There is a LOT of talk at the moment about the future of the workplace. Every day there are more opinions, more webinars, more helpful and some not so helpful insights into what the future workplace might look like and what its purpose may be.
I can share my opinion too, of what the future workplace is.
But that’s just it, it would be my opinion on THE future workplace, not YOUR future workplace. Your business aspirations moving forward beyond the impact of Covid-19 will be different to those of everyone else.
My love affair with working from home was long and fulfilling. If you had asked me four weeks ago whether I would like to work from home 3 days a week I would have said “Hell Yeah!”. Now….I am not so keen. I miss people. I miss face to face interaction, unscheduled collaboration and contact and I miss the experience of being in different places to do different things and getting a bit of exercise and fresh air in between.
For me, the workplace is my village. Its where I can go to learn, to connect, to mentor, to feel part of something. In a village everyone has a role, and they head off to do it during the day, coming together for mealtimes, for sharing, for socializing with each other and with neighbours, to problem solve and also to feel safe and connected. A village doesn’t hang out together all day and not everyone needs to physically present in my workplace every day as long as they can be connected in other ways.
But again, that is MY workplace. Think about what YOUR workplace aspirations are. Your business has proved it can adapt to working from home. Your technology and property teams have likely pulled a rabbit out of a hat to get everyone up and running. If, like one of my clients, you have been visionary enough to engage staff throughout the lockdown period you will know what impacts it has had on productivity, wellbeing and connectedness so you can start to flesh out what your future workplace might look like.
You probably have some exhausted HR people who have maintained connection and wellbeing for staff throughout the lockdown and you might have some excited property people who see the opportunities to reduce lease costs if less people are coming into work. Now is a good time to look at what you would like to achieve moving forward and define your key drivers and goals for YOUR future workplace.
My one piece of advice would be KEEP ENGAGING. Just because people were excited about working from home to start with, doesn’t mean they want to keep doing it, our emotional wellbeing has been tested throughout this time and we have all been on a bit of a rollercoaster ride, so wait until it slows down before making big decisions if you can and engage with staff throughout.
So as we move to Business as Usual, just remember it won’t be, as the landscape of business has changed, for some more than others.
So perhaps we could call it Business as Now, as we will be developing how we work after this experience over time and it may change as your business changes to meet the new way of working. Being flexible and nimble will more important now than ever before.
What if a percentage of your staff want to continue to work at home? How will this impact both the space you require and the type of space you provide that will draw them into the office to stay connected to your company culture and community? This might be by providing different spaces in the workplace than you did before that focus on bringing people together for both work and social connection.
One of the biggest challenges will be maintaining wellbeing. In my research during lockdown, feeling isolated was one of the biggest challenges people faced when working from home. If they choose or are able to continue to work at home, you will need to define the balance of what works for your business.
When going back to work its natural that people are concerned about their health and wellbeing which will cause stress. Open, honest and clear communication around this will help.
If you are thinking about moving premises or coming to the end of a lease, how can you define the new way of working?
This is a great time to think about your company or business strategy and how your workplace can align with it.
You may never have considered a workplace strategy before but this is what will help you define:
Your key drivers identifying what you want to achieve in the future to align with your business vision and goals
Workplace objectives for the new normal
Space requirements to meet those objectives
Even if you are not moving there may be changes you can make to create a better environment for your staff.
If you would like help navigating into Business as Now, contact me and let’s talk.
jo@theflowcompany.com
021 547 245