Avaya has released the results of a new survey, “Life and Work Beyond 2020: The Change Makers,” examining how attitudes and feelings toward home and work life have changed over the last year. The Avaya survey uncovers a significant happiness gap, with only 27% of respondents saying they were happier in 2020 and 43% saying they were less happy. The survey also reveals that organizations have the power to increase well-being, with 56% saying hybrid work has the potential to improve their well-being and 79% saying that when engaging with an organization’s contact center, they expect agents to do everything possible to make them happy.
Digital transformation and the pandemic have created lasting change in how we want to work and shop. As workers, we want a hybrid work environment that offers more choice and eliminates an inflexible daily grind. As consumers, we want to interact with businesses through the channels we prefer, and we expect in-the-moment responsiveness to address our unique needs. Businesses that want to meet these changing dynamics require composable solutions that let them build the ideal communications and collaboration environment for managing distributed teams and empowering these teams to delight customers.
“Avaya’s ‘Life and Work Beyond 2020’ survey presents a compelling case that organizations today play a critical role in our well-being, both as employers and service providers,” said Simon Harrison, Chief Marketing Officer, Avaya. “The question is, how can businesses enable hybrid work while ensuring employees have the tools they need to consistently delight customers? Avaya OneCloud is a composable communication and collaboration platform that enables businesses to bridge employee and customer experiences, with fluid, seamless engagement no matter where employees are working while empowering them to quickly create and deliver memorable experiences in the moment.”
Key Insights from the India Market basis the survey include:
Support for Hybrid Work Model
With organisations still replanning reopening of offices till the situation stabilizes and comes under control, 77% of the Indian employees have agreed to Hybrid work model as they feel it will better their mental wellbeing. 74% of the respondents have mentioned that they would support government policies to help all employees embrace hybrid working, e.g. working from anywhere, office, home or other location. Infact 56% of the Indian employees would love to work from anywhere in the near future wherein 30% of the respondents are indifferent to the scenario.
Work Ethics and Values becoming more important
With remote working becoming the new normal, coordination, communication and collaboration have become important than ever in this new work model. 40% of the Indian employees feel that Honesty has become the top-most priority along with many opting for Loyalty (20%), Open-mindedness (14%), Passion (15%) amongst others to maintain an equilibrium in the employer-employee relationship. 49% of the Indian respondents have opted for organisations which reflect these values.
Mixed reaction towards Automation taking over in the near future
Although, Indian employees share a positive sentiment towards working from home or working in a hybrid environment, 47% of the respondents have shown concerns WRT Automation taking over their roles in the near future wherein 37% of the employees don’t feel so.
Key Global Takeaways from Avaya’s “Life and Work Beyond 2020” Survey
Our sources of happiness are changing – and many are less happy
According to the survey, the unsurprising top sources of decreased happiness in 2020 include the COVID-19 pandemic (82%), less face-to-face contact with others (68%) and money worries (64%). However, among the 27% of respondents whose happiness increased, the top reasons included some surprises, including flexibility in deciding where to work (62%) and more work from home & bosses trusting workers (57%).
Work needs flexibility
The desire for more work flexibility is underscored by the fact that across all respondents, 46% feel trapped in a daily routine and 43% are struggling to find the right work-life balance. Further, 56% think that hybrid work will have the potential to improve their well-being, and 60% would support government policies that embrace hybrid working.
Changed values are reshaping how we shop
Honesty, respect and optimism are now top values, and 69% of respondents say they actively (33%) or sometimes (36%) choose organizations, including banks, retailers, utilities, healthcare providers, and telecom providers, that reflect their values. More than 1 out of 2 prefer a mix of ways to contact organizations, including a phone number on every webpage or app (69%) and more help available on websites (57%). Nearly half of respondents (47%) say convenience is more important than price.
Organizations have a big impact on our well-being
The impact of organizations on well-being is huge, with 71% of respondents saying customer service problems cause them a great deal (28%) or a considerable amount (43%) of stress. A full 79% expect organization contact centers to do everything possible to make them a happy customer, but only 13% say organizations always make them feel good after an interaction and only 8% say they are regularly delighted by their interactions.
