As Organizations Prepare to Return To Work, Employees Differ in Their Opinions: Beamery Report

While men have more say in return-to-work policies, they are also more likely to quit their jobs this year.

As vaccines roll out across the world and the COVID-19 induced lockdowns ease, organizations, too, are rolling out their back-to-work policies. As remote employees, slowly prepare to head back to their physical workplaces, not everybody feels the same. According to a joint studyOpens a new window by Envoy and Wakefield Research last year, men preferred to spend an average of four days a week in the physical workplace than women who said their ideal was 3.8. Similarly, people in the baby boomer generation wanted to work in the physical workplace for an average of 3.9 days a week, while millennials preferred 3.6 days.

Recently, Beamery, a Talent Operating System, in association with Atomik Research, surveyed 1,000 employees in the U.S. and 1,000 employees in the U.K and released The Beamery Talent IndexOpens a new window report. The report compares how different age groups, genders, and geographic regions view the pandemic response of their organizations. The survey also reveals how different genders and age groups feel about coming back to the physical office space. The study showed that while men feel more optimistic about their pandemic workplace experiences over the last year, they were also likely to quit their jobs this year.

The following are a few more key findings from the survey.

Also read: Shift to Human-Centric Approach Is a Must To Propel Employee Performance: Gartner Research

1. Men Have More Influence in Return-to-Work Policies Than Women

The study found that more than three-quarters of men (78%) believe that they could influence how their organizations developed their return-to-work (RTW) policies than women. Compared to men, only 55% of women feel that they could influence the policies. This is also reflected in how happy employees feel about returning to the workplace. About 63% of men feel happy to come back to the workplace, while only 40% of women feel happy. At the same time, more women have a higher preference to abolish the physical workplace altogether. This is supported by the fact that 47% of women are longing to go back to the office while 60% of men are keen to return to the office.

2. More Men Plan To Quit Their Jobs

Despite feeling they enjoy more influence at work, more men in both countries were more likely to leave their jobs this year. About 66% of men in the U.S. consider leaving their job this year compared to 51% of women. Similarly, in the U.K., 51% of men may leave their job this year compared to 45% of women. One of the primary reasons for this consideration maybe how their employers handled the issues around the pandemic.

Work flexibility is just one of the expectations employees have from their organizations. They have several other expectationsOpens a new window when it comes to working. The other key expectations included more mental health support, training and career development, and improved HR communications processes and policies. A few other expectations include:

• More interaction with senior leadership
• A clear roadmap to promotion opportunities, and
• More engagement and recognition on diversity and social issues.

3. Younger Employees Are Keen to Return

When it comes to returning to work, it is not just the genders that think differently. Even different age groups feel differently about returning to work. Younger employees (age 18-44) are keener on returning to the workplace than their older colleagues (age 45-54). Further, they also feel the negative impacts of the lack of facetime on their careers.

In the U.K., employees of the age 18-34 were more likely to:

• Return to work (46% against 37% national average)
• Feel that a lack of facetime during the pandemic has hurt their promotion opportunities (62% against 43% national average)

On the contrary, in the U.S., it was the employees of age 35-44 (also called geriatric millennials) who were more likely to:

• Return to work (63% vs. 54% national average)
• Feel that a lack of facetime during the pandemic has hurt their promotion opportunities (75% vs. 64% national average)

While they are ready to get back to the physical workplace, the stalled career progression may be one reason why the younger generation in these two countries is more likely to consider quitting their jobs this year.

According to Abakar Saidov, co-founder and CEO, Beamery, “Employers who have yet to figure out how to personalize talent engagement, and to do so successfully at scale, will now be even further behind the talent management curve as we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those who have taken, or will find, the time to map out a transformed talent strategy that factors in gender and age insights will be in a far stronger position to both deal with, and recover from, the mass talent exodus anticipated this year.”

Also read: IBM Study Reveals Why Gender Equality Is Diminishing Despite D&I Initiatives

Take Employee Needs Into Account

As organizations prepare to greet their employees back to the physical workplace, they will have to consider people’s preferences and needs and tailor their return-to-work policies accordingly. Further, despite all the discussions about reducing the gender gap at work, women still feel they are heard less during an organization’s policy-making process. Hence, it is high time companies ensure that everyone is adequately represented in conversations as working patterns are continuously refined.

 Is your organization implementing an inclusive return-to-work policy? Share with us on LinkedInOpens a new window , FacebookOpens a new window , and TwitterOpens a new window .