In December 2020, Mercer released their final survey in a series designed to measure the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace. It asked the question, “How are companies addressing flexibility, inclusivity, and the continued impact of the pandemic?”
The answers regarding the Future of Flexibility in the Workplace are clear: Although most employers were forced into flexible work practices with school and workplace closures, they have been happy with the results. 86% of employers surveyed plan to implement post-pandemic flexible work policies.
Source: Mercer
The answers regarding inclusion are less clear, however. If you dig into the data, you will see that while 75% of employers increased their focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) over the four to five months before being surveyed, 54% of employers are either neutral or disagree that their company’s DEI culture has improved. Only 10% strongly agree that DEI culture has improved.
Women, especially women of color, have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19. We are seeing in real-time what the immense impact of the struggle to retain them looks like, and it isn’t pretty.
While the professional world is on the precipice of normalizing flexible workplaces, we are faced with the challenge to reset expectations of what flexible work practices look like. And to proactively identify and fight gender bias – systemic, organizational, individual, and internalized – while we do it.
It is a common belief that flexible work practices will benefit women, especially women who juggle work with caregiving responsibilities. After all, working from home should give women more time in their day to dedicate to work and caregiving, right? Not always. At the time of this post, we have been living and working in pandemic-induced flexible workplaces for almost a year. Many of us who are working from home and caring for others can say with certainty that the added “flexibility” has not made life any easier. With the pandemic came the harsh exposure of the United States’ broken caregiving system, the burden of which has been placed on the shoulders of women for generations.
In fact, working from home could negatively impact women in several ways, as this piece describes. Women can see increases in their work/family conflict when flexible working leads to more work and a higher domestic burden. Informal networking—an important support system for women and diverse employees—is also harder when working from home, and can lead to a lack of access to critical assignments.
Source: Mercer. “Nearly 1 in 3 organizations say that half or more of their workforce will be remote post-pandemic (compared to 1 in 30 prior to the pandemic).”
Flexible workplace practices were forced unexpectedly by the pandemic. However, for the 86% of employers surveyed who plan to extend those practices, it is now time to be intentional with setting policies that address potential challenges and mitigate biases. There are several guidelines here to serve as a framework, all of which we believe are non-negotiable, especially these two:
Understand that remote working does not occur in a vacuum. Whether we come to a physical office or work remotely, we bring our implicit biases with us. With the increased presence of colleagues’ “home lives” on display while working remotely, we are more likely to make assumptions about others based on our gender-normative biases about the roles of mothers and fathers. Organizations should educate their managers on identifying these biases so they do not let their assumptions play into decisions around assigning roles and promotions, or even their everyday perceptions of employee behaviors.
Educate managers about the new rules. Managers, especially mid-level managers, have the greatest reach to the most employees within a typical organizational structure. Most managers began the pandemic by scrambling to engage a remote team, and many are still struggling. If employers want to continue flexible work practices beyond the pandemic, an essential first step is to arm managers with the tools to create environments where remote teams can thrive. This means educating managers on mitigating bias, identifying signs of employee burnout, and setting a healthy culture of work/life balance on their teams.
One day, the need to work remotely and flexibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic will end. When it does, organizations can take intentional steps to make remote work successful for all.
If your organization needs help planning and implementing these steps, reach out.