\/p>

Burning out. <\/em>The lack of clear communication about the future of postpandemic work also contributes to employee burnout. Nearly half of employees surveyed say they\u2019re feeling some symptoms of being burned out at work. That may be an underestimate, since employees experiencing burnout are less likely to respond to survey requests, and the most burned-out individuals may have already left the workforce\u2014as have many women, who\u2019ve been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 crisis.<\/p>

Share more.<\/em> Burnout is especially pronounced for people feeling anxious due to a lack of organizational communication. These employees were almost three times more likely to report feeling burned out. The obvious recommendation for organizational leaders: share more with employees, even if you\u2019re uncertain about the future, to help improve employee well-being now.<\/p>

Read the full article here<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Andrea Alexander, Aaron De Smet, Meredith Langstaff, and Dan Ravid Employees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":29807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[4594,4595],"class_list":["post-29839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-emporyeers","tag-future-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29845,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29839\/revisions\/29845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/servidor-mxigen1.com\/ceona-antiguo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}