How Benefits Are Evolving Post-COVID-19

Despite a brightening economic horizon, there’s still big trouble brewing in corporate America. COVID-19-related layoffs are still fresh in employees’ memories, workers are still feeling burnt out by the pressure to perform under stressful circumstances that ran through 2020 and early 2021, and there’s a fresh demand for talent to fuel the hastening economic recovery.

Unsurprisingly, this level of burnout and decline in mental health coupled with a rebounding economy and fruitful job market has contributed to a dramatic increase in resignations—a record 4 million people quit their jobs in April 2021 alone, in an exodus that is being called “The Great Resignation.” Employees have options, and if they aren’t seeing their needs addressed by their current organization, they’re likely to look for opportunities elsewhere.

Mitigating the effects of the Great Resignation starts with understanding the importance of investing in the employee experience. As HR departments and leadership teams, we need to ask ourselves what we can do to help employees navigate the lasting impacts of the pandemic and help them feel heard and secure. Moving forward, some of the most important ways that organizations can begin improving the employee experience will be by putting resources into employee mental health, approaching work flexibility in a strategic way, and taking time for meaningful connection.

Employee mental health

One of the small silver linings of the pandemic has been an increased focus on emotional and mental well-being; more than ever, mental health is receiving much-needed attention from HR departments and leadership teams. Employee assistance programs (EAP) tend to be the first line of defense in times of crisis, but while EAPs can be a great mental health resource for employees, utilization rates still average only about 6.5%.

To see your own utilization rates improve, you need to teach your employees how to access and use your EAP while also emphasizing to managers that they can and should be promoting its services to their teams. Opening up healthy conversations between employees and managers can help workers feel supported and promotes positive changes in the workplace.

Work flexibility

According to one survey, 76% of workers say they’d be more willing to stay with their current employer if they could work flexible hours. But the eight-to-five schedule is so deeply ingrained into the corporate world that, for many organizations, it can feel impossible to change. If you want to make work flexibility a benefit at your organization, it’s going to take a two-pronged approach: convincing leaders to buy into the idea, and engaging your employees in helping to create solutions that will actually work and make the business stronger.

What does that realistically look like? Well, at BambooHR, we faced a similar situation. Being tech-forward meant we were able to offer flexible scheduling and a hybrid work arrangement to a significant percentage of employees with relative ease. However, in customer service, we had to take into account the fact that customers call for help during normal business hours. Since we couldn’t allow total flexibility and still provide the same level of service, we came up with an alternative solution: different shift options employees can choose from so they can pick hours that best fit their schedule while also fulfilling business needs.

To find the balance between employee needs and business outcomes, you have to open communication lines with your people on what they’re looking for and what will create the best experience for them. When employees are involved in figuring out what the solution looks like and business leaders aren’t drafting plans in a bubble, the result will be a plan that keeps executives satisfied while also making employees feel included, empowered, and cared for.

Meaningful connection

We recently found that 56% of remote employees reported working extra hours in order to get promoted during the pandemic. If we start to peel that apart, it might not be as simple as employees doing more than their regular job. What this really points to is the stress that everybody has felt making sure they do their day job really well in the middle of a pandemic. With an increasing number of employees working remotely, communication is harder.

Coordination with your team, socializing, networking, and career progression used to naturally happen around the office, and now employees have to put in extra effort and hours to make that happen.

Professional development, career growth, and skill attainment should be part of your benefit offerings for all employees, whether in-office or remote. Part of that is reward and recognition—the monetary components and even just the social and emotional appreciation you get when you’re seen, appreciated, and recognized. However, you choose to recognize high performers or provide opportunities for growth, don’t forget about your remote workers.

Anybody embracing remote or hybrid work models has to proactively adapt because in-office experiences aren’t going to naturally replace themselves in other work environments. People stay at your company when you’re able to offer them growth and a positive employee experience, so you have to find ways to continue helping your remote workers develop professionally.

We have to work differently

We’re never going to unring this bell. The pandemic brought a lot of things forward, and there’s a lot we’ll need to do to continue to adapt. We need to build on what we’ve learned rather than just revert back to strategies that aren’t going to work anymore. This is the chance to be assertive about building the future of work, and that requires a partnership between leadership and HR, but also with our employees. Ultimately, they experience the implementation of what HR and leadership teams decide, so they’re a necessary ingredient in achieving that vision.

Cassie Whitlock is director of HR at BambooHR.