Professional services firm PriceWaterhouseCooper (PWC) recently revealed the results of a survey taken from 678 C-Suite executives. Respondents include CEOs, CFOs, COOs, corporate board members, and audit executives. The survey was meant to take the pulse of business in America as the pandemic winds down and companies settle into the “new normal” for both life and business operations. 69% of the largely Fortune 2000 executives said they believed 2022 will be the year COVID becomes endemic and wanes in day-to-day impact.
Vaccine Mandates and Contact Tracing
- 33% of companies surveyed require vaccinations for on-premise work and expect this mandate to continue even as Biden’s mandate was struck down by the Supreme Court.
- 23% require the vaccination at present but will reconsider the requirement in the near future
- 16% have eliminated the vaccine requirement in order to deal with labor shortages
- 38% percent have implemented contract tracing, although 50% of that number plan to reconsider the strategy
- 29% have no plans to require contract tracing at all
Hiring Challenges According to C-Suite Executives
- 77% of respondents indicated that the capability to hire and retain talent is the most important factor in their business operations
- 48% said the ability to hire the right people represented their biggest barrier to reaching corporate growth goals in 2022
- 88% of board members consider hiring and retaining talent very important. This is notable in that boardrooms rarely discussed employee matters in the past, but now are intimately involved in the go-forward strategy.
Low Unemployment Affecting Hiring Strategies
The US is close to full employment, with a 3.9% unemployment rate reported in December of 2021. Only 36% of C-suite executives surveyed by PriceWaterhouseCooper believe voluntary turnover will return to pre-pandemic rates by the end of the fiscal year.
“Companies are looking internally to solve their talent. They can no longer hire their way out of this talent shortage,” said Julia Lamm, a principal in PwC’s Workforce Transformation practice. “Our survey found 47% of senior [executives] said their companies are improving career advancement opportunities and thinking about career paths differently — looking at more internal mobility across an organization, versus just that traditional upward career path.”
- 62% of C-suite executives are increasing compensation for employees through bonuses and cost of-living adjustments
- 56% are altering internal processes to address labor shortages
- 31% expect employment shortages to be alleviated this year
What are C-Suite Professionals Thinking About?
According to the PwC survey, executives have four topics that dominate their business thoughts:
- Talent: Board members are concerned with stopping the loss of employees, primarily by bolstering a positive corporate culture that offers skills training, emphasizes manager-employee communication, showcases career path opportunities and provides work flexibility.
- Mergers or Financial Transactions: PwC reports companies are considering the sale and purchase of assets to improve their overall portfolio
- Digital transformation (DX) – 60% of C-suite executives cited digital transformation as the most impactful growth driver in 2022. PWC expects to see significant investments in cloud architectures to help manage costs and inflation. That evolution will also enable AI to understand data in terms of business value, a strategy considered to be “critical” for long-term growth and to outpace their competition.
- Trust: CEOs are invested in creating and maintaining the trust of stakeholders, employees, and customers. That includes being transparent about corporate taxes, customer data protection, and adherence to ethical standards. PWC also learned that employers need to gain the trust of their employees. Executives indicated that the best ways to mitigate employee turnover are employee communication between leaders and their employees (35%) and better communicating their company purpose (35%).
As 2022 continues and the pandemic situation evolves, businesses will need to remain flexible and innovative in their approach to growth. It is considered a top priority in many organizations, and managed services are an ideal solution for those looking to utilize the top available talent to achieve company goals.
Alliance IT is a managed services firm based in Sarasota, Florida.
