Consumers rethink how they spend their time

As customers and employees reexamine their priorities, brands will likely need to adjust strategies to accommodate shifting values and lifestyles

The pandemic has dramatically altered consumers’ perspective of time and how they allocate it. For many people, busy morning commutes disappeared with the shift to remote work – creating more time at home. For others, time spent with family and friends felt scarce as gatherings and events were cancelled or restricted. Early in the pandemic, many family members lived, worked, and learned under the same roof for months, bringing additional stressors to daily life. And, of course, many people became ill or lost loved ones.

Now, more than two years into COVID-19, consumers are rethinking how they spend their time, how they work, and how they align their schedules to more purposeful goals, according to Deloitte’s “Global State of the Consumer Tracker,” based on a survey of more than 20,000 consumers around the globe.

This reevaluation of time is affecting customer buying behaviours and employee attitudes. As companies strive to meet the changing needs of consumers and workers, business leaders can consider new customer engagement, talent, and purpose strategies.

Creating Work-Life Balance

Globally, 44% of consumers say they prioritise their wellbeing more now than they did a year ago, the survey finds. The U.S. average is roughly comparable to the global average, while in Mexico and Brazil, nearly 75% of consumers prioritise well-being more now than a year ago. Additionally, just over a third of consumers globally say they’ve become more focused on personal change in the past year, according to the survey.

The increased focus on personal change and well-being might be helping to tip the scale of work-life balance. Just over one-third of consumers globally say they’re finding more time to enjoy daily life than they were a year ago, while only 22% say they’re working harder to get ahead, according to the survey.

People are also rethinking time spent in physical and digital environments. As the pandemic begins to fade, people may be contesting a lifestyle that became too digitised too quickly. Globally, nearly a third of consumers say they’re seeking more in-person experiences compared with a year ago. As some race back to human connection, others are embracing a more virtual world: Nearly one in five consumers surveyed say they’re replacing more in-person experiences with digital ones.

The deprioritisation of work and the desire for more meaningful life experiences may lead consumer businesses to focus on innovation in customer engagement strategies. Customers will likely gravitate toward brands that can accommodate shifting lifestyles. On the talent side, businesses will ultimately need to focus on talent strategies that build more organisational resilience to accommodate changing employee needs. For example, workplace environments may need to evolve to provide deeper human engagement and more opportunities for talent to flourish.

Moving Toward Remote Work

The pandemic has accelerated the shift to remote work – a trend that will likely continue even as COVID-19 subsides. According to the survey, people who are able to work remotely now work an average of 2.9 days a week from home. And, if their employer allowed it, they would prefer even more flexibility – working an average of 3.5 days a week from home.

A more permanent shift to hybrid work could reshape demand for consumer products and services. In the United States, for example, as people spend more days working from home, they plan to spend more on groceries and housing expenses per month and less on new clothes and vehicles, according to a Deloitte analysis of consumer data. These shifts in consumer behaviours could bring strategic opportunities for brands to adjust product portfolio mixes, operating models, and profit contributions.

The pandemic is also spurring a redefinition of the employer-employee relationship. Consumer businesses are rethinking traditional corporate and customer-facing environments to support employees’ desires for a healthier work-life balance. Whether offering more predictable scheduling or integrating the best of physical and digital realms to create a corporate culture that supports a variety of workstyle needs, organisations should focus on flexibility.

Aligning Time with Purpose

Consumers are increasingly focused on what they do with their time and how those activities align with purpose. Globally, 28% of consumers in the Deloitte survey say they’re pursuing more purposeful goals compared with a year ago, while only 18% say they’re focused on earning more.

Sustainability is one such purposeful goal for many people. Globally, roughly three in five consumers say they’ve changed at least one aspect of their behaviour to help address climate change, and about the same proportion have purchased a sustainable good or service within the past month. On the employee side, roughly one-third say they would switch jobs to work for a more sustainable company, and about the same percentage feel a potential employer’s position on sustainability would influence a job decision, according to the survey.

For many brands, the concept of purpose in business is not new. But the purpose imperative is likely growing stronger. Brands are facing market forces they can’t ignore, from the groundswell of activity to advance social justice to increased expectations from the government and investors to address environmental, social, and governance issues. In this landscape, it is essential for consumer brands to define their purpose and ensure that their activities and internal processes are consistent with their stated positions and values.

Many people across the world feel they’re living through a uniquely introspective moment, brought on by the pandemic. In many ways, these reflections are connected to different dimensions of time—where, how, why, and with whom people are spending it. As consumers ponder time’s finite nature and value, businesses should follow suit—reassessing their purpose, customer engagement, and talent strategies.