Survey: How do candidates feel about employer crisis management and the return to the office?

When the global health crisis hit Europe at the beginning of last year, people, companies and countries alike had to react to overt tthis new situation rapidly. This meant changing where and how people worked, changes to travel and movement, alongside restrictions to all parts of daily life.  

The restrictions on movement and going to the office varied between countries and economic sectors, as each took a slightly different approach to remote working or the ability to work from distance. In general, employees had the option to work remotely, or to come back to the office full time, or to use a mixed model of both options.  

A majority of the workforce has been working from home for almost a year now. In terms of returning to the office, some employees want to go back to their desks, while others would prefer to continue working remotely. And of course, people working in manufacturing, logisitics and supply chain were more likely to need to be at their place of work.  

As the current health crisis continues to improve across many countries, thanks to the expanding vaccination programmes, many companies are now preparing to re-open their offices, and ask their employees to return to their workplaces. 

In our latest survey we asked all job applicants to our sites to let us know their feelings on this return to work. We also asked them about how their last employer communicated with them throughout the pandemic, to try and understand companies crisis comms, and how they interacted with their employees at distance.  

We asked how their employer communicated the financial position and market reality of the busines, and if the company gave clear directions on any new processes and practices. And we also wanted to know if their companies communicated a vision of the future to them, as this could affect attraction and retention.   

These statistics will help you understand how potential new employees feel about these topics, and will help you structure your external communciations when advertising new jobs or talking about your companies response to the pandemic, for example.  

To dive deeper into these topics, Michael Page surveyed job applicants from our websites in 13 countries between September 25th and November 17th 2020. 

Our infographic offers you insights into:  

• The options companies offered their employees for returning to the office  
• How people felt about returning to their place of work   
• How secure they feel about their job for the next 6-12 months 
• How satisfied employees were with their employer’s performance during 2020