PwC Workforce Pulse Survey

Fewer than half (47%) of employees who were forced to stop working or work remotely say safety measures like wearing masks or reconfiguring layouts to promote physical distancing will make them more comfortable returning to the office. Only 45% say requiring customers to follow safety and hygiene practices will make them more comfortable. Even mandatory testing, like temperature checks before allowing people on-site, doesn’t inspire confidence.

The takeaway: For employees, safety protocols have quickly become normalized and are now expected—and don’t necessarily make people more comfortable returning to the office. Still, it’s important to recognize that some groups will value those measures more than others, and to understand who those people are and exactly what they need to feel more comfortable. For example, 58% of workers aged 45-54 and 54% of workers aged 65 and older say implementing new workplace safety measures would make them feel more comfortable being on-site, compared with only 40% of those aged 18-34. And 55% of respondents from the Northeast, where outbreaks are much higher than in other parts of the country, say they’d feel more comfortable if customers were required to follow safety and hygiene measures, compared with 45% of all respondents.

With 54% of finance leaders in PwC's CFO Pulse Survey planning to make remote working a permanent option, there’s a greater need to ensure people have the tools and resources they need to be productive and successful in a virtual work environment. The majority of employees said their organization’s tools and resources for collaboration, communication, coaching and creativity are “somewhat” or “very effective.” Slightly over a third (37%) of employees, for example, rated collaboration as “very effective.” But there’s room for improvement. About a quarter of employees said their organization’s tools and resources in these same four areas are either “not very” or “not at all” effective.

The takeaway: These skills and behaviors are critical for businesses to create new products, find new sources of revenue and grow. And 44% of CFOs say they plan to accelerate automation and new ways of working once they transition back to on-site work. But many organizations need to do more to ensure  employees have the necessary tools and skills. Meanwhile, many organizations are seeing significant improvements in other skills and behaviors as a result of new ways of working that emerged during the pandemic, such as greater agility, faster decision-making and more resilience and empathy. Identify what has worked well and improved, encourage those behaviors and take steps to embed them into your culture.