Debbie Goodman-Bhyat | CEO | Jack Hammer | mail me |
COVID-19 has changed the way we work, not only through global hard lockdowns, but also with a hard reset in the world of work. The traditional sense of the workplace has met its demise and it’s time to think of the post-pandemic office in creative, new ways.
Remote work due to COVID-19 has exposed the inadequacies of compulsory office attendance. The days of defaulting to an office, of commuting for hours daily with no-one ever challenging it are a thing of the past. Why did we do it? Because that was the way we worked; often it was written into our contracts, the office was where we went to get our jobs done.
Universally there was a trust issue and ultimately a lack of proof that a disparate workforce could be effective. But the pandemic of 2020 has been a catalyst for change by forcing remote, flexible work arrangements to become the norm.
What’s more, employees have experienced vast benefits of remote working, which include increased flexibility, reduced commute times and tapping into that elusive work/life balance. And while the future face of the office may be unclear, what is certain is that the 9-5 office is dead. As we look ahead, given the enormous environmental strain on the planet, there is no logic in reverting to traveling on a bus, train or in private cars for up to two hours a day only to sit at a desk when that same task could be done at home, so why would we do it?
The value of retaining an office
A Deloitte study conducted towards the end of 2020 suggests that we are entering a new normal, that the work week will very likely be a hybrid office/home split into 60% time at office and the rest WFH (work from home) or with clients.
So in making decisions about the future of your company’s home-office work strategy there are a range of variables that should be considered, including: team morale and culture, onboarding and training of new staff members, project collaboration and idea generation, as well as the learning and growth we all experience by being in the presence of talented, creative co-workers.
The office is essentially a learning hub. Sharing organisational knowledge and passing it on to the next generation of leader cannot be done remotely as learning often happens by osmosis, through ad hoc office meetings and collaborations, overhearing comments and telephone conversations.
Experts agree that the office will therefore become a purposeful space; that we’ll go there out of necessity for something specific rather than by default. It will need to be reconfigured ergonomically and will need to include inviting social spaces (not forgetting good coffee!) This will feed into attracting future talent too, as employees will ask themselves ‘what’s in it for me?’ as they question why they need to commute to a space when then they could easily work from home.
The role of leaders
So how is success – both at individual and organisational level – in a remote, distributed workforce achieved? The past year has taught us that performance can be monitored by output and not by presence alone, so the simple answer is strong leadership.
By building a culture of trust – from being clear on expectations of each role to putting formal processes in place, including performance structures; awarding performance based on output of work and not visibility of workers or time put in. As this new-look way of working is somewhat foreign, to downright uncomfortable to many senior managers, it will require retraining in how to manage teams using technology – and so much more.
So what’s next?
Organisations and leaders need to seize the moment as now is the time to intentionally consider how they want to evolve into the future.
This is a signficant shift for the workforce and like so much else at this time its success rests on decisive leadership. By doing the hardwork upfront – such as formally defining new ways of working, setting expectations for what good flexibility looks like, investing in the technology needed to make employees effective in a virtual world and, of course, leading the way by visibly role-modelling what this looks like – it will equip people to be successful now and into the future with the right skills and mindsets for a post-COVID-19 world.
