Zooming back into work?
As the pandemic begins to slow its course, companies are forced to tackle what’s next: returning to work.
But what does that look like? After more than a year of Zoom meetings, Slack messages, increased flexibility (read: sweatpants), are workers ready to give up what’s become normal in our day-to-day lives? Normal now means lunchtime showers, the ability to start a load of laundry at any time, mental-health breaks to walk the dog around the neighborhood (or in my case eat a breakfast while actually sitting at a table instead of chugging coffee out of a Yeti and scarfing down a granola bar while on the New Jersey Turnpike.)
The answer is no—workers aren’t ready to give up a life that’s more centered on just that—life, not work. According to the Pew Research Center, 54% of Americans want to continue working in a remote setting in a full-time capacity. That percentage increases when expanding to Americans who would like to continue in a hybrid work environment, some days home, some days in the office.
Companies and organizations face a dilemma that could change the future of the workplace as we know it. No longer is it as important to invest in office spaces with comfy chairs, nap areas, and stocked kitchens. It’s essential to understand the needs of a modern workforce who just participated in a (mostly successful) 16-month experiment with telecommuting.
Mindsets have changed. Priorities have shifted. And the companies who lack a level of flexibility and wherewithal to adapt at this moment, will fall behind.
Over the last year, I’ve seen and heard stories of friends moving across the country to work remotely from another state or even country, experiencing life in a new way, not feeling tethered to a job in a specific location.
Big companies are responding. Over a year into the pandemic, tech companies, our nation’s forward thinkers, have adapted extended telecommuting policies. If powerhouse businesses like Microsoft, Twitter, Amazon, and Spotify can make these decisions, it’s not out of bounds for workers to expect other companies to do the same.
And there are benefits to the companies themselves:
- According to Business News Daily, workers are more productive at home.
- NPR says that employers can save $11,000 every year for each person who works remotely half of the time.
- A Forbes study says that 76% of workers feel more loyal to their company when given the option to telecommute.
These statistics feel hard to ignore. But from a workplace engagement perspective, there are obvious downsides.
Face to face meetings help build relationships, rapport, and promote collaboration. Work comraderies enhance loyalty and employer and employee satisfaction. And sometimes, it’s just a heck of a lot easier to get work done in an office than it is next to your significant other crunching away at potato chips.
Like everything in life, this will be a balancing act. All or nothing in either direction of the telecommuting debate will stir up emotions. But for any company that touts a corporate social responsibility message, I’d challenge them to look first at the needs of their employees after such a tumultuous year.
If you want to “do well by doing good” and truly affect the communities in which you inhabit and serve, start from within. Evaluate the needs of your employees and be progressive enough to offer a hybrid model of returning to work—a model that allows for life to happen on more than just the weekends.
Your employees will thank you.
Amanda
