'Stark inequalities' | 5 ways COVID changed the employer-employee power balance

The past 18 months have been transformative for leaders.

Many have been placed under extreme pressure, and thrust into unfamiliar circumstances as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Accounting for additional threats to staff welfare in this time has been an unexpected addition to usual proceedings. Yet, more than just the virus itself has changed the way in which leaders interact with their staff, and even the basis of the job they perform.

As such, many have felt a significant rebalance of power between boss and worker, as what companies expect from their employees – and what employees expect from their companies – has changed.

According to thinktank The Institute for Public Policy Research, these changes, whilst spurred by the pandemic, have long been in the making. In fact, in a recent report, titled Fair shares: shifting the balance of power in the workplace, the thinktank expressed the belief that, in many ways, this new rebalance of power addresses many of the inequalities felt by workers, and therefore brings about only positive change for fair representation and renumeration.