Firms failing to meet workplace challenges heightened by Covid-19

Businesses are facing increasingly complex challenges, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges presented by the increasing shift to digitisation, a new survey has found.

The PwC Future of Work and Skills Survey found the mismatch between the work environment demanded by employees and the one that exists within their organisation continued to widen.

The survey, which questioned 4,000 business and HR leaders, highlighted concerns about understanding the consequences of replacing human work with technology, the impact of technological change on upskilling, and being able to communicate about these issues with stakeholders.

Costs, lack of leadership capability and organisational culture were cited as the main obstacles to making progress in these areas.

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PwC highlighted several actions that companies could take to create a more resilient and stable workforce in the face of ongoing uncertainty and the move towards “the great resignation” that some businesses have experienced.

Next disruption

Using data to plan for different scenarios was considered a key action for companies in anticipating the next disruption, but only 26 per cent of organisations surveyed said they used a wide variety of external data sources and viewpoints in planning.

Companies should also work on building trust in the organisation and its leadership to get the most from their staff. Almost 40 per cent of business leaders said trust between workers and their direct supervisors is very important, but only 30 per cent said they were doing what is considered necessary to build that trust. Among the potential actions highlighted to build trust were greater levels of transparency both internally and externally, support for mental and physical wellbeing, and the closure of gaps in workforce diversity and pay equity.

However, despite the importance of diversity to company culture, only 27 per cent of respondents strongly agreed that leaders in their organisation are held accountable for diversity and inclusion results.

The introduction of remote or hybrid work saw an increase in productivity in most workplaces, with more than half of respondents saying their organisation performed better against workforce performance and productivity targets over the past 12 months, with only 4 per cent seeing a significant decline.

Worker flexibility

“Giving workers flexibility to manage their work and home lives as they see fit and take time to rest, and supporting their diverse circumstances and needs, will help them to be healthy, mentally and physically. And this will make it more likely that they’ll perform well in the long term,” the report said.

Despite the focus on the importance of flexibility and resilience in organisations over the course of the pandemic, only 28 per cent said they could rapidly adjust their workforce strategies.

Meanwhile, barely one in four business leaders said they could identify the skills they would need in the future, highlighting a key concern for companies about their future.

Less than a quarter of leaders said they were confident they knew the potential risks of automating work.

Among the recommendations put forward by the report were the importance of building trust in the organisation, optimising productivity and performance, and deploying technology with humans in mind.