A Glimpse into the Future of Work: Our Latest Global HR Pulse Survey Results Are In!

The disruptions of the past 18 months have accelerated workplace transformation like nothing else in recent memory. This dynamic presents leaders with an incredible opportunity to align their business and people strategies to drive growth and optimize investments.

As you may already be aware, the Human Capital Solutions team here at Aon has led a series of global HR pulse surveys to better understand our clients’ emerging needs and challenges over the past year plus. Our latest survey, How COVID-19 is Changing How and Where People Work Forever, was conducted on April 20-28, 2021 and highlights the first steps firms are taking to bring the future of work to life. A total of 1,451 human resources leaders and professionals responded globally, providing us with an abundance of insightful statistics to share. 

With vaccine rollouts underway and many economies beginning to reopen, it appears as though we are headed back to some form of normalcy. But, what does normal actually mean? In just a matter of days, we went from being in the office and traveling for meetings and events to functioning in a fully remote environment. For many industries, this transition was seamless, proving the effectiveness of existing digital tools and virtual capabilities. Is remote work here to stay? Will “normal” now look a bit different? How will compensation practices need to change? Here’s what we found.

Companies expect remote workers to return soon, but not everyone and not every day

Globally, 73% of surveyed organizations already have expected return dates in mind for workers who left office settings as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the largest share of companies (43%) expecting remote workers to return in Q3 2021. However, companies do not anticipate that everyone will return to the office. Globally, 44% of surveyed organizations expect fewer than 75% of office workers to return onsite once the pandemic is over.

Which leads us to flexible or hybrid working options. 39% of companies expect returning workers to spend only two to three days per week in the office, and another 13% of companies are opting to give employees full choice on the matter. Unsurprisingly, this approach is especially popular in the technology sector, where nearly a quarter of companies plan to let employees determine the amount of time they wish to spend in the office.

This reality once again brings me back to the importance of workforce agility, which we define in our recent Accelerate Your Workforce into The Future paper as responding nimbly to change, such as upskilling and reskilling employees into new roles or functions to support evolving business needs. Countless companies took this unprecedented time to make unprecedented leaps forward on their digital transformation journeys. And we continue to see this evolving today, as more and more firms embrace new working models to build resiliency and fulfill the rising demands and expectations of the “new normal.”

The location-based compensation debate continues

Since some form of remote work is here to stay, I would be remiss not to mention the rising focus around geographic pay. Thirty-nine percent of surveyed organizations globally have adjusted, or are considering adjusting, geographic pay differentials as a result of the pandemic. Among companies actively adjusting pay based on shifting employee locations, 86% are re-examining pay rates using fresh market data and 53% are adding more granularity to the geographic zones they consider.

I should note that geographic pay differentials are a bigger debate in North America compared to other regions. In particular, many companies throughout Europe have developed a single set of ranges in their country that are broad enough to capture differentials, but narrow enough to control salary creep. And we find that location-based pay is typically less of an issue throughout many parts of Asia.

There is also the added complexity of employees moving across borders. This is happening more often in the European Union, where free movement of people is easier from a policy standpoint. Organizations face pay-related questions in these situations, including analyzing cost of living, market pay, tax and accounting-related laws in local jurisdictions. We discuss this more in our latest white paper, Enabling Workplace Change Through Rewards.

Making any compensation adjustments comes with challenges. Top concerns include employee communication and the difficulty of adopting and maintaining market-aligned pay rates across numerous locations. In both cases, 67% of surveyed companied cited these issues as moderately, very or extremely challenging.

These are just some of the highlights from our Pulse 7 Global HR Survey, which provides an in-depth look at key considerations that are being discussed as businesses continue to prepare to get back to normal – whatever that may now be for your firm.

Complete results across multiple geographies and industries are available to download here.