By late April, more than 4 in 10 Americans had received one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine and more than one-quarter had been fully vaccinated. Although logistical hurdles remain — Kroll’s supply chain experts have long pointed out potential issues with vaccine creation and distribution, a concern illustrated by the recent errors at a Johnson & Johnson vaccine manufacturer — widespread vaccination could soon be on the horizon.
As a result, many business leaders are turning to the thorny questions of when and how to reopen. In New York City, 45% of office employees are expected to return by September, with Wall Street firms leading the charge. “My bet is, within a year, things will retreat back to normal,” said Peter Cappelli, director of the Center for Human Resources at Wharton. “It’s hard to change workplace behavior.”
While leaders should pay attention to Cappelli’s predictions, and outline comprehensive return-to-work plans, how can they do more than merely follow public health guidelines? More specifically, how can they…
● Prepare employees effectively for the post-vaccine world?
● Prioritize profits alongside public health?
● Avoid returning to “normal” — and instead return to better?
1. Address Vaccine Hesitancy
A March poll from Kaiser Health found that 13% of Americans do not plan to get a Covid-19 vaccine. An additional 17% said they would “wait and see” how it affects others, and an additional 7% said they would only get it if required. Though the total number of people across those three categories has nearly halved since December 2020, it is clear that vaccine hesitancy remains a major barrier to America’s safe reopening.
While business leaders have the legal right to require employees be vaccinated, most are avoiding the potential ramifications that such a mandate could bring. In a February survey of 1,800 U.S. in-house lawyers, human resources professionals, and executives, only 6% said they planned to require vaccination of their employees. More than 90%, however, said they would “encourage vaccination” — a wise move for leaders who are ready to get back to business.
In that vein, companies are taking a variety of approaches: Lidl is giving staff $200 to get vaccinated, Dollar General and Trader Joe’s are offering extra hours of pay, and Chobani and Danone are granting up to six hours of paid leave. Unilever CEO Alan Jope has made vaccination his personal mission, sending weekly letters urging his 150,000 employees to get vaccinated, and inviting the company’s doctor to town hall meetings. “We absolutely don’t want anti-vax or vaccine hesitancy to be part of the Unilever culture,” he said, “and it’s so helpful for [staff] to hear from someone they trust, who is a medical authority, and we will use that platform to answer people’s questions and to advocate for vaccines.”
2. Navigate the New Hybrid Normal
The hybrid workforce is here to stay. Multiple surveys reveal that 50% to 80% of companies — including Dell, TIAA, Google, and Target — will adopt a partially remote, partially in-person model going forward. This reflects the desire of employees, 49% of whom prefer hybrid work, and 34% of whom say they would quit if required to return to the office full time. To determine the appropriate course of action for their companies, leaders should analyze remote work’s effect on their KPIs, as well as ask workers directly how often they want to be in the office.
If leaders decide hybrid is right for their staff, Gartner says they should include economics, employee experience, and organizational enablement in their hybrid planning. It also suggests leaders evaluate the portability of tasks, rather than roles, explaining: “Many executives overestimate the number and type of jobs that really cannot be remote, because they look only at jobs as a whole, not the composite tasks.” Performing a careful analysis of the preceding factors could help leaders determine which employees need to be in the office, how often, and for what purposes. It could lead to a reevaluation of a company’s physical footprint, too.
Though many organizations are waiting for the “right” time to implement their hybrid models, others have taken matters into their own hands. Microsoft, for example, has created a “Hybrid Workplace Dial” that allows it to quickly adjust its timeline based on data, “moving a work site forward when local disease burden improves, and also dialing back when we observe declines in progress.” Salesforce, on the other hand, has already embedded hybridity into its DNA. “This isn’t just the future of work, this is the next evolution of our culture,” wrote Brent Hyder, the company’s chief people officer. “We’re combining the strength of our values, our platform and our people to reimagine the way we work for the better — whether in-person or in the cloud.”
3. Get Ahead of the War for Talent
In a recent Fast Company piece, leadership consultant Shawn Casemore warned that a war for talent is looming, thanks to the combination of “rising customer volume with increasing employee expectations and diminishing loyalty.” I agree with Casemore’s assessment, particularly as it relates to the younger set: One Microsoft survey found that 60% of Gen-Z employees (those ages 18–25) say they are “merely surviving” or “flat-out struggling” right now. Across generations, Microsoft’s research suggests that 4 in 10 workers are likely to consider leaving their employer in the next year.
It is thus essential for leaders to ensure that employees of all ages feel a sense of purpose, belonging, and appreciation as they return to work. One of a leader’s first steps should be reinvesting in culture, which may have been overlooked in the throes of the pandemic. LaSalle Network, a staffing and recruiting firm, suggests “cultural reonboarding” as a way to get employees excited about returning to the office and abandoning sweatpants for suits. As CEO Tom Gimbel explained: “Your employees got used to walking their dogs, seeing their kids, having dinner with their families every night, and there will be an emotional adjustment when they may not easily be able to do this when returning to the office.”
During this transition period, leaders should be adaptable and attentive, holding team-building events and frequent one-on-ones. With an eye to retaining talent in the coming years, they should also focus on training and reskilling. “The future of talent acquisition lies in reskilling, rather than finding someone better in the market,” said Rajesh Ahuja, global head of talent acquisition at Infosys, a company that launched a broad reskilling initiative last July. “If you need to hire today, you need to reskill yesterday.”
In conclusion, it is high time for companies to begin preparing their people for the post-vaccine era. If leaders would like to benefit both the greater good and their bottom lines, they should remain flexible, communicative, and empathy-driven as they help their organizations tackle issues like vaccine hesitancy, hybrid schedules, and the retention and reskilling of their best employees.
As for whether the result will look similar to pre-Covid times, Amy C. Edmondson, a Harvard Business School professor and author of The Fearless Organization, said it best: “Too many are asking whether we will go back to normal. To me, the problematic word is ‘back.’ There is no going back to pre-COVID times. There is only forward — to a new and uncertain future that is currently presenting us with an opportunity for thoughtful design.”
