Leaders need to be more tech-savvy in post-COVID world

Australian business leaders will need to adapt quickly to new ways of working to meet the expectations of a post-COVID workforce, new research by recruitment firm Robert Walters has found.

In their bid to set up remote working practices, more than half of leaders surveyed were impacted by technology problems. Meanwhile, 65% of employees believe their bosses need a better understanding of technology’s role in collaborative working.

The findings are concerning given the growing momentum behind a permanent remote working model, driven mainly by employee demand for better work-life balance.

Three-quarters of organisations feel their leaders need to be more empathetic to work-life balance, while 89% believe commute time — which has jumped by 23% in the last decade — to be the greatest drain on their mental health.

“With many businesses now going back to the office, the changing expectations of employees in a post COVID-19 world has meant that organisations and particularly senior leaders will need to adapt their thinking and implement what flexible working now looks like,” said Robert Walters, Managing Director ANZ, Adam Nicholson.

“Increasing and maintaining flexible working arrangements that were introduced during lockdown will go a long way to increasing the health, safety and wellbeing of employees now and into the future.

“For many senior leaders the mandatory lockdown has been a trial run for embedding workplace flexibility into new ways of working.

“It is great to see that organisations are taking the need to adapt and be flexible with work practices seriously, which has been effectively demonstrated in the diverse range of back-to-the-office strategies that are being considered.”

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