Will Companies Remain Empathetic After the Coronavirus?

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted — and reinvented — the notion of business as usual. For many organizations, working life is a new, home-based reality. Others are innovating safer ways to deliver essential services to the public, while still others have had to suspend operations. In a climate of such turmoil and uncertainty, the capacity to focus on the well-being of employees and the economics that underpin the enterprise has never been more urgent.

For now, the fallout of COVID-19 may overwhelm our sightlines and operations. Yet, when business and society move past the pandemic and toward a brighter future, the impact — and opportunity — of artificial intelligence and technology will have vastly accelerated. So will a more expansive, empathetic view of organizational purpose. More than ever, workers expect their employers to look after their health and deliver positive outcomes for customers, society and all stakeholders by utilizing data and analytic insights.

Change has rarely come so quickly, and new data underscores that profound workforce transformation was in the air before the pandemic. As AI, robotics and remote-working technology race ahead, Mercer’s 2020 Global Talent Trends study — which surveyed 7,300 senior executives, human resources leaders and employees from nine industries and 16 geographies — told us that 77% of executives see contingent workers playing a far greater role in the future. Meanwhile, 34% of employees expect their jobs to disappear in the next three years — and this was before the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Source: www.brinknews.com)