Medallia Sense360 Releases New Report on American Attitudes Toward Returning to Work

Americans’ employment situations and attitudes are being shaped by changing workplace policies and the Delta Variant.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., September 8 , 2021 – Medallia, Inc. (NYSE: MDLA), the global leader in customer and employee experience, today announced the release of their Return to Work Report – a free analysis examining insights on how Americans are feeling with regard to returning to work amid today’s volatile employment climate. 

“COVID-19 has accelerated workplace changes to an incredible extent,” said Andrew Custage, Head of Analytics for Sense360 By Medallia. ”Organizations need to understand how attitudes about the workplace have changed, what employee expectations are about returning to the office, and what impact the Delta Variant is having on employees’ thinking regarding the workplace.” 

To track and understand consumer behaviour, Sense360 By Medallia combined data from three sources: foot traffic data from smartphone geolocation of more than 2 million opted-in consumers, spend data from more than 5 million consumers, and psychographic survey data. Combining multiple datasets yields a more holistic view of the customer journey, and a more accurate way to answer strategic insights questions for retailers.

Drawing on this industry leading pool of data, the Return to Work Report examines:

  • Data on how consumer sentiment about the workplace has changed 
  • Which aspects of potential jobs are most important in deciding where to work
  • Attitudes toward working remotely and the Delta Variant

Highlights include:

  • Among those who are working from home, fewer than 1 in 5 want to fully return to the workplace. Most prefer a flexible schedule with 2 or 3 days of going into work per week. 
  • When asked what is most important in choosing a future job, survey respondents said that remote flexibility was the third most important factor, behind salary and schedule.
  • However, a majority (almost 6 in 10) believe that some consequences are fair for employees choosing to stay remote while their colleagues return to the office. Consequences viewed as fair include stricter oversight and slower eligibility for raises and promotions. Of note, less than 1 in 5 believe that job termination or salary reduction are fair consequences for employees that choose to remain remote. 
  • Among those who work in-person, 2 out of 5 have seen their workplace policies (i.e. masking, social distancing, etc.) change due to the Delta Variant. However, only 1 in 10 of respondents working in the office say that the Delta Variant will reduce how often they go into the workplace. For remote workers, the Delta Variant is creating a greater impact on return-to-office plans.

“Perhaps the clearest insight from the report is the importance of location flexibility in the minds of employees. Employers have a lot to think about regarding what levers they’re willing to pull for attracting and retaining talent, and should consider what levers are seen as acceptable as part of planning to return to the office,” said Custage.

To download the full report, visit https://info.sense360.com/hubfs/210824_Sense360_Return%20to%20Work%20Insights_v2.pdf.

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About Medallia 

Medallia (NYSE: MDLA) is the pioneer and market leader in customer, employee, citizen and patient experience. The company’s award-winning SaaS platform, Medallia Experience Cloud, is becoming the experience system of record that makes all other applications customer and employee aware. The platform captures billions of experience signals across interactions including all voice, video, digital, IoT, social media and corporate messaging tools. Medallia uses proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning technology to automatically reveal predictive insights that drive powerful business actions and outcomes. Medallia customers reduce churn, turn detractors into promoters and buyers, create in-the-moment cross-sell and up-sell opportunities and drive revenue-impacting business decisions, providing clear and potent returns on investment. For more information visit www.medallia.com.

© 2021 Medallia, Inc. All rights reserved. Medallia®, the Medallia logo, and the names and marks associated with Medallia’s products are trademarks of Medallia. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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Author Information

As a detail-oriented researcher, Sherril is expert at discovering, gathering and compiling industry and market data to create clear, actionable market and competitive intelligence. With deep experience in market analysis and segmentation she is a consummate collaborator with strong communication skills adept at supporting and forming relationships with cross-functional teams in all levels of organizations.

Sherril holds a Master of Business Administration in Marketing from University of Colorado, Boulder and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Rutgers University.

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