Employers Earn High Marks for COVID Workplace Decisions

For many companies – and employees – the pandemic prompted significant and sudden workplace changes, with almost all workers except those deemed essential shifting temporarily (if not permanently) to home-based work, and potentially back to in-person work, during the last two years. Despite lacking a playbook to follow in defining this “new normal,” most leaders have successfully navigated at least this aspect of the pandemic: 83% of employees polled in October approve of how their employer has handled decisions about in-person work during the pandemic, with more than half (54%) saying they “strongly approve.” Employer approval ratings for workplace decisions were equally high among those who worked in person throughout the pandemic and those who worked at home for at least part of the pandemic. The common driver of approval across workplace scenarios? Decisiveness. By a 3-to-1 margin, employees who approved of their employers’ handling of decisions about in-person work (whatever that decision was) cited that company leaders had acted “fast and confidently,” as opposed to “taking their time to make the right calls.”