The Adecco Group's Professional Recruitment and Solutions division in North America, part of the world's leading provider of workforce solutions, today released results of a Compensation and Workforce Trends survey that captured responses from over 1,150 hiring decision makers, managers and above, in the U.S., across Marketing, HR, Administrative, Accounting / Finance and Legal / Law departments. The survey revealed how employers have coped with the COVID-19 pandemic in regard to talent management, as well as how they are thinking about current and future hiring and retention decisions, as the pandemic continues.

According to the survey, close to 70 percent of organizations who have furloughed or laid off employees during the COVID-19 pandemic will back-fill roles that were eliminated (68%), even with hiring freezes (40%) being the most important cost saving initiative to organizations during the pandemic to date. Nearly 9 in 10 of those saying they will backfill roles plan to do so in less than a year (87%) and 62 percent plan to do so in less than six months. During the COVID-19 pandemic, adaptability/creativity (45%), critical thinking/problem solving (41%) and financial management (40%) have become essential skill sets for organizations to have. In fact, as hiring decision makers work to meet the increased need for specific skill sets, 45 percent of respondents indicate that their organization is upskilling current employees, followed by 35 percent who are reskilling current employees to be redeployed to other areas of their organization.

"Even as the U.S. continues to grapple with economic fall-out and uncertainty from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's encouraging to see that employers are thinking about the future and approaching talent management and acquisition in thoughtful ways," says Laurie Chamberlin, President of the Adecco Group's Professional Recruitment and Solutions unit in North America. "Making decisions about furloughs or lay-offs and reprioritizing what skills an organization needs to survive is not easy. This survey made it clear to us that despite those tough decisions, employers are putting their best foot forward and remain optimistic about their future talent pipelines."

FUTURE PLANS & TALENT GROWTH

Looking ahead, 40 percent of respondents plan to expand their IT and technology departments, closely followed by customer service (36%), marketing (34%) and sales (31%). Employers remain optimistic about talent prospects, as 40 percent of respondents indicate that the number of available candidates has increased. However, that's not making it any easier for candidates to land a job as nearly half of employers (47%) indicate their rigor of hiring criteria and process has remained unchanged and nearly a third (30%) indicate that their rigor has increased during this time. If hiring a new employee during or post-pandemic, respondents are equally split in saying that the new employee's salary would be less (42%) or the same (40%) as someone who was hired pre-pandemic for the same position with the same qualifications. As expected, the use of virtual screenings and interviews has increased because of the pandemic (51%).

As all types of professional industries adapted to remote working this year, the survey revealed that 37 percent of respondents' organizations previously opposed flexible and/or remote work, but now promote it. That change in attitude is helping them plan for the future with more flexible work options for employees. In fact, for those who are making hiring decisions for their organization, the most important benefits of hiring a remote workforce include more satisfied employees and a more productive workforce. Despite these benefits, just under two thirds of respondents (62%) say there are still geographical considerations when selecting a candidate, such as proximity to an office or worksite.  

EMPLOYEE GROWTH & RECOGNITION IS NOT STALLING

Despite ongoing uncertainty about the future, there is some positive news on the horizon for current employees. Nearly 8 in 10 respondents (79%) say it is likely that their organization will offer salary raises this year. Although, nearly half of those respondents indicate they'll likely be smaller than previous increases (39%). Furthermore, 61 percent of all respondents say their organizations will still offer monetary bonuses to employees this year. Even more reassuring, 54 percent of those respondents believe the bonuses will be higher than they were last year, compared to a quarter who believe they will be lower (25%).

With the proliferation of remote working, 38 percent of respondents indicate their organization has already offered employees new forms of compensation, such as stipends and reimbursement for supplies. Financial support for home technology equipment like a laptop or monitor was most popular (58%), followed by internet (53%) and home office supplies like notebooks and pens (49%). These new forms of compensation were more common among larger companies, those with 500 employees or more.

"Over the last decade, the percentage of people working remotely has been on an upswing. By necessity, this trend accelerated during the pandemic, which accounts for the extra support employers are offering employees to help cover remote work-related costs," says Chris Chmura, Ph.D, CEO and Chief Economist at Chmura Economics & Analytics. "Despite the rapid adoption of remote work this year, historically, only about one third of all jobs have been classified as partially or fully remote. It will be interesting to see how long-term plans for remote working pan out."

The survey also uncovered interesting differences among decision makers and how they view talent management and acquisition based on the department they work in:

• Only half of Marketing respondents indicate that their organization will backfill the roles eliminated during the pandemic (52%) - significantly less than any other department type surveyed.
• Respondents who work in Human Resources are the most optimistic about backfilling the roles in less than six months (69%).
• Respondents who work in Accounting / Finance are the most likely to believe that their organization will offer bonuses this year (79%), while respondents who work in Legal / Law are the least likely to say the same (33%).
• However, the majority of Legal / Law respondents (88%) believe their organization will instead offer salary raises this year, more than any other department type.
• 42% of respondents whose organization previously opposed flexible working and now promotes it, work in Legal / Law.
• When hiring a remote worker, 77 percent of respondents that work in Accounting / Finance believe there would be geographical considerations, compared to 41 percent of Legal / Law respondents who are least likely to say the same.

"2020 has not been a typical year for anyone and it has shown us just how resilient professional organizations can be," added Chamberlin. "In the months and years to come, companies around the world will solve problems using the lessons learned from this unique period in time." 

The Adecco Group will be hosting a "2021 Economic & Hiring Trends" webinar featuring the survey findings on Wednesday, October 28. To register for the webinar, please visit this link.

To download a copy of the Compensation and Workforce Trends survey results, please click here. 

Survey Methodology

The survey was conducted by the Adecco Group's Professional Recruitment and Solutions unit. The data was collected from 1,152 hiring decision-makers, managers and above, in the U.S.; 576 employed at organizations with less than 500 employees and 576 employed at organizations with 500 or more employees; 250 who work in the marketing department, 252 in the accounting / finance department, 250 in general department or administrative roles, 200 in the human resources department and 200 in the legal or law department, with a balanced split of law firm and in-house respondents. The survey was fielded using the Qualtrics Insight Platform, and panel was sourced by Lucid. Fielding was executed in September 2020.