Here’s How To Pave The Way
Return to Workplace
This article was co-authored by Faina Leyvi and Mark Kaye of Moody’s Corporation
The ability of many organizations to shift seamlessly to remote work during the COVID-19 crisis has surprised almost all of us. Zoom video calls successfully replaced in-person interaction; productivity levels increased without daily commutes and exhausting business travel; and for many of us our relationship to our jobs improved with the integration of daily exercise and family time.
So, why rush to return to the office, if at all?
In a recent article, the global executive search firm Korn Ferry suggests that the traditional office may soon be a thing of the past. As a case study, it cites the Japanese company Fujitsu which reportedly plans to reduce its real estate footprint by at least half over the next two years and is in the process of moving 80,000 employees to mostly remote work.
So, maybe we never have to return to the office?
No. As attractive as the idea of letting employees work from home forever may be to everyone from CFOs to the employees themselves, it’s an unrealistic fantasy. For virtually all businesses, the WFH model is simply not sustainable over the long-term. (Ironically, social media companies, who have been enthusiastically promoting the idea of #WFH4Ever, might be the single exception to that rule.)
Companies that have been able to operate effectively and successfully over the past several months get some credit for their Covid-19 response plans, but they have also benefitted from what might be called “cultural momentum.” Simply put, the companies that are surviving and thriving right now are the ones that were performing at high levels prior to the pandemic, specifically those with strong internal cultures and/or that had already put in place a distributed operating model.
This can’t last forever. Like everything else in the real world, cultural momentum is subject to laws of entropy and friction. Companies that convert to a permanent remote work model will sooner or later struggle with the challenges of maintaining the culture they worked so hard to build. If culture is not refreshed and recharged, including through actual interpersonal interaction, these organizations will soon see lower employee engagement scores, reduced innovation, and declining retention of high performers. Moreover, the core of the culture will deteriorate as the company itself changes through reorganization, strategic shifts, changes in the marketplace, mergers/acquisitions, and personnel changes as leaders and culture-carriers move on and new employees join. (Philosophy majors will recall the problem of The Ship of Theseus: how much change does it take for a company to no longer be the same company?)
Without question, "the way we work" is going to be quite different in the post-COVID world, and the model will vary for different organizations and industries. Successful organizations will be the ones that get ahead of that shift. A revised attitude to #WFH will be a component of the workplace of the future, but only one of many.
One company getting ahead of the shift is Moody’s Corporation, whose Human Resources and Finance teams have proactively started laying the foundation for their workplace of the future even while the company has performed exceptionally well during the lockdown. What Moody’s has learned may help you re-think your workplace of the future, and they were kind enough to share their advice, guidance, and thought leadership.
Everything starts with physical and psychological safety. Be consistent in your approach and proactively seek employee input as you devise the best and most creative solutions to ensure all of your people are well-supported, whether they are in the physical or the remote workplace.
Recognize that everyone will feel differently about returning to the office. Be ready to customize to the needs of groups and individuals, as long as you’re not sacrificing productivity. If working remotely can be productive for some people some of the time, then consider a flexible approach where certain individuals work from home for part of the week while others come into the office. Perhaps most important, empower your managers and give them discretion—especially when employees are anxious about personal matters, like living with vulnerable family members.
Engage employees in conversations about “how we work” and how to improve it. An essential role of all leaders is ensuring that their operating models are most productive and the outputs for customers and employees are of the highest experience. Front-line employees and “boots on the ground” teams are likely to have innovative ideas on how to achieve those objectives better and faster—so ask them.
Identify the kinds of workers who can perform best remotely. These may include individual contributors who complete the daily tasks of a back-office function rather than customer-facing and cross-department strategic collaborators. Indeed, one wonders if “ability to work remotely and in ambiguous situations” may not emerge as one of the key competencies of our time. (Note: solicit feedback from employees and their teams before shifting anyone to permanent or flexible remote work.)
Reimagine your physical space and how to use it most effectively. Focus on the work that needs to get done and build spaces that support and enhance it. The need for offices and cubicles will likely be reduced, while demand for hot desking, meeting rooms, and collaborative spaces will increase. A revamped physical workspace designed for safe in-person interaction will be the main draw for employees to return to the office.
Re-evaluate and reconsider what “work” looks like. Work hours haven’t really been about “9-to-5” for some time now. Have the courage to explore new models that fit the needs of your employees and customers while supporting organizational goals. Focus on results rather than in-person face-time by setting clear expectations and deadlines with frequent touch-points on progress and impediments.
Invest in additional tools to enhance collaboration. Effective communication need not dwindle between employees in the remote workplace or the new physical one. If you haven’t already, start using tools like Slack or Zoho for casual conversations and small group discussions, Miro or Trello for larger-scale projects, and OneDrive or Dropbox for real-time teamwork. And don’t overlook low-tech options like the phone for facilitating quick touch-points during the day—and to give people a breather from Zoom.
The workplace of 2025 will bear little resemblance to what we’ve accustomed ourselves to over the past decades. Take advantage of the “silver linings” of the global pandemic of 2020 to create the workplace of the future in a thoughtful and judiciously executed manner. Doing so will add value to your products, services, and customers while also attracting and retaining the best talent and letting them perform at their best.
It’s been a tough year, but the organizations that invest now in re-thinking and rebuilding their workplace and “the way we work” will see benefits for years to come.
