Eva Majercsik is the Chief People Officer for Genesys, a global leader in cloud customer experience and contact center solutions.
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Some companies have already begun allowing employees back to the office, while others are just starting to consider what a return will look like. No matter what stage you are in, determining your workplace of the future should be driven by the needs of your employees.
The Covid-19 pandemic served as a moment of clarity for employees. Many found increased flexibility and productivity by working remotely and don’t want to return to the office. Others realized they thrive with face-to-face collaboration in the office without the distractions they may encounter at home. Many are hoping for the best of both worlds. So how do you address the differing needs and preferences of your employees?
Consider introducing a new workplace model that is not defined by a physical footprint, but instead is talent-centric, empowering your employees to do their best work regardless of their location. This empathetic model offers each employee flexibility in choosing their own workplace classification: on-site, remote or hybrid.
On-site: Some roles are best suited to be located in the office full-time. However, some employees whose roles do not require it still prefer to work in the traditional office setting on a regular basis. Personalities that thrive on in-person interaction, or those whose home office setups are challenged by distractions or space constraints, may choose to resume their pre-pandemic schedule of working in the office full-time. It’s important to understand how many of your employees will need or prefer to work on-site when considering your real estate and workplace strategies going forward.
Remote: In general, employees are more productive working from home than in the office. They have benefitted from the increased flexibility and decreased time and cost of commuting, office attire and more. Meanwhile, many companies have seen that their people are just as productive (or more) when working remotely instead of in the office and have benefitted from significant cost savings due to the decreased consumption of office resources. Companies should assess which parts of their population can, and wish to, continue working remotely on a permanent basis. A fully remote approach for many of your employees can be supplemented by frequent touchpoints with managers, virtual team-building activities and periodic in-person meetings.
Hybrid: Nearly 90% of workers in the U.S. now prefer to work remotely at least one day per week. Many will appreciate returning to the office on a hybrid schedule. They can visit the office a few days per week for face-to-face collaboration and work remotely the rest of the time for focus and flexibility. You will need to consider your approach to assigning office space — for example, members of a team may wish to visit the office on the same days per week to maximize their time together, while other groups of hybrid employees may be able to use the same space on alternate days, reducing your required office space. In addition to giving employees the flexibility they are looking for, each hybrid employee can save an organization upwards of $11,000 per year.
With this approach or any that allows flexibility in employees’ work location, you must take proactive steps to avoid “proximity bias.” Enable your managers to lead inclusively, regardless of whether their employees are on-site or remote. Employees also must be empowered to do their part to combat proximity bias, taking initiative to be seen and heard even if they are not face-to-face with their manager and colleagues. This will help avoid slipping back into the pre-pandemic tendency to focus more on employees who are in the office full-time and neglect remote workers — a practice that will simply not work in this new environment.
Research (download required) showed in March 2021 that 26% of U.S. workers planned to look for a new job once the pandemic subsides, and one-third said they would not want to work for an employer that required them to be on-site full time. Listen to your employees carefully when considering your strategy for returning to the office. Taking it slowly will give you the opportunity to course-correct as needed — an opportunity many did not have during the rushed transition to a remote workforce caused by the pandemic.
Keep in mind that employee preferences may continue to shift over the coming months. For example, you may find that although 50% of your employees currently say they wish to return to the office full-time, once offices fully reopen, only 20% actually do so. A flexible workplace model in which you continue to listen and assess employee experience, engagement and productivity can help you support your employees, foster innovation and drive your growth strategy.
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