eCommerce & Covid-19: employee sentiments in 2022

Within eCommerce recruitment, and the industry as a whole, the Covid-19 pandemic had a huge impact on employees. Of course, this was the case for many industries. With eCommerce, a huge reliance on online retail became the norm. This was bound to have an impact on employees within online retail companies.

With the situation subsiding, what are employee sentiments in 2022? While lockdowns are a thing of the past, they have forever shaped how people feel about their working situation. In our 2022 eCommerce salary survey & insights report, we were sure to get the answers!

How has Covid-19 changed eCommerce employee perspectives?

The best place to start is to see how overall perspectives have changed in the last two years. It's fair to say many people can become settled in a routine and not really think about what happens outside of that. The sudden lockdown changed all of that. It allowed people to think about their happiness in a role, the work-life balance they could have or if working in an office full-time was right for them.

We asked respondents to rate how the Covid-19 pandemic affected their outlook on their career, with 0 being no it hasn’t affected my outlook and 10 being it has completely changed my outlook on work. The average score was 7.6/10. This has increased from last year and it definitely looks like remote working plays a huge part in that.

Working situations in eCommerce - is Hybrid working the new normal?

Within eCommerce, we can see that remote or hybrid working is becoming a key factor in recruitment strategies. If you can't offer what more and more candidates are looking for, will you attract the best talent. To give you an idea of the current work situations, here is what our respondents shared...

• Fully remote: 51%
• Hybrid (1-2 days at home): 31%
• Hybrid (1-2 days at the office): 11%
• In the office full time: 7%

So, the majority of our respondents are still fully remote. When looking deeper at the statistics, 48% of all respondents would rather work from home. From this, it seems there are still growing pains when it comes to hybrid working. While employees are getting some time at home, they prefer this to time spent in the office. Employers have to determine what will help them feel most comfortable being in the office once again.

Working from home - is it viable for eCommerce employees?

 eCommerce is a digital industry, so most people had the ability to work remotely long before the pandemic. It just wasn't the norm. Now it is, we wanted to find out how employees themselves find their productivity levels. There have been countless debates both for and against working from home, with those against the idea worried that productivity will drop.

What did eCommerce professionals share when they had complete anonymity to share exactly how they perform when working remotely?

• 63% shared that they work well from home, with a dedicated work area
• When posed with the option 'I do not work well from home', not a single respondent selected this
• 28% told us that they are relatively fine working at home, though could be more disciplined to avoid distractions
• 32% miss the interactions with colleagues at the office
• 29% told us they actually work more hours at home, likely replacing the commute with extra work

These are just a few of the opinions shared in our report - find out below how you can get yourself a free copy!

More insights on eCommerce professionals available!

We hope the statistics on Covid-19 and employee sentiments have given you food for thought. There is more to be discovered in the full 2022 report. From salary benchmarks to work-life balance changes, click below to get a free copy today.