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By Meghan M. Biro for Forbes
The paradox of how we talk about the future of work right now is that our best observations should have taken place a year ago. We were already discussing new definitions of the workplace, often of the Why not work at Starbucks / WeWork / No desks, just communal harvest tables ilk. Along with that came speculations about how we could wrap everyone in the workforce into the same work culture even if some of us were in cubicles and some of us were in cafes. We imagined neat video meeting scenarios with the creative side in a cafe and the business side by the whiteboard. It was an interesting sensate description of what we thought the new blended workplace would smell like: dry-erase markers and coffee.
But we know the rest of the story. With Covid-19 we had to jump into a new reality faster than you could say the future is now. Whether or not an organization went remote or not, nearly every employee experienced the workplace as a radically different scenario. Now we get to catch up, and actually work on managing it. Here’s how:
Reassessing Equipment
The transformation we’d all been contemplating was often executed without trial, planning or ceremony: a screeching pivot of overloaded video conference channels and apps. For many, the workplace became a digital construct nearly overnight — and with lasting repercussions. A McKinsey analysis found that over 20% of the workforce could work remotely three to five days a week as effectively as they could if working from an office.
Given that, take a hard look at what’s good and what’s not good about how your employees experience this new workplace. Survey employees as well (just be mindful of their time). Don’t just ask what works and what doesn’t, ask why.
Find out from managers as well, who have been the heroes of the year in so many organizations. They’re the ones who have been keeping their teams together and productive, and undoubtedly they will have a clear sense of what equipment, software and processes work for their teams.
I’ve seen particular friction arising from a whole array of digital tools that aren’t integrated and require tasks be repeated because there’s no way to migrate data and information among them. For overwhelmed employees there’s little that’s more frustrating. Communication channels is another variation on this theme: when there are too many apps and platforms, information can fall between the cracks. Reducing digital clutter as well as physical clutter is an imperative now.
Above all, be pragmatic: no matter the initial investment, if your workplace setup is not supporting the needs of your employees, it needs to be adjusted. The technology is certainly up for the challenge. We saw Zoom not only expand rapidly on all fronts but also revamp its security processes; we saw other video channels radically improve their offerings when called upon. HR tech has enabled this profound transformation, and it will continue to build on what we’ve learned with new and better iterations.
Improving The Work Culture
I’m going to be frank here — many organizations were blind-sided by just how hard it would be women to successfully navigate the pivot to remote during a pandemic when schools go virtual as well. Perhaps they shouldn’t have been.
One of the most overused phrases of the past year is necessity is the mother of invention. But in reality, working mothers have had a far harder time in general than working fathers — in September of 2020 a whopping 865,000 women dropped out of the labor force, according to the BLS. As 2020 ended there were 2.2 million fewer women in the workforce than when the year began. Reasons cited include being utterly overwhelmed with the pressures of child-rearing while working — or trying to. This has hit women across the board, from new hires to CEOs.
No organization can afford a brain drain right now. Far better to establish some real solutions: virtual child care, flexible schedules, changing expectations during crisis times, providing more leave, reevaluating the workload and workflow, and reducing mandatory meetings. Stress is a known productivity killer; it stands to reason that anyone will perform better if they’re able to better attend to other pressures outside of work. And this isn’t a matter of preferential treatment. This is reality. The pandemic has given the world of work a chance to exercise practical muscles to innovate real solutions, and improving the experience of women working during the pandemic is one of them.
Another irrefutable issue for remote workplaces has been how to keep people engaged, motivated, and feeling valued when there’s no face to face. To me that’s a continuation of the challenge of doing it when there is face to face. Ironically, slow adoption of highly effective recognition and rewards digital tools has been due to the feeling that kudos should be done in person. But a recent Workhuman survey shows that remote or not, we’re not recognizing our employees often enough — and the overall result is a feeling that the work experience isn’t human enough.
Well over half (53.1%) of respondents in the survey said being recognized for their work by employees would make the workplace feel a lot more human. Let me add that digital recognition counts: the survey was done during the pandemic, after all. Further, recognition can take many forms, including just a simple expression of gratitude. 60.1% said that a thank you would bring that welcome dose of humanity. So it’s over an email or in a text — all the better, for being immediate, and delivered in real time.
Awkward, ill-prepared, glitchy, flying blind or smooth sailing, one way or another the workplace has been transformed. Now it means where work happens — and that could be everywhere. The workplace is now truly an intersection of people and technology, not people and places. Hats off to the innovators who have been working to make this all possible, and to all the managers employees who have faced the challenges and made it work. They deserve a great workplace experience, no matter where it is.
