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Worker Resilience Becomes a Priority for Companies
41% hired new staff in IT support, network engineering, software development, data analytics or cybersecurity. 41% have a new emphasis on soft skills for virtual work when hiring tech staff. 55% have new processes for virtual recruiting and interviewing. 62% are likely to hire for new lines or to backfill in IT or technology roles.
The 2021 CompTIA survey of HR leaders confirms what many other surveys have shown — that the pandemic created broad concern about employee work-life balance, workflows and morale. Looking ahead 41% say their companies will have a new emphasis on communication and on emerging tech skills for remote work. 42% expect new efforts on upskilling and reskilling for incumbent employees. Despite persistent discussion about the need for resilient and agile organizations in recent years, the pandemic response revealed that those qualities may have been available all along. Under very difficult circumstances, and in a matter of weeks, companies implemented entirely new operating models. They built socially distanced workspaces, established new workflows for hybrid teams, shifted learning curricula online and pivoted to largescale work-from-home models. While this came at enormous cost for many subsegments of workers, surviving that difficult period together could be the basis of a relationship reset between employer and employee, helping to break down some of the barriers between personal and working lives. While that is a positive takeaway for many, it has also revealed the need for a more resilient worker. To help create resilience, some companies, such as Google, have established “resilience teams” that use tech tools to check on employee wellness and deliver training in mindfulness and communication. 13 Additionally, Udemy’s annual workplace training trends report shows huge jumps in demand for courses around topics such as anxiety management and stress management. 14 Building a resilient workforce is harder than it seems. One point that comes up frequently in discussions about building a resilient workforce is the need for specificity. Trainers and hiring managers need to take care to identify well-defined competencies that lead to resilience.
What can we expect to see with soft skills? In our survey, 41% of HR leaders say their organizations will have a new emphasis on soft skills for IT workers. Although we have seen an increasing demand for soft skills in recent years, it is challenging to define and strategically prioritize. Employers are often asking for a range of higher-order cognitive skills alongside dispositional traits like integrity and work ethic. If anything, the list of desired soft skills has gotten longer during the pandemic, as discussions now also include topics such as self-management and stress tolerance. The pandemic probably made the need for soft skills more acute, particularly people skills that are based in empathy. “At Lumen, we have always supported the whole human with programs and resources to address mental, physical and financial well-being ,” says Marianne Groth, Talent Development Director. “During the pandemic, I feel like we learned even more about each other, and it came from a place of care and understanding. We were all facing similar issues.”
Tech-forward responses to the pandemic.
38% say they offered new or expanding technology stipends for work-from-home employees.
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