Tension could result in turnover at a time when a surplus of jobs remains available
By Eric Neugeboren
BridgeTower Media Newswires
BALTIMORE — A disconnect is emerging between some employees and employers over the return to working in-person, and human resources professionals say the tension could result in turnover.
With the pandemic’s effects on companies’ operations subsiding, organizations are beginning to evaluate what their workplaces will look like in a post-pandemic world.
Many employers have not committed to returning to fully in-person operations, with some still undecided or opting for a hybrid model. But the potential return to in-person work has driven a wedge between some employers and employees — at a time when employee turnover is high and a surplus of jobs remains available across the United States.
This disconnect arises from employees who have experienced newfound flexibility by working remotely during the pandemic and employers who want to see a return to in-person operations.
“For any organization, there's this balance between the way that we treat our employees and the way that we run our business, and sometimes those are at odds,” said Amanda Haddaway, the managing director of HR Partnerbox.
Warren White, the president-elect of the board of the Chesapeake Human Resources Association, said the pandemic has shown that for a large percentage of the workforce, “people can work remotely just as effectively, and sometimes more effectively than they could on site.”
“Employees are kind of picking up on that and pushing back against the idea that they need to be in the office every day in order to be productive,” White said. “There is absolutely some tension there.”
At the same time, some employers want their employees to return to offices.
Angela Saunders, the board president for the Human Resources Society of Prince George’s County, said some employers are planning their future based on the success of remote working during the pandemic.
But organizations are also recognizing that they have to run the company as best they can, Saunders said, and some believe there are too many advantages to working in person, especially in regards to company culture.
“It is hard to build rapport over Zoom,” said Saunders, who also works as a diversity, equity and inclusion consultant at Nonprofit HR. “It's hard to build that connectivity and have people have that sense of belonging and being able to really build those relationships.”
The tension comes at an unprecedented moment for the U.S. job market. In April, more than 4 million people quit their jobs, a record number reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The bureau also reported a record-high number of job openings on the last business day in April.
In a June 20 survey by Morning Consult, 49 percent of adults said they would consider quitting their jobs if they were told to work in person before they felt safe.
Some human resource professionals say the current job market gives more leverage to employees.
“When employees aren't happy with working conditions, they leave. And that's been the case since all the way back to the Industrial Revolution,” Haddaway said. “The piece that is new and may be troubling to employers is that there are a lot more open jobs right now than people to fill them.”
The tension is playing out at the University of Maryland, College Park, where employees are pushing for more telework while understanding some in-person work is necessary.
The university is in the middle of a phased reopening plan for the fall semester under which employees will be gradually brought back to campus. Starting July 5, staff at the university will need a supervisor’s approval to telework — a reversal from the current phase of the plan, in which staff needed a supervisor’s approval to work on campus.
Earlier this month, more than 550 university employees signed a petition demanding expanded access to telework for the rest of the summer. The petition calls for at least three days of telework for all employees throughout the summer and that employees can delay reporting in-person until August.
The petition cites several reasons in the push for expanded telework, namely the closure of local Metro stations during the summer and the challenges employees face in arranging or providing child care.
Todd Holden, the president of the union that represents the university’s workers, said the union has heard of instances where people will “start looking for other arrangements” if there is an insufficient amount of telework.
“Not addressing the short-term challenges around telework is going to cause workers to make long-term decisions about their place in the workplace,” Holden said.
In a statement, the university said its most recent bargaining agreement with the union allows provisions for telework, and “campus unit leaders continue to be able to consider employees' requests for telework.”
Not all employers have decided whether to return to in-person working, and some human resources professionals believe the future of working will be a combination of in-person and remote.
Debra Temple, the director of human resources for the Americas and Global Talent Management at GP Strategies in Columbia, said she “would like to think a majority of companies, if they can, are buying time.”
“Over the next six months, employers kind of have to dip their toe in the water and just kind of see what it looks like,” Temple said. “A good six months to say, ‘We don't want to draw a hard line because we don't potentially want to lose some of our workforce. But we also don't want to commit to anything long term without really seeing the ramifications of what that looks like.’”
