Featured Research Summary: Understanding and Adapting to Today’s Massive Transformation of Work

Create a workplace experience that meets the needs of employees in a changed world

The Covid-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on our society, businesses and work lives. The changes it has wrought comes on top of a variety of other workplace challenges such as shifting workplace technologies, changing work arrangements, and changing talent management philosophies and approaches. As a result of these changes, only about two-fifths say their organization is doing a good or excellent job in the area of post-hire talent management.

To better understand such changes, the HR Research Institute partnered with SkillSurvey, the provider of cloud-based technology designed to help organizations hire, engage and retain the talent they need. This study of HR professionals focused on four key areas that help form a sharper picture of today’s employees: 
 

For many organizations, the pandemic has largely or completely shuttered conventional offices as employees engage in remote work. This is among the most dramatic workforce transformations in history.

Whereas prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, only 8% of organizations with remote workers say a sizable majority of employees (that is, 61% or more) worked remotely, today about half (48%) say a sizable majority work remotely. And whereas about three-quarters of organizations with remote workers say only 20% or less of employees worked remotely, that proportion slipped to just one-fifth of organizations mid-pandemic.

Many organizations that have never managed remote workers before suddenly started managing telecommuters during the pandemic. Whereas, before the pandemic, more than a quarter (28%) of responding organizations say they did not have any remote workers, that proportion shrank to just 8% by the middle of the pandemic.

The rise in remote work has made communication more challenging for many employers.
 

Nearly half (45%) of respondents agree or strongly agree that internal communications have grown more challenging as a result of remote work arrangements. With so many workforces moving to remote-only or mostly-remote workforces, communication practices also need to change, especially in organizations that previously had few or no remote workers.

We asked respondents if they feel they have an up-to date understanding of three key workplace cultural characteristics: engagement, attitudes and well-being. About three-fifths agree or strongly agree they have an up-to-date understanding for both well-being (62%) and attitudes and concerns (61%), though this still means that large portions of respondents do not understand how employees fare in these areas. Moreover, only about half (53%) agree or strongly agree that they have a good handle on employee engagement.

Only 39% say their organization is doing a good or excellent job in the area of post-hire talent management.
 

HR professionals are most likely to point to making sure employees feel valued or recognized as the key to retention (61%). Naturally, if employees don’t feel valued, then their experience with the organization will suffer and they will potentially seek employment elsewhere. Leaders are also seen as playing a large role in retention, with just over half (52%) saying having a good direct manager contributes to retaining employees.

We asked HR professionals to select the three most critical competencies for successful remote work. The only responses cited by more than half are:

While time management and self-motivation are crucial skills regardless of where an employee works, they are especially critical for remote work. It is interesting to note that only 18% say that displaying technological savvy is a competency for successful remote work.

Onboarding is a critical talent management process that impacts both “time-to-performance" and employee retention.

Once the onboarding process is over, there are multiple ways to help new hires successfully transition into a workforce and retain them. Sixty-five percent of respondents offer learning and development resources (which can be incorporated into onboarding) and 45% offer job shadowing (observing someone at their job). Coaching (21%) and mentorship (27%) programs, however, are offered far less frequently.