Does your employer care enough about you during COVID-19?

The future of work as businesses around the world prepare for a post COVID-19 pandemic reality. Business leaders want to figure out how satisfied they are after adjusting to new working norms and how employees have reevaluated what they need from their workplace.

About 79% of organizations believe employees prefer to work in an office and only 39% of employees would prefer to work from an office full time, NTT Ltd. reported.

However, CEOs (41%) are more likely than operations staff to be satisfied with their organization’s employee experience capabilities. There has been a shift in trend after 57% of employees will now select an employer based on work/life balance.

The underlying satisfaction gap between employers and employees, the research found a significant degree of diversity in employee attitudes towards their own future working preferences.

“Currently, the narrative is all about remote working – but the reality of employees’ needs is much more complicated, and any failure to accurately assess and respond to that fact presents a serious risk to organizations”, Alex Bennett, global senior vice president, GTM Solutions, NTT Ltd., said.

This awareness gap mirrors a serious lack of employee confidence, with just 38% saying that their employer fully values their health and wellbeing, and only 23% saying they are very happy working for their employer.

A company’s purpose and values is now the third most important factor for choosing where to work, NTT said. In this area, employees and business leaders are in sync, with 90% agreeing that environment, social and governance (ESG) objectives are at the heart of the organization’s agenda.