Back to the Office or Not? Preparing for the Office of the Future

Of all the workplaces disrupted by COVID-19 shutdowns and social distancing rules, offices have been among the most impacted. While life sciences workers in laboratories, central services, manufacturing and other “hands-on” functions have experienced changes in health and safety guidance, those in corporate roles have seen how and where they work completely transformed.

According to a survey of 275 executives, 68% expect to implement a split between physical and virtual work and an analysis from London First found 75% of the capital’s workers would spend around half their time working remotely from now on with 100% expecting flexible hours.

This revolution in working patterns looks set to continue. Changing employee expectations, distancing-driven capacity limits and business continuity plans have given rise to a technology-driven, hybrid model of working. It is a change that’s happening across sectors and industries.

This is a seismic shift for organisations with rules and regulations that are ever-changing and increased complexity, in particular, for global corporations as they accommodate different cultures and attitudes. For a start, there is no ?one-size-fits-all or “right” approach. Organisations need to be aware of what others are doing, but must also stand ready to blaze their own path. Ultimately, hybrid working must align with the business’ culture and behaviours.

Designing the Future through Employee Experience

To rise to the challenge, executives and leaders must truly understand their workforce, what motivates them and what their expectations are. Knowing how different ways of working improve engagement, productivity, creativity and innovation is key.

The first step is to listen to the workforce, understand their needs (tacit and articulated) and identify the changes they are seeking, establishing continual feedback loops to enable adaptation.

In understanding their workforce, it is essential for organisations to acknowledge that everyone will have different experiences. For example, there will be differing levels of comfort for people in factors such as travel into the office, home life commitments and physical workspace needs, which will impact their ability to work from home. What’s more, attitudes will ebb and flow in line with circulating and spiking variants and situations like upcoming holidays or visits with vulnerable friends or relatives. Cultural issues also need to be considered such as attitudes to wearing a mask. ?

Now is the time for organisations to experiment and test new ideas. Not everything will go smoothly the first time but using continuous feedback from the workforce, they can hone their approach until it is right.

Hybrid Culture

Hybrid is a transformation of the whole organisation and needs to be embedded into all areas of business design from strategy, real estate, and technology, to people and risk. Successful adoption relies on employee experience-led design, experimentation and constant improvement.

Understanding if the company culture enables or blocks new ways of working is vital. Company culture is not simply a statement sent to employees or a set of words and phrases posted around the office – it is amplified through every touchpoint the business has, both internally with the workforce or externally with customers, clients and the wider community. Changing a company's approach to interaction changes these touchpoints and impacts culture.

But it is this very culture that informs the best hybrid model for a company. For example, an organisational culture based on employee empowerment with flexible policies and employee freedom might benefit from an employee-choice hybrid model, where some people may choose never to come into the office. Organisations such as Facebook, Google and Twitter, have all adopted this model.

However, where culture is based on command and control, such as within high-risk or regulatory industries, a work-focused hybrid model may be more appropriate. In this framework, the business is clear about what work must happen in an office but provides more freedom around other areas. The DVLA, Lloyd’s of London and Nomura, for example, have all taken this approach.

Measuring Culture

Culture, or the manifestation of behaviours within the company, is difficult to measure, but getting it right will be essential for the success of new working models. To that end, at Cognizant, we advise our clients to address the “Three Ms” – mindset, methods and measures:

·???????Mindset: Is everybody clearly aligned to the mindset of the company’s culture and behaviours as well as the ethos and purpose of the brand?

·???????Methods: Do we have the right tools and technology to support our way of working, our brand purpose and our desired culture, while also ensuring the work gets done?

·???????Measures: The right measure will be different for each organisation but it will give leaders the “pulse” of the workforce and the results should inform proactive action. Effective measures might be one or a combination of employee surveys (with feedback loops), social listening, focus groups and informal “check ins”. No matter the measure, the important thing is to understand the context of what is being said and then use that information to implement the best solutions for your teams.

Hybrid is Harder

Every business will need to personalise their model for their own purpose, cultureand goals but we have found some common themes running through our “back to the office” employee experience projects.

Ensuring inclusivity, for example, is crucial. Platforms such as Teams or Zoom provided equal access when everyone was at home. When a team is split, however, those who are “not in the room” may miss out on visual cues and conversational asides. That means they may not always receive an equitable experience. Solutions such as dedicated video meeting rooms with a central camera, appointing facilitators to ensure equal participation and implementing video protocols can all help improve employee experience and drive equity.

Companies will also need to think about their workspace configurations. The traditional hot-desking model is no longer fit for purpose and employees will base their decision on when to come in on factors businesses would not usually consider, such as whether friends or teammates are in.

One of our clients is overcoming this challenge with a bespoke online booking system that gives people access to all the information they need to make an informed decision with quick and easy room or desk reservations. Of course, it is important to make sure such solutions are agile enough to update in line with building capacities, changing guidelines and established business continuity plans.

It is also worth noting that employees and line managers may need additional support as they make their decision to return to the office. For employees, the environment will be different, and there may be new rules to follow. One organisation released a set of videos showing what people could expect when they came in for the first time, which reduced the levels of uncertainty and anxiety. Others are designing training programmes for line managers to help them understand how their role may change and how best to speak to their teams about what hybrid models might mean for them.

Managing the Return

It is not the responsibility of HR and technology to define and implement hybrid-working; the onus sits with the entire C-suite. The work should be led by a multi-disciplinary team responsible for the end-to-end experience, which includes experts on interactions with the workforce across all functions, including HR and technology alongside real estate, operations, business development, data, etc.

The team needs to be empowered to deliver an integrated solution that creates a seamless experience.

Take Action

We may still be learning about what the office of the future will look like but there are some things that are already apparent:

Organisations need to listen to their workforce, understand how hybrid working effects company culture and behaviour and create multi-disciplinary teams to design and lead the change.

Let’s discuss this topic further – Patti, Lauren and I will be hosting a virtual talk: Return to office: What is the new “normal”? Looking at the workplace of the future?30th September 1 – 2pm GMT.