We spoke to 600 businesses and 750 employees across a number of different industries. One big talking point was how COVID-19 has changed the culture of different businesses. With over 92% of business moving to a work from home structure in March 2020, it was a concern that a collaborative culture and working environment would be lost, without face to face interactions.

 It may be a surprise that only 28% of our respondents reported a negative effect on company culture due to the pandemic, with the remaining reporting no change (37%) or even a positive impact (34%).

Certainly for businesses who have reported a positive impact, a common theme was a more collaborative environment between teams and/or different office locations becoming more prevalent. Whilst those businesses which reported a negative impact, displayed unclear, non -transparent communication and lack of trust to remote working employees.

It is clear that the way businesses operate will never be the same again and we are all living in the ‘new normal’ at the time of writing. Personally, I believe moving forward, we will see more flexibility, remote working and a targeted focus on mental health and wellbeing from employers. With these changes to our working lives, we are already seeing an investment in strong IT support systems and implementing changes to create agile working policies.

 If you would like to receive your free copy of the 2020 p2p post, feel free to contact me on 02 8270 9715 or anthony.demarco@people2people.com.au . Don’t miss out on this comprehensive salary and market report, which will give you the opportunity to benchmark your business to others across Australia and New Zealand.