Post the advent of Covid-19; many U.S. employers are struggling to bring employees back to the office.
As the CDC guidelines have shifted, many employers are trying to bring their remote workforce back to the office this year. But employers are struggling to bring employees back. Tales of entire departments refusing to return to office work and unexpected turnover have become an essential topic of discussion of HR discussion board online.
While many employers have been surprised by this recent phenomenon, it is part of a long and widespread trend among employees to seek work that fulfills them. While that may sound vague, it means that humans need three basic needs met to feel fulfilled and engaged at work: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When employment satisfies those needs, employees are engaged, happier, more productive, and more loyal to their employer.
Let’s dive in.
Covid Remote Stats
Before Covid-19, roughly 20% of U.S. employees worked remotely (Pew Research). In 2020, employers transitioned as many employees as possible to remote work to avoid the spread of Covid-19. Roughly 51% of the U.S. workforce reported remotely (per Gallup).
70% of white-collar jobs become remote. And, blue-collar jobs saw an increase to 14% of workers becoming remote (Gallup).
But, while employers looked at the changes as necessary, temporary, and an inconvenience, employees felt differently. Many employees saw the shift to a work-from-home environment as positive, and after a period of higher stress adjusting, many employees hoped it would become permanent.
As employees saw that their positions were compatible with remote work, their expectations shifted. Instead of looking at remote work as a temporary and less-desirable option, they started looking at it as a possibility and a highly desired choice.
Coronavirus Accelerated Existing Employment Trends
But, recent trends were already shifting to remote work before Covid-19. In the last few years before 2020, surveys showed that Millenials valued flexible work arrangements. The gig economy has increasingly risen since the concept was introduced in roughly 2005.
In 2019, pre-Covid, roughly 40% of US workers earned about 40% or more of their income from gig jobs. During the year following Covid, that amount decreased. Although the decrease in travel and gig customers likely impacted it, another likely cause is that employees were able to gain more flexibility through regular work than before.
In 2019, the Deloitte Millennial Survey showed that millennials valued work flexibility, creativity, growth, and impact. Flexibility ranked as the fifth most important aspect of a job. 22% of millennials cared about flexibility. It is still a high number, but it ranked in importance behind financial incentives, growth, learning opportunities, and feeling appreciated.
The same survey from 2021 shows that 46% of millennials rank flexibility as the number one most important thing an employer needs.
Covid accelerated both the expectation and the importance of work flexibility to American workers. As of 2017, 34% of Millenials had quit a job because of lack of flexibility (Inc.) Today, that number is likely a much higher percentage. Millennials are rapidly redefining the workforce they are expected to dominate.
Employee Engagement During Covid
The drastic changes from Covid, in both personal life and work-life, impacted society across many areas. Before Covid-19, employee engagement was at an all-time high. Nearly 36% of employees were actively engaged in their jobs (Gallup).
Covid brought about increased levels of stress, concern, and other social ills. Workers transitioned to remote, and at the beginning, it caused an increase in anxiety. But, after the initial adjustment period, employees reported feeling more engaged at work than before.
Gallup reports that employee engagement has increased from 36% at the beginning of 2020 to 39% at the beginning of 2021.
The biggest change:
Jobs went remote. Instead of remote work decreasing engagement, it increased it.
Gallup supports this. 42% of hybrid employees, those who work from home at least part-time, are actively engaged. But, in 2020, employees who work entirely from home experience more burnout than hybrid employees.
That may be explained by the increased stress around Covid and the accompanying changes. Or, it may be related to the increased stress of going remote when employers did not have the policies, culture, or technology to facilitate greater ease of remote work.
Flexible Work Provides Autonomy to Employees
A comprehensive test by O.C. Tanner outlined in the 2022 Culture Report identifies the three most significant factors for creating peak experiences. Peak experiences are the moments that build loyalty, bring employees into the “flow,” and develop engaged employees.
Three psychological needs must be satisfied for employees to be engaged. And, the first need is autonomy.
Autonomy is given to employees through flexible work schedules, remote work options, and decision-making within the job context. Employees who have autonomy are more effective, waste fewer hours, and get more done.
Employers can provide greater autonomy to employees through increased job flexibility. This can come in the form of flexible work hours and the ability to work from home full or part-time.
Consider this:
According to Fobes, nearly half of each workday is wasted by employee distraction. Some of that distraction involves handling personal business at work. Employees who have greater flexibility avoid distraction in several ways.
They can adjust work time to times when they can work more productively and with fewer distractions. They are more likely to finish a project and clock out instead of wasting their employer’s time-killing hours.
Employees who have autonomy at work feel more responsibility to accomplish their goals and greater loyalty to their employer. 82% of millennials agree (Inc).
In 2021 Many Employees Were Surprised to Return to Work
Many newly remote employees didn’t expect to return to work like normal after Covid. According to an OWL survey, 81% of employees believed their employers would continue to support remote work after Covid. That spells greater dissatisfaction when employers ask for a return to work.
Many employers may have assumed or expected that employees knew that a return to work was inevitable. These employers may have been surprised when employees are less than enthusiastic about returning to the work environment. And, engagement after returning to work may be lower than before because employees have different expectations.
Employee unwillingness to return to work can manifest itself in various ways:
Employee engagement may decrease. In the first half of 2021, Gallup reported that employee engagement remained high. But, many employers started a return to work transition in the second half of 2021.
Employees may waste more time “on the clock.” While remote workers could clock in and out to run errands and do chores, office employees don’t have the option of completing personal tasks and may be more inclined to waste employer hours.
Employee attrition may rise. In addition to employees who leave immediately during or after a return to work policy, attrition in the following months may increase. Some employees may return to work but start looking for opportunities that allow them the increased autonomy they previously experienced.
Managers are At-Risk Also
Traditionally, managers have been advocates for the employer. But, with the unexpected change to remote work, many managers had higher levels of stress. This may have been due to the unpredictable changes required to manage employees remotely, the difficulty in planning staff training or meetings, and the shift in communication.
Gallup reported that manager engagement dropped in 2020. It’s important that managers be given the autonomy to make decisions for their teams to bring about the most significant results.
If businesses can’t allow managers autonomy in decisions such as whether they return to work, then at least managers should have a say in the transition details.
Managers should be able to decide when and how frequently the team returns to work. They should voice whether the team goes part hybrid for a few months while team members get used to returning to work. Managers can significantly influence the engagement of their teams (by 70% per Gallup) by allowing team members to have a voice and express opinions regarding return to work.
When employees feel like they have a voice and are heard, satisfaction increases, managers who have some autonomy in the decisions regarding return to work are more likely to be engaged and more likely to keep their teams engaged.
Conclusion
Of the three basic psychological needs of employees, autonomy seems to be the hardest one for many employers to grant. Control is a fundamental human need, and granting autonomy to employees means giving up control. But, as the studies show, granting employees more control increases engagement, productivity, and loyalty. And it decreases turnover and employer expenses.
To find out how your company can meet the other two needs of your employees, check out Creating Employee Experiences that Enhance Performance
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.