Coronavirus: An Update on European Employees' Lives

In our last article we focused on what US employees’ lives look like during the ongoing pandemic. Now, after the release of first wave of Forrester’s pandemicEX data on Europe, we’ll explore what adults from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK say about their experiences.

The research was conducted between 25th and 27th March, surveying a random sample of 1,032 European adults, including both part- and full-time workers. Highlights from the findings include:

• More than 40% of European employees believe their governments are reacting too softly to the pandemic crisis, adding weight to their fears of job losses
• 78% of UK workers, compared to 65% of Europeans, expect further disruption to work
• 40% of Spanish and 45% of Italian employees fear their company will make layoffs due to a further spread of coronavirus and its consequential economic impact
• UK and Spanish business leaders are instilling more confidence in their workforces than their French and Italian counterparts. As a result, 60% of UK workers believe their firms have their well-being at heart

If we take a closer look at how individuals are adapting to the new ways of working, the data reveals that more than 50% of European employees prefer to work from home during the crisis – they are adapting to it quickly and they widely appreciate the flexibility it brings. On the other hand, that also means a similar percentage of workers are already looking forward to going back to the office once the pandemic is over.

Just over a third of UK workers are working from their home at the moment, meaning that 60% are unable to work remotely. Although for the data and marketing industry, this is quite different: encouragingly, most employees feel they have the necessary technology to make working from home both easy (94%) and productive (93%).

Finally, in terms of support-tools, Skype is the collaboration platform of choice – However, Microsoft Teams and Zoom are fast growing in popularity across Europe – UK employees haven’t an explicit preference for any of them.

Companies need to make critical decisions in the coming weeks and months. What employers and employees will need is far beyond working-from-home policies, the real challenge will be facing and being prepared to the changes the pandemic will leave behind itself. From a cultural, social and economic point of view.

While in the first few weeks businesses were asked to focus on crisis management, it’s now time to anticipate the world after coronavirus, rethinking processes to engage employees and stakeholders while reinventing customer experiences.

To share your latest experiences and what the DMA can do to help you thought the current situation, please take 5-10 minutes to respond our coronavirus survey: https://dma.org.uk/research/dma-coronavirus-survey-tell-us-how-the-dma-can-help-you

Visit our Coronavirus: Advice and Help page where we have gathered information from the Government alongside advice from our partner organisations to help you throughout the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.