Etiquette classes new corporate trend for the uncouth

Many companies already provide training on workplace etiquette to staffers – and some intend to join that trend in the near future, according to a survey recently released by Resume Builder.

Resume Builder said last week that the share of companies with intentions of making work etiquette classes available to people in their employ moving forward came in at 20%. Nearly half, 45%, of the firms slated to offer them said they will do so sometime in 2023, with a slightly higher percentage reporting plans for the year after that, according to the survey. 

Those firms will add to the 45% of organizations where training on workplace etiquette course offerings have already been rolled out, per the survey. 

The Resume Builder survey found that taking the classes on proper workplace conduct was something 60% of firms with existing or planned offerings will make mandatory for the entirety of their workforce. Meanwhile, the directive will only apply for certain employees at 19%, it said. 

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Companies surveyed pointed to things such as increased client interactions, instances of inappropriate work attire and a need to get workers "on the same page" about office conduct as factors that prompted them to bring the trainings to their employees, Resume Builder found.

For companies focusing the trainings on certain workers, the survey reported a majority of them said "most or all" of their employees who fall in the 18-27 age range or recently got their college degrees would have to take the classes. 

In a press release, Resume Builder Chief Career Advisor Stacie Haller noted members of Generation Z "get criticized for lack of professionalism, which is code for not having the ‘soft skills’ needed to be effective at work."

"Gen Z candidates never had the opportunity to learn these skills on-site as their experience in college or entry-level positions was remote due to the pandemic," she was quoted as saying. "As our survey shows, companies are now understanding that Gen Z employees lack these skills and need training from day one to accelerate their learning curve and quickly adapt to an in-office environment."

In the private sector, almost two-thirds of establishments reported "little or no" remote work by their employees in August and September of last year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That percentage has risen over 12% from the 60.1% who gave that answer in a similar time frame in 2021.

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Meanwhile, the data also showed the percentage of organizations with staffers working from home "some of the time" in those two months in 2022 dropped by nearly half from the prior year. It fell from 29.8% to 16.4%, according to the BLS.

Companies across all sorts of sectors have altered their work-from-home policies this year and in the latter half of last year, many of them requiring more in-office time from certain workers. They range from the tech sector, like Meta Platforms and Lyft, and financial services, such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, to the entertainment industry, where Disney did so.

Resume Builder’s survey also revealed which skills companies are prioritizing with the training on proper professional behavior. 

The largest percentage, at 78%, pointed to "making polite conversation" as something their employees would learn in the course they are offering. Work-appropriate dress was another top skill, with three-quarters citing it. 

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Over two-thirds of companies also said they would teach "writing professional emails" and "taking constructive criticism."

The survey, conducted on Resume Builder’s behalf by Pollfish, took place June 30 to July 7 and involved over 1,500 business leaders.