Post-COVID: The New Normal Of Work Series

Episode 1: Overview and emphasis on Work From Home trends

May 14th, 2020

Rachel McClainDirector, Next Jump

Greg KunkelCo-Founder Next Jump

Workplace Trends

Next Jump – who we work with

Work with senior leaders across majority of F1000, US Navy/Air Force, Education, Non-Profit, Medicine

ConnectedWallstreet, Consultants, Tech | Central HQ / Connected hub

DisconnectedManufacturing, Retail, Hospitals| Employees in the field

Poll Question

Which would you bucket your workplace in -“connected” or “disconnected”?

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ConnectedWallstreet, Consultants, Tech | Central HQ / Connected hub

DisconnectedManufacturing, Retail, Hospitals| Employees in the field

OR

Economic Impact of pandemic only beginning

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Signals

• Unemployment official figures are believed to be far lower than unofficial

• CBO predicts unemployment will increase: next will be more white collar jobs

• A recent Gartner survey revealed that 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure

The Becker Friedman Institute of the University of Chicago reports that COVID-19 is causing reallocation shock that’s both driving “the fastest reallocation of labor since World War II” and causing the elimination of millions of jobs. It finds that “42 percent of recent layoffs will result in permanent job loss.”

The speed of transition to WFH was quick. Productivity and employee response challenged assumptions that most leadership had that WFH would be less productive.

The resistance to Work from Home is over

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Signals

• Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Morgan Stanley went from <10% to 95%+ WFH in weeks. Wall Street disaster playbook did not include WFH trading – HUGE upfront investment in 2 weeks to go WFH

• CEOs are spending more time with their families than every before – rethinking what work-life balance should look like post pandemic

Poll Question

When is your workplace returning to the office?

• Next month

• Sometime in the summer

• The fall

• Not announced yet

• Never

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Corporations have found that WFH was more productive than they thought. Combined with the real-life hurdles to safely get back to work are high (if there are WFH options) will slow down rush to go into office.

WFH will extend through October, if not end of year

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Signals

• FINANCE: Capital One announced WFH through October

• TECH: Facebook, Google announced through end of year, will be up to employees

• Some organizations (cisco) planning a July phased return to office

• #1 concern on weekly survey at 20k retail bank: “ I am scared to go back to work” –Transportation, office setup, etc.

• Ongoing life stressors will be ongoing throughout summer at minimum (i.e no summer camps)

The investment in setting up employees has been made, and the experiment has largely worked –both from employee and employer.

Upon “Return to Normal”, WFH will be here to stay

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Signals

• Gartner Research found 74% of CFOs intend to increase remote work at their organization after the outbreak.

• A survey conducted by IBM found that 54% of employees would prefer to primarily work remotely.

• Nationwide CEO Kirt Walker told Business Insider that half of the firm's 28,000 associates could work remotely following the pandemic.

• Barclays CEO Jes Staley "putting 7,000 people in a building may be a thing of the past.”

• Twitter announced employees can work from home permanently (up to them)

THREE TOP CRIPPLING FACTORS:

1. WORKING PARENTS

2. WELLNESS (physical and mental)

3. INFORMATION OVERLOAD

WFH however brings NEW workplace challenges

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# 1 Crippling Factor: Working Parents

“The challenge is… how do I stay productive at work AND keep the children distracted, whilst trying to avoid the guilt of being a 'bad parent' by sitting them down with a device and them

playing Fortnite all day.”

Companies have helped in past with childcare, but this is going to become a bigger problem in the summer as kids summer camps are closing across the country and parents fearful of putting kids in ones that are open. What is role of companies now?

Examples of what companies are doing : Giving time flexibility to parents; extending allowing for childcare (neighbor) – NO ONE has figured this out (yet)!

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# 2 Crippling Factor: Wellness

“I’m finding it really difficult to find the motivation to try to work out – I’ve lost my routines and habits. This is adding up as just

sitting at my desk nearly all day.”

The resonating theme we hear from employees that are now WFH is the erosion of their health, no exercise/ no access to healthy food fast, and struggling to sleep . On top of it, feeling further disconnected from their teams.

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Trends of how companies are helping

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Meditation, Sleep, Therapy Apps Exercise Classes

Gratitude Sessions EAP

# 3 Crippling Factor: Information Overload

- Remote combined with influx of new communication tools (slack, yammer, Microsoft teams)

- Columbia Business School professor Sheena Iyengar, an expert on choice, estimates that the average knowledge worker must process, consciously or subconsciously, the equivalent of 174 newspapers of information every day.

- Head of Wellness, large accounting firm “We have a ton of information, classes we are putting out- but getting employees to read it is exceptionally difficult”

Practical tips: Communicating priorities, asynchronous vs synchronous, programs vs one-offs (“Wellness Wednesdays, COA”)

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For the latest how-to guides, visit https://www.perksatwork.com

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❑ The challenges and strategy of creating trust and loyalty in an ambiguous environment

❑ Wellness strategies in work from home setting

❑ Working parents – new challenges and roles of companies

❑ Recognition strategies to building engagement and connectedness

Future Thursday Sessions

Workplace TrendsPost-COVID: The New Normal Of Work Series

For the latest how-to guides, visit https://www.perksatwork.com

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Q&A

For the latest how-to guides, visit

https://www.perksatwork.com10

Q&A