Kyum Kim, head of U.S. operations at Blind, an online community of about 3 million professionals, most of them in technology and financial services, has been surveying its financial firm members about how the coronavirus pandemic and working from home has affected their spirits.
Surprisingly, the company saw no difference in morale between large banks that announced they would have no layoffs throughout the rest of the year and those banks that made no such announcement. However, 50% of employees at companies that announced no layoffs now have a more positive perception towards their employer compared with 37% overall.
“Because this is a turbulent time, you can’t really control the anxiety,” Kim said. “What you can maintain is the respect to your workforce. The employees at these companies that announced there are not going to be any layoffs in 2020 felt that their company was treating them with empathy and dignity and I think that made them think the company really cares about its employees, resulting in a positive sentiment change.”