Navigating the Hybrid Work Dilemma: Striving for Sustainability and Employee Satisfaction in the New Normal
I have been getting on-site workshop/meeting requests lately and am slightly?perplexed by them. Don't get me wrong, as an educator, facilitator, and corporate trainer, I value in-person sessions. You engage and bond much faster in person, and more importantly, you don't have to multitask managing all your different tech platforms to work seamlessly. Honestly, from my experience, it is easier to host and facilitate an onsite workshop or session than an online one.
Now that covid is declared endemic, many organizations urge employees to adopt a hybrid work model. Some even want to revert back to onsite work routine. However, this push for pre-pandemic normalcy has been met with resistance from employees. For instance, Apple experienced pushback when it mandated a three-day onsite work week in September last year. Six months later, this month, Apple is surveying its employees about their hybrid work preferences, despite previously threatening disciplinary action for non-compliance. I'm eager to see the survey results, which are due by the month's end.
On a related note, a report from 2019 (pre-covid) claimed that two-thirds of the $100 billion spent annually on business travel for meetings was wasted. A big chunk of the expenses was for travel, lodging, and public transportation. This is just in America alone; who knows how much we spent globally? As we strive for sustainable practices, shouldn't we consider making remote work a standard practice in relevant business sectors?
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The pandemic fast-tracked digital transformation, forcing companies and employees to adapt. It would be counterproductive to halt this progress and revert to old ways of working. Remote work has its challenges, but we're in the early stages of this phenomenon. Change takes time, and we must seize the opportunity to develop remote work's potential.
If the future of work leans towards a hybrid model with more remote work, shouldn't we continue embracing remote workshops, meetings, and discussions? Shouldn't we persist in remote collaboration, striving to bridge the gaps between on-site and online experiences?
I favor continuing remote work despite its challenges and believe organizations (if possible) should work towards finding a better remote work model rather than reverting back to the traditional mode of working. What are your thoughts?
Designing Experiences
1 年Great article Jentz Tan (陈建生). Personally I'm in favour of remote work and will continue advocating that. I believe remote working has its merit in mental health, work life balance, productivity and cost (sustainability). Having said that, I do acknowledge that there are roles that requires a face to face or physical interaction. And these roles can't run away from it. It's a pity, and until some new revolution kicks-in, it will probably maintained to be that way. Let's talk about workshops or co-creation sessions. There are pros n cons to either f2f, hybrid and remote. Each has its merits. Out of the three, I felt that hybrid is the toughest to manage. I believe, this is due to the fact that you need to manage two sets of users, with two different needs at the same time. Therefore, if you ask me, I am probably not convinced as much with hybrid as opposed to the other two. I'd use hybrid sparingly when needed but would revert to either purely f2f or fully remote.
Enabling change makers to strengthen civil society and drive system innovation
1 年Finding the right culture and make intentional changes in meetings to make people seen even remote should be a big focus