Last month we took a break from our standards validation process to ask you about business trends, digital marketing, return to work, and ethics. We received some great feedback and want to share a few key takeaways along with a dashboard with the full response data.
Business Trends:
“IT risks are increasingly taking more resource[s], and coupled with a stretched staff, this is a major challenge. We are attempting to automate as much as we can, but [it] still takes monitoring.”–Business Management participant
- Navigating recruitment, onboarding, and conveying culture in remote work environment
- Labor shortage:
- Affordable housing and day care impacting labor supply
- The Great Resignation impacting customers and service delivery
- Disengagement around professional development (remote fatigue)
Digital Marketing:
“People are moving back to a balance between digital and traditional media vs. all digital.”
–Marketing participant
“Data and privacy regulations and changing norms are having a huge impact on what is legal to measure, what is acceptable to measure, and even what can be measured accurately.”
–Marketing participant
“Email marketing is losing value due to the excessive noise of spam; it is more about brief videos, trying to deliver to people knowledge content and bring them to our website.”
–Marketing participant
Return to Work:
The responses to this question ranged from fully remote, 100% back to the office, and a hybrid of remote/in office. But there were several common themes:
- Still using online tools for meetings, even when in the office
- Employees want flexibility with scheduling and hybrid options overall
- Less social interaction generally—some companies doing this online with employees and customers
“We continue to work a flex schedule with some in the office and some at home. Zoom is our platform for meetings and most training events. Social events are not happening right now.”
–Business Management participant
Ethics:
- Working from home and accounting for one’s time
- Greater emphasis and improvement in diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Data and privacy changes—following legal rules and regulations while also considering the ethical implications around tracking customers
“It is discussed more in our industry, and continuing education in ethics is now required every three years to maintain our certification.”
–Business Management participant