If 2020 was the year the floodgates opened, unleashing a new virtual workplace that upended the old ways of working, 2021 was when everyone in HR learned to swim, or otherwise be consumed by the turbulent waters. The profession continues to grapple with daunting questions posed by the pandemic and the nation’s ongoing socio-political upheaval, as the paradigm shift of 2020 introduced new workplace norms that bled into the past 365 days and continues to present new challenges.
One thing seems certain: Work is not going back to the way it was before the pandemic. In order to understand where we’re going, it’s worth reflecting on what’s happened in the last year.
Open or closed?
The necessity (or lack thereof) of the office was fiercely debated in 2021. Effective vaccines presented a glimmer of hope for corporate chiefs hoping to shovel worker bees back into cubes, but as HR Brew reported earlier—and as we’re experiencing yet again—highly contagious variants have pushed those plans back indefinitely.
An August study from the University of Chicago found that 60% of workers felt like they were more productive when working from home, and a variety of major companies seem to understand that getting work done is no longer contingent upon having four walls and multiple conference rooms, as players such as Amazon, Facebook, Dropbox, and others announced long-term remote options for some employees.
Though uncertainty defines these murky times, in 2021, the office—once the center of gravity for businesses of all sizes and their employees—began to look more and more like an expensive, unnecessary appendage. If the office can ever return to its place of prominence in work life is one of the biggest open questions of 2022.
Workers used their leverage and companies listened (sort of)
Industries across the economy have seen a tidal shift in the balance of power between employees and employers. Employers have been navigating the Great Resignation—which may be more like a Great Reshuffling, as many workers aren’t dropping out of the economy but finding jobs more suitable to their needs.
Quick-to-read HR news & insights
From recruiting and retention to company culture and the latest in HR tech, HR Brew delivers up-to-date industry news and tips to help HR pros stay nimble in today’s fast-changing business environment.
But because of the alarming rate of quits, companies began attempting to woo and retain workers with different perks, like unconventional work-week formats, an emphasis on mental health and employee well-being, flexible hours, and remote-working arrangements. Flexibility is chief among those strategies, especially in a tight labor market. “Make no mistake, if employees can’t get flexibility from you, they’ll seek it elsewhere,” Peter Corless, an executive vice president at the software company OnShift, recently wrote for HR Executive.
It’s normal for companies to be political
The summer of 2020 prompted a surge of anti-racist proclamations from corporate America, and many younger entrants to the workforce want their employers’ political convictions to match their own; 60% of US workers want their CEOs to speak up about political issues, according to a CNBC/SurveyMonkey poll from April. Corporate brass like JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and organizations such as Major League Baseball made political statements, drawing ire from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who warned corporate America to “stay out of politics.”
Companies’ political stances became increasingly more important to their rank-and-file workers, and companies have been called out when they seem to fail to live up to pledges of progress, as some felt was reportedly the case with Google, CVS Health, Deloitte, and a variety of others who were discovered to have donated millions to anti–LGBTQ politicians despite participating in Pride month festivities, as Popular Information reported earlier this year. Many of the companies declined to comment on the Popular Information story, but Google issued a statement saying that just because the company donates to a candidate “doesn’t mean that Google agrees with that candidate on every issue. In fact, we may disagree strongly on some issues.”
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Contact Sam Blum via the encrypted messaging app Telegram (@SamBlum_Brew) or simply email [email protected].