After not working in an office for over 20 years, the idea of working remotely – usually at home - feels normal to me. And while I—dedicated remote worker that I am—can get my work done pretty effectively without going to the office, I still miss my periodic trips to work with colleagues at our headquarters or to meet with clients in one of our regional showrooms. It definitely feels like something is missing.
Before March 2020, remote (or distributed, virtual, work from home, etc.) work was the elephant in the room—ok, one of the elephants— that no one wanted to talk about. It was happening, but very few organizations wanted to admit it. Then comes March 2020 and that elephant started to stampede, forcing organizations had to act fast or get trampled. Literally overnight, everyone started to do what many believed couldn’t be done - work from home. And it worked well for the most part, at least for the short term.
So now what? Well, it looks like we should get the elephant to calm down soon, so organizations are looking at their plans to return to the office again. What will companies do? We are already starting to see signs of some extremes – companies that ‘snap back’ to where they were and have everyone return to the office. And the other extreme, where some organizations have determined that, simple enough - everyone keeps working from home full-time.
Spoiler alert – neither of those approaches will be successful for most companies.
For this to succeed, organizations will need to focus more on human centric design - employees’ engagement, effectiveness, and productivity no matter where they work. And no matter what their unique individual needs and work requirements are.
There’s never been one cookie-cutter approach for any of us. Our Workplace Advisory team’s best successes come when we’re able to help organizations understand their unique culture, people, and work processes. Building on that knowledge, we can assist our clients define the People, Technology and Space requirements to create an appropriately effective, efficient, and adaptable workplace.
And with a bit of help, we’ll finally be able to see that elephant for what it is—a marvelous creature to behold!
For additional information, check out Allsteel’s Learning Labs focused Hybrid Work: A Key Component of the next Normal and Ready for What's Ahead: Collaborating to Evolve the Workspace.