USC and IABC Workplace Study Finds Employee Morale is Higher, But Corporate Cultures are at Risk
The role of internal communicators continues to be critical as two-thirds say maintaining corporate culture is a challenge in new hybrid workplace environments.
CHICAGO, 24 July 2024 – A new study conducted by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, USC Center for Public Relations (CPR) shows that internal communicators continue to play a critical role as remote and hybrid workplaces continue to become standard practices.
“The wide adoption of remote and hybrid practices has created a balancing act between corporate culture and employee morale, said Fred Cook, CPR director. “This presents internal communicators with the opportunity to redefine the future of work and their role in it.”
This is the first research to focus on those responsible for communicating with employees at America’s largest companies. IABC wanted to understand the role communication professionals play in addressing the challenges employers face in an increasingly hybrid landscape, as well as the impact remote work has on productivity and quality while maintaining organizational values and culture. IABC partnered with the CPR to conduct a study that provides direction on the future of the workplace in a post-pandemic world.
An online survey was developed and distributed by both organizations to individuals with oversight or direct responsibility for internal or employee communications at their organizations. Respondents are largely based in the United States (56%) and Canada (23%), followed by the United Kingdom (4%), Australia (3%) and other countries (14%). Half of the participants have five or more years of experience managing internal communications (50%).
Remote work in some form has become the norm for most office-based workers, with more than half (56%) of respondent organizations using a hybrid approach and about one-third (34%) operating fully remotely. Even so, only one in four (23%) appear to monitor on-site attendance actively, and even fewer (16%) track the time logged into servers among those working off-site.
A majority of respondents (70%) indicated that policies and procedures for working from home are viewed as effective in contributing to the success of their organizations, and approximately half (52%) give the same evaluation to policies for remote work. As the world continues to change, long-term plans for office workers will not likely return to full-time in-office work. Most commonly, current and new employees indicate long-term plans for hybrid work, with a minimum number of days per week in the office (45-47%).
When asked about the biggest challenges resulting from remote and hybrid work, respondents indicated that the most pressing was maintaining corporate culture (67%), training and mentoring (70%) and maintaining positive morale (57%).
When asked how corporate culture is impacted by remote and hybrid work, responses were mixed. More than one third (37%) of respondents indicated that workplace changes have resulted in a weaker corporate culture, while just under one third (27%) stated that their cultures were stronger due to the impact of shifts to the workplace.
Shifts in corporate culture have also impacted employee morale. While nearly half (44%) of respondents reported that morale has improved due to remote work policies, more than a quarter (27%) indicated the opposite. Respondents largely reported that morale was “excellent” or “very good” for remote or hybrid workers. By comparison, only about a fifth (18%) of respondents indicated the same level of morale for fully in-office workers, with nearly one third (29%) of those workers indicating poor morale.
As hybrid work continues to become the norm, communicators can anticipate an increase in conflict between the needs of management and employees. Nearly half (45%) of respondents reported an increase of such conflict to date, largely around workload (78%), compensation (62%) and promotions (57%).
With these factors taken into account, the role of internal communications becomes critical in influencing organizational culture and employee morale. Nearly three quarters (74%) of communicators include messages about their organization’s culture and values when talking about work from home or remote work, followed by team building and cohesion (55%). While just over half (60-61%) of respondents consider such messages effective, results indicate an opportunity for communication teams to demonstrate their value when organizations develop policies that impact their workforce, rather than solely the communication of them.
“Communicators see up, down and across an organization. In the early stages of COVID-19, we saw this in action as the internal communications function played a heightened role, ensuring employees were connected and informed in a remote world,” stated Peter Finn, IABC executive director. “Four years out, we’re seeing yet another paradigm shift as the future of work continues to be redefined. We partnered with the CPR for their deep expertise in understanding and analyzing the state of communications. The results of this survey will help inform how we think about workplace culture and engagement and where the communicator’s opportunity lies.”
In the future, both organizations hope to expand the scope of this study to explore the impact of remote work and internal communications in additional geographical areas. The full report from this study is now available here. IABC will release an executive summary of the report in August 2024.
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About the USC Center for Public Relations
Based at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Center for Public Relations (CPR) connects corporations, agencies, academics and students to define the future of our industry and to develop those who will shape it. Under the direction of longtime Golin agency leader and current USC Annenberg professor Fred Cook, CPR conducts and publishes research reports forecasting the future of communication and forward-looking, thought-provoking content authored by our board of advisers, staff and USC colleagues. Signature initiatives include the Global Communication Report, USC Annenberg’s Kenneth Owler Smith Symposium, the USC Relevance Report, and the Lead On! leadership forum for women in communication. Follow the Center for PR on social media (@USCCenterforPR, #PRFUTURE).
About the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
IABC is the leading global association connecting communication professionals with the people and insights necessary to drive results. Bringing together the profession’s collective disciplines, IABC delivers on the Global Standard in communication through local chapters and regions; educational offerings; certification; awards; a proprietary resource library; diverse and global voices; and worldwide conferences including IABC World Conference, one of the premier annual conferences for the communication profession. Learn more about IABC at https://www.iabc.com.
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