Workforce 2021: Where is Australian work-culture headed?

As organisations across the world having to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, there has been a drastic reorganisation of how people work. Earlier working from home was a one-off event, today it’s the only option. 

There is more than enough evidence that Australian workforce is looking forward to a re-designed work-culture in a post-cOVID world, as they get the taste of the future.

A recent survey by PwC across 19 countries including Australia, Canada, Germany, India, and more, highlights the interesting fact that 91% of people don’t want to go back to traditional working methods. “Traditional” here includes the commute, as well as working from home. According to Gensler’s Australia Workplace Survey, 67% of Australian workforce prefers a hybrid work model. The data also suggests that those in hybrid work set-up enjoy great overall work experience.

In the face of these overwhelming numbers, how are Australian companies responding? Are they too headed in the hybrid direction, or is the movement drifting towards something entirely remote or the office front? The short answer is - well, it depends. For a deeper understanding, let’s take a look below.

The Pull towards Office

A survey by Atlassian - which interviewed people from Australia, USA, France, Germany, and Japan - found that Australians felt the “erosion of company culture [as a result of working from home] more acutely than other countries”. This is owing to the fact that Australian teams would often have elaborate rituals of closing out the work day in ways that would make them feel more connected to each other.

There was always a sense of purpose and belongingness beyond work - and it was felt to be acutely missing while everybody worked from home.

However, another survey by PwC found that Australian employees felt a sense of connection with their colleagues, even though there was no one-on-one interaction every day. In addition to this, one out of every two employed people believed that the organizational culture had marginally improved, with three out of four people believing that they have a secure future at their workplace, in spite of the ongoing pandemic.

Work from Home / Hybrid Set up the “New Normal”

While Australians wanted to return to office even as the lockdown had just started, as things have shaped up, working from home appears increasingly to be the new adopted normal. With the jobs lost during the pandemic now completely recovered, as reported by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 75% of all industries are now offering more work-from-home jobs. Indeed, this explains the fact that in February, twice as many people worked from home at least once a day as did during the peak of the pandemic. 

This also signals the rise of the hybrid working model as well. With Australia’s top CEO’s backing the hybrid model, it seems like a done deal that this will be the “new normal” for at least some time to come. Owing to the fact that there are many differences between working from the office before the pandemic and doing so now, many companies are fully in favour of asking only the most essential employees to work from office, and on a rotating basis - so that all social distancing norms can be maintained.

But concerns still abound. Group Executive for Talent and Culture at ANZ, Kathryn van der Merwe said, “I think one of the questions that we have at the moment is: ‘What's the value proposition of being in an office? Because of all the social distancing, and splitting teams obviously to mitigate risks, what's great about being in an office environment isn't actually present at the moment. I think that's one of the big challenges.”

As companies struggle to balance working from home and working from the office, there are other changes afoot as well, primarily at the level of engagement.

New Paradigms of Engagement

Over the course of the pandemic, the ways through which employees engage with their workplace has drastically changed. Research conducted by Qualtrics demonstrates that up until 2020 the primary mode through which an employee engages with a company was the confidence they felt radiated to them from their senior leadership, as well as their ability to give a clear direction. However, during and post the pandemic, the primary mode of engagement has become the sense of belonging they feel towards the company and the sense of value that the organization communicates to them. 

As the cogs in the wheel kept moving in various organizations, many organizations came up with interesting ways to create an environment in which people could feel a sense of belonging, taking employee engagement up a notch.

Categorized as one of Australia’s best places to work, one of these organizations was PHD Media, which offered a 15-page notebook about their employees’ mental health struggles during the COVID-19 pandemic, which fueled conversations and created lasting connections. In another instance, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia provided all its employees an extra 10-day paid COVID-19 leave, over and above their existing leave days.

All of this goes to show that organizations are realizing the value of employee engagement, and are creating new policies giving it a central focus. 

Humanizing the digital work-model

From surviving to thriving, leaders are doing everything they can to keep the show running. Australian workplaces are getting increasingly conscious of how to keep their people safe and sane. There are many instances where workplaces are organizing virtual fitness sessions and ramping up mental health interventions with employees.

The focus now is on humanizing the digital work-model. This needs constant evaluation of gaps and opportunities that the ongoing work systems present. Cultures are evolving in a matter of days and weeks, and too acquire stability amid a constantly changing business environment, leaders need to be excessively attentive to details. By marrying the awareness of changing workforce needs, and individual circumstances, with organizational goals in the present context, the emerging Australian work culture is growing to become an example for other geographies to learn from.