Employee safety top priority of companies, finds survey on Covid-19 impact

Kolkata: The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the spotlight firmly on employee safety and wellbeing, with 71% companies in a global survey listing it as their top business priority.

Ensuring financial stability (47%) and cost optimisation (44%) were the other top business priorities, revealed 'Global survey COVID-19: Impact on business', a survey conducted by executive search firm EMA Partners and shared exclusively with ET. The survey was carried out among 416-plus decisionmakers across 25 countries to gauge the impact that Covid-19 has had in their organisations.

About 55% of the companies that participated in the survey experienced a decline in business but have not laid off employees so far.

The top three measures taken by corporates to support employees during the outbreak are zero/negligible business travel (75%), regular communication to employees on Covid-19 and safety measures to be observed (72%) and ensuring adherence to all recommended safety measures in the office and onsite (69%).

The top three competencies for CEOs that will be critical in managing the current environment will be the ability to manage ambiguity (69%), strategic thinking (64%) and engaging and leading people (60%).

The pandemic has given a new dimension to the priorities of the human resource function with work from home becoming the new normal.

For HR, the top priorities, according to the survey, are as follows: maintaining high performance of employees while they work remotely (48%); mental health and wellbeing of employees (47%) and people engagement (47%). The other top priorities are the retention of key employees (24%) and people development (22%).

The crisis has brought with it a set of key learnings, say respondents. Businesses have to respond fast; digitisation is here to stay; employees can work remotely without significant problems; the key to success in crisis is readiness/ ability to adjust business quickly to a changing environment and out-of-the-box thinking is stimulated, they said.

"In general, when we are speaking of the new normal, organisations the world over are learning to do more with less," said K Sudarshan, managing director at EMA Partners India.

"Companies are transitioning aggressively to the digital mode, cutting down on commercial office spaces, building more flexibility in their own processes and systems and above all learning to trust their employees who are now operating from a remote environment," he said.

That reflects in the "new normal" likely to come into play after overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic. This, say the survey participants, will play out through an increase in the share of employees working remotely and accordingly, reduction in the need for office space (24%); digitisation of business and the transition to online (22%). Besides, 10% of participants say that flexibility and adaptability of companies at all levels will be crucial to remain effective.