Human Resources in the Post-Pandemic Era Part II

Our previous postings looked at the time workers spend in the office compared to how much they would like to be, the data behind the great resignation, and what a "good job" means to people. 

Recently, we have been looking a little more at how the office has been changing and then moving into more attitudinal studies of how people feel about their careers and current jobs. The disruption in how we work has been incredible during the pandemic, and it does not show any signs of slowing down. Organizations have struggled to keep up, and it is no wonder, given how quickly attitudes have been shifting. 

Even though the time spent in the office was relatively steady from September through November, the views on how much time is the "right amount" have been fluctuating. Flexibility is ultimately the answer, which is easier for smaller organizations to be sure of. However, larger ones will have to adjust or are likely to lose employees at an unsustainable pace. 

What is very interesting to see (and very discouraging for HR professionals) is that happiness in your career does not translate into the likelihood of staying at your current job. When it comes to careers, Americans are decidedly feeling OK. A plurality of workers feel good about their job most of the time, but not all the time. Just over a third feel optimistic just about all the time. Age is one of the more significant factors, while industry tends not to affect much. 

 One of the foundational approaches for Trendency is moving away from binary measurements (i.e., are you happy or unhappy? Are you satisfied or unsatisfied? Do you like chocolate or vanilla). These black and white measurements don't reflect the world we live in or how people make decisions. They also can cover over what is happening. 

For example, when we look at employee happiness, we find nationally there are six distinct groups of employee types. One group is decidedly happy. Three are satisfied with some things, but they are certainly challenged at their current job, and two are unhappy for different reasons. The overall score is reasonably high when asked to rank their happiness (average 70 on a 0-100 scale). Even some of the more negative feeling cohorts rank their satisfaction higher than one might expect. This masking of what is happening is likely at the root of many challenges that companies face when improving their culture and approach to their employees.