The year 2020 has been witness to some noticeable themes on the back of the pandemic. While work-from-home has led to higher productivity it has also led to increasing incidence of issues around mental health.
The risk of burnout has grown as a key concern for 2021, as per findings of Covid-19 impact regional research by IAB Southeast Asia and India. The report found that even as the digital spend continues to rise, the issue of mental health concern could be a trend that is likely to continue as people continue to work from home.
The emerging employee needs in a post-Covid world
- The study is a follow up to Q1’s Covid-19 insights study and has deep-dived into the effects of working from home on people as also the effect of the pandemic on businesses.
- With the impact of the pandemic ongoing and its effect on the workforce far-reaching, going forward it would be imperative for businesses to listen to their employees to manage the work-life better.
- They would need to provide additional support in the form of new practices like flexible working schedules to help the employees navigate these difficult times.
- Going forward businesses would need to be responsible for people’s personal career development – particularly in terms of training.
New paradigms of long-term business sustainability
The study comprised over four thousand responses from across the region with a mixed representation from various stakeholders including brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms.
IAB SEA+India, a not-for-profit association has been engaged in addressing the digital industry concerns across the region by collaborating with brands, publishers, agencies, and tech platforms partners across the region.
According to Miranda Dimopoulos, regional CEO of IAB SEA+India, “Long term business sustainability is contingent on the expertise and tenacity of teams, so companies need to consider the long-term effects of cost-cutting when it comes to career support and development”. We hope that more companies will reinstate L&D budgets in 2021 to support their teams who have already weathered a brutal year, she adds.
