From Crisis to Care: How COVID-19 Redefined the Workplace

When COVID-19 entered the picture more than five years ago, daily life changed seemingly overnight. Face masks and social distancing became the norm. Schools became virtual. Museums, sporting events, concerts, restaurants, and even Disneyland halted operations.

The pandemic also unquestionably altered the workplace. Employers reacted with quick, vast actions. There was a widespread move to remote work to keep people safe. There was an influx of new types of support, including mental health benefits, more paid time off for sick leave and parenting concerns, and temporary COVID-19 aid. All aspects of life were marked by nimble, innovative, and agile changes — and the workplace was no exception.

“COVID shifted our working paradigm so significantly and so swiftly,” said Cassandra Pratt, SHRM-SCP, CHRO of Progyny, a New York City-based health care and benefits firm with roughly 620 employees. 

Perhaps one of the biggest changes was a new focus on employees — one in which empathy, understanding, and meeting workers’ increasing expectations, not just the bottom line — drove decision-making. It became about treating employees as whole people, not just as workers.

“So many of us lost someone in our family due to COVID or a COVID-related issue, and there were so many complicated factors,” Pratt said. “There was a level of bereavement and sadness. You’re remote, you’re isolated, you’re experiencing health challenges, challenges with loss of loved ones. … It made us think differently about a whole employee and employee wellness, and about what we need to do to support people in our workforce.”

A half-decade later, many of those changes that shook up the workplace are still going strong, experts say. But, today, the focus for many employers is about continuing to meet those increased employee expectations while ensuring organizational needs are still being met, too. 

“We want to keep these lessons, but we also have to think about what works,” said Sandy Ball, SHRM-SCP, chief people officer at Aspida, a Durham, N.C.-based insurance agency. “There has to be a balance between what employees need and what absolutely doesn’t work for the business.” 

The Whole Person

Before the COVID-19 outbreak, most aspects of workers’ lives were kept separate from the office — there was the work bucket and the personal bucket, without much overlap. The pandemic, though, shattered that illusion, with employees’ kids holding court on video calls and people talking openly about their health concerns, caregiving challenges, worries over their finances, and more. 

“The number of times I’ve seen children or had my own children on a Zoom call ... pre-pandemic, [that] probably would have been appalling ... Now, it’s sort of normal,” Pratt said. “There was such a higher visibility of the juggling acts of working families. Employers really saw the challenges their employees were facing.”

Although a focus on the whole employee and work/life integration was a growing trend in the late 2010s, the concept blew up once COVID-19 hit. It’s an ethos that has remained, said Kimberly Bell, head of health and benefits at NFP, a global benefits consulting firm and property and casualty insurance broker.

“We were home taking care of our children and our personal lives and our health while we were trying to work. It became so intertwined, where before it felt more siloed,” she said. “Now, work/life balance looks very, very different than what it looked like before the pandemic. If you aren’t healthy in your home life, you probably aren’t healthy in your work life. We’re all one person.” 

Amy Mosher, chief people officer at Charlotte, N.C.-based software company isolved, agreed.

“Employee well-being is business well-being. It’s no longer an afterthought,” she said. “It’s a core part of an organization’s success. We’ve learned that when employees feel supported, engaged, and healthy, they drive better business outcomes.”

The pandemic — as well as that attitude from employers — raised employees’ expectations for what they were looking for from their companies, and scores of employers answered the call with empathy, flexibility, and timely benefits and support — a notion that has remained over the past few years. 

“There’s been a real spotlight on benefits offerings, with employers stepping back and saying, ‘I’m not offering enough robust benefits in [certain] areas,’ ” Bell said.

Moreover, the list of benefits that employers are offering has grown, too. In 2022, the SHRM Employee Benefits Survey, which offers a comprehensive view of the support that employers offer employees, listed some 175 available benefits. In 2024, that number rose to 216 — a 23% increase.

Enhanced Mental Health

One key component of that focus on employees’ well-being is mental well-being — a need that has become more visible over the past five years, experts say.

Rates of stress, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and more have increased over the past few years. In response, scores of employers have ramped up mental health support for employees, adding or enhancing benefits including employee assistance programs, telemedicine, and a sampling of mental health benefits. The vast majority of employers (90%) offered mental health coverage in 2024, up from 84% in 2019, according to SHRM data.  

“Although mental health coverage was already very high, hovering around 85%, the fact that it jumped up to over 90% in 2022 and has basically stayed around 90% since that time really is indicative of more employers recognizing its importance,” explained Daniel Stunes, manager of data monetization at SHRM. “When a benefit already has a prevalence rate that high, it’s uncommon for there to be such a sudden, large, and sustained increase.”

The pandemic “firmly cemented in our awareness the importance of mental health benefits, one that I don’t think will ever go away,” said Julie Stich, vice president of content at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, a nonprofit organization with 31,000 employer members. 

“We made great strides getting rid of the stigma surrounding mental illness — that you don’t have to be afraid to talk about that, and we shouldn’t be afraid to talk about that anymore, and that there’s nothing wrong with seeking help for a mental challenge,” she said. “It’s one of the best things that came out of the pandemic.”

Member Resource: Creating a Mental-Health-Friendly Workplace

Health Mitigations

Another big focus since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic is reducing the spread of physical illnesses. 

Ever-vigilant measures have abated — it’s a far cry from 2020 and 2021, when organizations required face masks, vaccines, social distancing, and quarantining after illness or exposure — but there remains a strong push to not expose co-workers to illnesses.

The prevailing attitude now, Stich said, is: “Rather than drag yourself into the office when you’re sick and you're coughing on everyone in sight, just stay home.”  

There seems to be more acceptance of taking sick time, even if it’s your family that’s sick. “If you have a runny nose, stay home, right? Or even if your kids are sick and everybody else in your house is sick, stay home, even if you think you could make it into the office,” Pratt said. “It’s this concept of, ‘It’s not even about you anymore, it’s about the rest of the company.’ ”

Fast-spreading illnesses, such as COVID-19 and flu, can have a negative impact on the workplace, affecting productivity, attendance, and engagement. They also can lead to an increase in health care costs for employers.

Aspida now tells employees not to come in with any signs of illness, Ball said. They’re allowed to work remotely if they feel well enough but should use sick time when they don’t.

Overall, Pratt said, telling workers not to come in when sick — or even when other household members are sick — is among the health mitigations that are more common now than they were pre-pandemic. Progyny has kept some of those initial mitigations in place, such as the availability and encouragement of hand sanitizer; extra, high-grade filters in its office’s HVAC system; and regular, thorough cleaning and disinfecting practices.

Face masks are also available in Progyny offices, and some workers continue to wear them regularly. 

“People feel like that is now normalized. Whether you’re protecting somebody you know or you’re feeling sick, we talk about it regularly and we want to protect people’s health,” Pratt said, adding that masking is also important when considering workers or their family members who are immunocompromised.

“I do think people have taken that to heart,” Pratt said.

Remote Work and Flexibility

Another widespread and resilient pandemic-driven change has been the expansion of remote and hybrid working.  Remote and hybrid work have also forced employers to adopt new technology and workflows to ensure those shifts have been successful.  

Progyny had remote workers across the US before the pandemic, but employees who lived near its New York City headquarters worked all five days in the office. 

“I remember interviewing somebody eight or 10 years ago, and they told me they worked four days in the office, one day remote. And I thought, ‘That sounds nice, but also kind of crazy,’ ” Pratt said.

After going fully remote in the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, Progyny has moved to a hybrid work schedule in the years since: Mondays and Fridays at home and Tuesdays to Thursdays in the office. Meanwhile, a significant number of employees work remotely full time. 

Similarly, Aspida, which has roughly 200 employees, also moved to a hybrid working schedule — where everyone needs to be in the office Tuesdays and Thursdays as well as a third day of the week of their choosing — after being fully remote in 2020 and 2021. 

That flexibility can be a help for both employers and employees, Pratt said. “There’s flexibility, so people can meet their needs. But showing up on the same days, where we get critical mass, people can work face-to-face with their colleagues, have conversations, and really engage in a meaningful way.”

“Whether it’s remote work, hybrid models, or shorter workweeks,” isolved’s Mosher said, “employees have made it clear that flexibility is an expectation, not a luxury. ... Companies that embrace this shift are better positioned to attract and retain top talent.”

Increased Expectations, Learning to Compromise

Many pandemic-driven priorities and changes have remained, but employers are still trying to figure out if they can, or should, backtrack on any of them. 

Some companies have learned the hard way that employees may push back against changes. Take remote work and flexible schedules.

Companies such as Amazon gradually rolled back remote-work policies, with the retail giant first saying it would let workers and their managers decide if and when workers should be in the office, next telling workers they had to return three days a week in 2023. At the beginning of 2025, Amazon mandated that all corporate employees must return to in-person work five days a week. The result: Some employees have resisted the mandate, threatening to quit. 

“The push and pull of return-to-office policies has been a major challenge,” Mosher said. “While some organizations have mandated full-time office returns, many employees have pushed back, reinforcing that flexibility is now an expectation.”

That can play out in other ways, too. Many organizations were flexible with parenting situations at the peak of the pandemic, for instance, but allowing an employee to simultaneously work and parent during the day may no longer fly in 2025.

“Employees are looking for employers who can meet them where they are and that don’t force them to sacrifice their family time. That concept may have felt a little overloaded during 2020 or 2021, and maybe some organizations need to think about what works best, but we also don’t want to go back to what it was like in 2019 and 2018,” Pratt said.

Companies that listen to their employees and find a middle ground — such as hybrid working models — tend to see better retention and engagement. 

Aspida now regularly collects feedback from employees — both formally, through stay and exit interviews and engagement surveys, and informally, through casual meetings. 

“Once every other week or so, our CEO and I have a group of employees come in, and we just pick their brains,” Ball said. “There’s no agenda, we just say: ‘Do you have questions for us? Do you have feedback? What needs to be fixed?’ ”

Sometimes, that leads to changes employees want; when it doesn’t make business sense, the company may not act — but openness, compromise, and clarity about expectations are vital.

Member Resource: Aligning Workforce Strategies With Business Objectives

'We Can't Go Back'

Many experts say the COVID-19 pandemic brought about positive changes — previously ignored needs were addressed, gaps were filled, a focus on the well-being of employees was renewed, and employers strengthened their ability to quickly pivot when needed. And while things may continue to — and should — shift, organizations shouldn’t forget the important lessons they learned.

“In another 12 months, people are not going to have these same needs. We always need to continue to adjust and continue to think about what employees need or expect,” Bell said. “We can’t go back.”