San Francisco, CA, May 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Culture Amp, the leading People & Culture company, today released new data from its COVID-19 response template, a free survey template to help organizations understand how the rapidly changing work environment has impacted their employees. After sourcing data from 200 organizations around the world, Culture Amp found a direct relationship between more engaged employees and companies demonstrating strong leadership traits. To be precise, an increase in response rates was strongly tied to “confidence in leadership in responding to the pandemic,” and “a seamless transition to widespread remote work.”
The COVID-19 response template, first offered to customers and non-customers alike in March 2020, is aimed at providing organizations with the necessary tools to keep a pulse on employee mental health, well-being, engagement, and productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the template, organizations can survey their employees frequently to gain a better understanding of how their employees are adapting to remote work, communicating internally, and supporting customers at this time.
The current pandemic has taken a toll on the global workforce in more ways than one, causing extreme stress and pressure to perform in today’s volatile business environment. One study found that 45% of the workforce is currently experiencing burnout due to increased workloads, lack of support, and higher expectations at work stemming from COVID-19. Organizations must prioritize understanding and fixing the root cause of negative employee experiences while pioneering new methods to ensure that a focus is put on fostering a positive, productive and inclusive company culture as we move into a future hinged on a new workplace model.
“During uncertain times it’s more critical than ever to understand employee sentiment in order to drive engagement, productivity, well-being and ultimately uphold a dynamic workplace culture,” said Didier Elzinga, CEO & co-founder, Culture Amp. “Surveys are a great means for employees to communicate with leadership, but leaders must be willing to not only understand what the data is saying, but also respond rapidly with a smart and nuanced strategic vision. While there’s always room for improvement, the data from the first iteration of the COVID-19 response template shows that for the most part organizations are doing just that — listening to their employees and piloting systemic shifts to help them adapt to changing workplace demands.”
Findings from Culture Amp’s COVID-19 response template include:
Leadership and engagement:
- On average, more than 91% of all employees surveyed believe their company made the right changes in response to COVID-19 — Across the board, employees are emphatically positive about the route their organizations took in relation to COVID-19, as workplaces enacted new policies around remote work, hiring freezes, and other structural changes.
- Organizations who scored the highest on the question “My company is making sufficient adjustments to the COVID-19 Pandemic” also had the highest response rate with more than 75% of employees responding to the survey — This shows a strong correlation between leaders implementing a plan of action and overall employee engagement. When leadership is decisive and responsive in times of crisis, employees are much more likely to be engaged at work.
- Healthcare workers are the least likely to view their leadership as accessible and visible during the COVID-19 pandemic — Healthcare workers had the most to say about the accessibility of their leaders. On average, 84% believe their leadership is appropriately visible and accessible during the COVID-19 pandemic — the lowest score across all industries.
Organizational responsiveness:
- On average, 93% of employees surveyed are confident in their organizations’ response to COVID-19 — Regardless of company size, employees are confident in their leadership’s response to COVID-19. In addition, companies with 1000-5000 employees scored the highest on the question “I have confidence in Company's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic” — showing that when necessary some of the largest corporations can be as decisive as their smaller startup counterparts.
Remote work:
- The workforce is digitally savvy — on average more than 90% of all employees surveyed believe they are adapting well to remote work — Regardless of company size, employees are easily adapting to remote work. Given the widespread adoption of tools like Slack, Zoom, and Google Docs, a shift to a distributed working model was bound to be our new reality, and could likely be the cornerstone of the future of work.
- 95% of healthcare workers surveyed believe they are adapting well to remote work — Not all healthcare workers are on the frontlines, and those who are working from home have shown that they can transition seamlessly to remote work, with healthcare workers scoring the highest in adaptability to remote work among all industries. This is in part due to the rise of tele-health — an industry that is expected to grow to $55.6 billion by 2025 — which allows medical doctors and nurses to take part in the globally- distributed workforce.
In addition to the free COVID-19 survey launched in March, Culture Amp has just released a free 7-part multimedia journey called “Working Through It” to help managers and employees survive and thrive during this challenging time. To learn more about these resources, please visit:
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About Culture Amp
Culture Amp is the leading People & Culture Platform helping companies take action to improve employee engagement, retention and performance. Culture Amp is a Culture First certified B Corporation used by nearly 3,000 customers including Aegon, Airbnb, Go Cardless, KIND Snacks, McDonald’s, Bon Secours Mercy Health, Salesforce and Slack. Started in Melbourne with offices in San Francisco, London, and New York, Culture Amp has raised $150,000,000 USD from leading venture capital funds, including Index Ventures, Felicis Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, Blackbird Ventures and Sequoia Capital China. Learn more at cultureamp.com and @CultureAmp.