How COVID-19 and Social Justice Movements Have Impacted Employee Values – HR Daily Advisor – HR Daily Advisor

As the United States marches on in its mass vaccination efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are looking to a not-too-distant future in which employees will have the option of returning to the office. In the year plus that staff have been working remotely, much has changed. Aside from the pandemic itself, the nation has been continually embroiled in national headlines focused on social justice issues.

These issues have had a measurable impact on certain employee values, and companies should pay attention to how those views might impact their attractiveness as an employer, as well as employee morale and engagement. A recent report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), The Network, and Appcast found strong employee preferences and attitudes in the areas of diversity and inclusion (D&I) and flexible working arrangements.

Specifically, the report found that:

While many employees and employers are eager to get back to normal after more than a year away from the office, the normal of early 2020 is long gone.

Broadly speaking, employees have gotten a taste of remote work, and they like it. Moreover, a number of tragic, high-profile incidents over the last year have grabbed headlines and caused a national reckoning on race and social justice in America. While employers generally try to keep potentially controversial subjects out of the office, at least in theory, the blurred lines between work and home while working remotely combined with sentiments on social justice issues makes that separation extremely difficult in practice.

How employers change workplace policies, if at all, to address these changes is likely to be a key factor in their long-term culture as their staffs reenter the physical workplace in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Continue reading here:

How COVID-19 and Social Justice Movements Have Impacted Employee Values - HR Daily Advisor - HR Daily Advisor