Study: Coronavirus has altered work for 74% of employers

Planning is well underway for U.S. employers to get back to work in a post-covid-19 environment, according to a new survey by the Willis Towers Watson consulting firm. Among the key adjustments: When operations “get back to normal,” three times more full-time employees will be working remotely, compared to before the pandemic hit.

 

The survey of 681 employers, conducted during the week of May 11, found that 74% of employers had altered their operations in some way to reflect new post-pandemic protocols. Examples: Installing touchless payment systems, offering services via video rather than in person, creating more space on assembly lines or in distribution centers, and changing work schedules to limit employee contact.

 

Almost three in 10 respondents (29%) had reassigned some job responsibilities, while 23% made changes to reflect work that was being done in-house instead of by third parties. Some employers started outsourcing work or using gig talent for work that was typically done by full-time employees.

 

Just over half (53%) of full-time employees currently work remotely or from home. While that is expected to drop to 22% after the pandemic passes, it would still be up significantly from last year’s 7%. Conversely, employers expect two-thirds of their workforce to be full-time employees working in person or onsite post-covid-19, up from 37% currently, but still below last year’s 82%.

 

There’s always room for improvement

Even companies accustomed to virtual operations learned a thing or two while facing new challenges over the past several months.

 

“The one thing that the coronavirus pandemic taught us is that just because we work remotely, we haven’t fully cracked the code of being 100% productive,” says Malte Scholz, CEO and co-founder of Airfocus. “When the pandemic started, we were all working from home, just as usual, but there was one major difference. Our entire families were now home, too, because they were on hold at work and our children were not at school. None of us could do a standard 9-5 workday, no matter how hard we tried.”

 

Airfocus decided to experiment with flexible working hours to better integrate professional and personal obligations. Staff could work any time they wanted, as long as they were available for calls from 3-5 p.m. Productivity soared, and Scholz says the company will stick to this schedule even after the pandemic is gone.

 

So, while 2020 may be remembered as a year that changed the concept of “business as usual,” at least some of those alterations seem destined to be positive.