Trends that were five years in the making have arrived ahead of time
Many workplace discussions during 2020 have touched on familiar topics chiefly:
- How to manage pay concerns for remote employees?
- Planning for upskilling and technology
- How are workplace stress, health and wellness impacting our teams?
The global pandemic is a catalyst, accelerating trends which had already been moving forward, delivering a more rapid pace of change than was envisioned. Companies are now examining and taking stock of positives from these changes, thinking about future designs of their business. A helpful anchor point is understanding what their workforce views were going into the year.
Just before the pandemic arrived, ADP®, a global leader in providing human capital solutions, surveyed over 32,000 employees and gig workers between October 2019 and January 2020 on various topics including pay, career and well-being—to understand what the modern workforce wants from work. The results of the study are published in the report, Workforce View 2020: Volume One pre-COVID-19, providing an interesting snapshot of the workforce view before the outbreak, which is valuable in assessing changes post-outbreak.
APAC full of optimism
Pre-pandemic global optimism was high as more than nine in ten (92%) respondents report feeling very or quite optimistic about the next five years at work. APAC was the most optimistic region (95%), and China was the most optimistic market in the global survey (96%).
World-leading optimism provides a solid building block in the design of work, but changes can occur rapidly, as most of the world discovered during the past months. Job roles were already changing, especially across APAC, moved along by automation and digitisation among other trends. One in three employees surveyed said their current role did not exist five years ago, and a similar percentage predict it will not exist in another five years’ time.
Rapid change has done little to dent workers optimism, as the overwhelming majority in APAC (95%) feel confident they have the skills to succeed in their career.
Stress and money matters
Demands of the modern workplace can impact even optimistic outlooks, Asia Pacific respondents (60%) report feeling stressed at least once a week, although this was the lowest of respondents in any region. The challenge for HR leaders is employees’ reticence to talk about stress and mental health, as only 22% of respondents said they would feel comfortable telling their manager or supervisor about a mental health problem or concern.
Money matters to everyone and may be one of the main drivers of stress—as three key factors give insight into.
- Globally only 2 in 5 workers receive their salary on time—APAC is the most challenged region
- Payslips are hard to read with a quarter globally saying they would not know if they were paid accurately (29% in APAC)
- APAC employees work an average of 8.5 hours of unpaid overtime per week HR focus in the post-pandemic workplace
- While employee positivity was on a high at the start of the year, the situation may have changed now at this time of uncertainty. HR teams have a central role to play in sustaining morale and supporting the employment ecosystem as roles and skill requirements change.
- Amidst signs of mental health strain, employers have a role to play in building open and supportive workplace cultures. HR teams must help to ensure employees know where they can raise sensitive issues like stress, in confidentiality, and without fear of reprisals, providing an important outlet.
Pay remains a driver of employee satisfaction, so innovative pay approaches that reflect when and how employees want to be paid may be one way to motivate and retain staff.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
