As more than half of the U.S. population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and governments are relaxing restrictions on businesses, Tableau (NYSE: CRM) and Momentive (NASDAQ: MNTV – formerly SurveyMonkey) are announcing today the launch of Pathway to a New Normal, a new year-long public opinion research initiative that will explore through data how people are thinking about work in a changed America.
The insight series will explore how the events of 2020 catalyzed change in how people think about issues of race, equity, health and well-being in their workplaces and communities. Much of the forthcoming data will look at how the conversations about the American workplace have been shaped, reshaped and continue to evolve from the COVID-19 crisis, as well as by the period of introspection, dialogue, and companies’ public commitments to change in the summer of protests that followed the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others.
“All of our lives have been forever changed,” said Jon Cohen, chief research officer at Momentive. “This research project aims at shining a light on how people are experiencing and processing the aftermath of the pandemic. The ongoing insights will reveal potential risks ahead, as well as the key trends that business, government, and community leaders need to know as they work to shape what’s next.”
The Tableau-Momentive Pathway to the New Normal surveys will gather opinions about how people think about their own careers, the industries and companies they work in, and how they view the future of corporate America through their own unique perspective. The initiative complements Tableau’s efforts to empower people with new data resources for exploring and understanding both the pandemic through the COVID-19 Data Hub and the impact of communities of color across the country through the Racial Equity Data Hub.
“Every person experienced life, work, and uncertainty over the past 18 months in their own unique way, and at the same time there are insights from the aggregate of these experiences that are incredibly valuable to understand as companies, workers, governments, and communities chart their future,” said Steve Schwartz, Tableau’s Director of Public Affairs. “We see this data as an easily accessible and understood source of common understanding for people thinking about what the future of work looks like for themselves, their companies, and the larger economy.”
This initiative extends the successful collaboration between the two companies in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election. During the last three months of the presidential election campaign, the results of over 1 million surveys gathered by Momentive were brought to life through Tableau, allowing anyone to dive deep into the opinions, concerns, and intentions of Americans across a spectrum of socio-economic demographics.
“Visualizing survey data allows key insights to emerge that might otherwise have been missed,” said Laura Wronski, research science manager for Momentive. “Pairing our robust research with Tableau’s intuitive data visualizations allows professionals of all skill levels to explore the data and uncover critical information that could be a game-changer for their organization.”
Alongside the launch of the initiative, Momentive released a new visualization showing the prevalence of mask wearing in different scenarios: while grocery shopping, while exercising outside, while visiting with family and friends, and while working at the workplace. This dashboard, which includes data from 1,840,250 respondents, makes it easy to see what behaviors have changed over time as vaccinations have rolled out and restrictions lifted. Just 53% of workers say they are “very likely” to wear a mask while at their workplace now, down from 78% in early February.