A new report from Jabra, analyzing employee sentiments around hybrid work, find that flexible working has overtaken salary as the top benefit for U.S.-based employees, with 65 percent ranking flexibility as more important than compensation. The finding is included in the Jabra Hybrid Ways of Working 2021 Global Report, which surveyed 5,000 knowledge workers in five countries worldwide, including France, Germany, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom.
In the United States., nearly three-quarters of respondents (70 percent) believe that in the future, having an office space will be considered an employee benefit as opposed to a mandatory way of working. The U.S. workforce also sees the office as a social amenity (65 percent) and place to collaborate (63 percent), with independent working happening better off site. This shift in attitude towards flexible working and office space suggests that employers need to rethink their benefits packages and ensure that they are appropriate for post-pandemic working life.
The dominant challenges U.S. workers face at home are team connectivity (39 percent), motivation (31 percent), and equipment challenges (28 percent). Yet companies that did a poor job transitioning staff to remote working during the pandemic and employee concerns about career development might be the real drivers of employee hesitation around hybrid environments. Globally, employees are more likely to request more days working in an office – three days or more a week – if their company did not do a good job transitioning to remote work during the pandemic, with 17 percent wanting to be in the office full-time, compared to 14 percent for those who had a good experience with the remote work transition.
Most U.S. employees (83 percent) have concerns about hybrid working, primarily due to poor communication practices and unequal playing field, with only 34 percent believing their organization is very prepared to move to a hybrid working model in the next six months. More than half (56 percent) also admitted that they would prefer to work from home but are concerned their career would suffer long-term.
To download a copy of the full research report, please visit: www.jabra.com/hybridwork
