As COVID-19 Cases in the U.S. Spike, Few U.S. Employees Say Their Organizations Have the Culture and Resilience to Navigate a Crisis
Trended Eagle Hill Consulting Polling Finds Continued Low Employee Trust in Organizational Leadership, Identifies Actions to Help Employees Feel Safe Returning to Workplace
As U.S. coronavirus cases soar and more localities move to reimpose shutdown orders, new national research finds that only 25 percent of U.S. employees say their organization has a culture that fosters employee innovation and collaboration to deal with a crisis. Thirty-nine percent say their organization has the resilience to withstand the COVID-19 pandemic, while only about one-third (35 percent) say their organizations have trusted leaders and managers to navigate the crisis.
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“As the pandemic unfolds, our research finds that employees continue to have low confidence in their organization’s ability to manage this lingering crisis,” said Melissa Jezior, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Hill Consulting.
“We’ve been monitoring employee sentiment since March, and it’s concerning that we’re not seeing increased confidence. This pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon, and low employee confidence will further hamper an organization’s ability to steer through the pandemic,” Jezior said. “However, we did find there are steps employers can take to make employees feel safe as they return to the workplace – from providing protective gear and COVID-19 testing to mandating sick employees stay home.”
Review a timeline of U.S. workforce sentiment about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Additional findings of the 2020 Eagle Hill Consulting Trended COVID-19 Employee Survey are as follows:
- Less than half (40 percent) believe their organization is proactive about addressing concerns for the health of their workforce.
- About one-third (35 percent) say their company is proactive about addressing concerns for the economic health of their organization.
- Thirty-nine percent of workers indicate that they are less productive.
- Thirty-eight percent of employees say they feel more burnt out at work.
- Close to half (44 percent) feel less connected to their co-workers.
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Eagle Hill also surveyed employees on what employers could do to make them feel safe in terms of returning to their workplace. The trended polling found that:
- Sixty-two percent said provide hand-sanitizer, masks and gloves.
- Sixty percent said mandate that employees with any symptoms stay at home.
- About half (48 percent) said make COVID-19 testing available to employees.
- Half (50 percent) said limit the number of people (e.g., employees/visitors) allowed in the physical workplace at any given time.
- Fifty percent said require physical distancing in workplace design.
- Forty-two percent said implement flexible sick leave and supportive policies and practices.
The 2020 Eagle Hill Consulting Trended COVID-19 Employee Survey was conducted online by Ipsos on March 17-19, 2020; March 31-April 2, 2020; April 8-10, 2020; April 14-16, 2020; April 28-30, 2020; May 12-14, 2020; May 14-18, 2020; June 11-15, 2020; and July 9 –13, 2020. Each online survey included more than 1000 respondents from a random sample of employees across the United States. The survey polled respondents on COVID-19 and its potential impact on their work experience and environment.
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