Embracing Remote Work + Engaging Employees – Survey Findings

Last month, we created our second Pulse Survey regarding remote work. We wanted to find out how Marketing, Creative and Digital leaders were feeling about returning to the office, what challenges they were facing at home, their company’s plans regarding work-from-home policies moving forward, and more.

Remote Work Key Findings

Most Aren’t Ready to Return to The Office

Most leaders are not comfortable with the idea of returning to the office at this time. More than 61% of respondents ranked their level of comfort heading back to the office as less than 55 (scale of 0-100, 100 being most comfortable). According to MN Health, 3 out of 4 Covid-19 cases in Minnesota have been in people ages 20-69. So, it’s not surprising that people aren’t ready to go back to the office just yet. 

More Flexibility for Remote Work Compared to Pre-Pandemic Policies

Work-from-home is becoming more of the norm and it doesn’t look like that’s changing any time soon. 73% of our Pulse Survey respondents said that their organizations would increase work-from-home flexibility (compared to pre-pandemic policies), fully embrace work-from-home and even hire from outside their organization’s location in 2021. This follows the trend of these 20 major companies, including Google and Indeed, who have announced long-term remote work options for their employees.

Three Major Challenges Facing Leaders Working from Home

It seems there are several different challenges facing leaders as they continue to work remotely this fall. However, as one respondent noted, it is hard to choose just one major challenge as it depends on what’s currently happening at work and at home. 

According to our respondents, the two biggest challenges seem to be “schooling children from home” (30.77%) and “social isolation” (30.77%) – closely followed by “no line between personal and work life” (26.92%).

 Leaders Find Creative Ways to Engage Teams Remotely

Since social isolation is a major concern as we continue to work remotely, our respondents have found some fun and creative ways to stay engaged. Here are some of the things they shared that worked well for their teams:

• Generous use of Teams / Slack for gifs and shenanigans, trivia and bingo online, sports pools
• Jack and the box games 
• Birthday drive-by
• Jamboards to share details from those who are working from home
• A picnic and walk around the lake and sessions where everyone can meet up
• Patio happy hours
• In-person, socially distanced personal/professional development with an outside subject matter expert
• Themed stand ups, meetings, and happy hours
• Quizzes
• We did a check-in at the driving range and hit golf balls together!

Leaders Still Feeling Positive About Future of Company Growth

People are still feeling mostly positive. More than 53% of respondents ranked their positivity surrounding company growth at 70+ (on a scale of 0-100, 100 being most positive).

Methodology 

The data set used by Celarity only includes manager, director, VP+ level responses. 

Data was analyzed overall and also split and analyzed by company size (as indicated by respondents):

• Small (<50 employees)
• Small-to-mid (50-200 employees)
• Mid-size (200-1000 employees)
• Large (1000+ employees)

Various industries are represented including respondents from: Education, Energy, Finance & Banking, Insurance, Med-Device, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Professional Services (including Marketing & Advertising), Technology, Agriculture, Training and Development, and Non-profit.