Return to the Office: Is Work a Place? Or is it an Idea?
Marti Konstant, MBA
Practical AI for Your Business | Keynote Speaker | Workshop Leader | Future of Work | Coined Career Agility | Spidey Sense for Emerging Trends | Agility Analyst | Author
Return to the office (RTO) is in the headlines, yet the definition of the office is in flux. Since the pandemic erupted, the concept of workstyles and place has shifted.
You may question the concept of work. Is work a place or is it an idea?
If work is an idea, it's time to untether work from a place.?
The answer to "where do you work?" includes multiple dimensions, places never deemed suitable in the traditional work model.
Work happens on trains, planes, in coffee shops, at home, and via the in between spaces of your lives. Your device screens, earbuds, and headsets connect you to coworkers, projects, and clients.
Communication with your colleagues within virtual worlds now extend beyond video platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. They include the metaverse at a virtual campus near you.?
If Work is an Idea, it is Boundaryless.
Work is hybrid: workstyles, workplaces, workspaces.
RTO in the context of the "before" workplace is on shaky ground. If you've received your invitation to the onsite workplace, and have visited your desk lately, you will notice the office capacity rates are low.
In addition to downsizing office leases, reconfiguring office layouts and redesigning desk systems, many organizations (not all) are leaning in to flexible work arrangements.?
As long as your manager approves.
Microsoft, a quick adopter of the flexible hybrid workplace and its many work-from-home (WFH) options during COVID is now in its 6th phase of hybrid . This phase includes "open" work campuses for clients, visitors, and in-person employee. work and collaboration. Constraints are emerging yet hybrid dominates the discussion. Employees have 30 days to adopt agreed-upon work preferences with their manager.??
As companies design their policies, RTO strategies are experimental, including hybrid work models and distributed teams.??
According to a Workplace Intelligence survey, 77% of employees want to work remotely at least some of the time.?When companies resist this trend, they will struggle to attract and retain their workers.
The Great Resignation is a feedback indicator for organizations as they consider workplace rules.?
When Work is an Idea, it is Flexible.
Flexibility is apparent in certain organizations. Flexibility has melded with company culture.
As COVID started, hundreds of workstations were sent to the homes of Netflix artists, producers, and editors.?This agile decision enabled employees to get their work done, supplying consumers with bingeworthy streaming content.?
I spoke recently to an organization that provides call center services. They shared onsite employee requirements have changed from on location only to flexible WFH alternatives. Call centers became a network of online communications routed through individual homes.
In spite of the occasional dog bark in the background or other WFH noises in customer support calls, remote work worked. In many cases, productivity increased.
WFH continues to be a reasonable option for many employees and organizations.
When Work is an idea it is Adaptable.
Peter Diamandis, founder of Singularity University states there will be more progress in the next 10 years than we had in the last 100. In the next 10 years, we will reinvent every industry. Those who adapt and tap into the trends will flourish.?
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According to the World Economic Forum, 85 million jobs will be lost to automation, yet these jobs will be replaced by 97 million new roles. You must also be willing to train and step into those roles.
Your skills have an expiration date.?Your ability to adapt will prevent your extinction.
So What's Next?
Leaders participate in think tanks and hire consultants to help them establish policies for the next reality of work.?When CEOs look for insights that affect their future, it's not enough to inspire them with new ideas, they want to know "what's next?"
Similar to the Hollywood model of hiring the best available talent for the project, the future vision of teams features the top picks for each role. The Hollywood model refers to finding talent that best supports the project. The artists and contributors are typically contract or freelance.
Gary Bolles in his book, "The Next Rules of Work," outlines a clever framework that integrates the Hollywood model into an optimal integrated approach.?
He states the way you work happens in a worknet rather than within a workforce.
"A worknet is a network of humans who help create value for the organizations's stakeholders."
—Gary Bolles
This is accomplished by working with the best available talent inside or outside your organization.
As 40% of workers collaborate on teams from outside the organization, the worknet terminology creates an inclusive virtual team. In a nod to agility, workers rally around projects and problems, rather than an office.
As RTO rolls out, workers and organizations want to get hybrid right. The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) launched a bi-weekly series Getting Hybrid Work Right where issues like vaccines, flexibility, productivity, talent recruitment, and workplace preferences are discussed.
They have released their latest findings, Flexibility or Flight: Hybrid Strategies to Attract and Retain Talent. The headline of the article says it all. The aura of the future is flexible. If you don't offer it, your people will leave.
How about you? If work is an idea, what is your personal request for your work life as you mull over your RTO invitation?
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1 年Thanks, Marti. RTO mandates aren't about efficiency or productivity- they're about POWER and CONTROL. Employee CHOICE should be key. #RTO #employeeempowerment
HR Consultant and Career Success Coach
2 年Some positions require direct contact. For example, a phlebotomist can't draw blood remotely. For many employees work is in their head and in their heart. It's time for employers to get on board with this or get left in the dust.
Software Requirements Engineering | Founder & CEO at Ovation Consult an AI Award-Winning Company
2 年Let’s consider it an idea than a place.
Founder at Elev8 | Public Speaker & Corporate Trainer | 100K+ Trained |Empowering Professionals through Soft Skills & Leadership
2 年The best way to move forward as the pandemic winds down and restrictions start to ease up, would be to give people the choice of the kind of worm arrangement that suits them best. People have been equally or more productive working from home as they were in the office. Giving them the choice will ensure the retention of talent and attraction of more talent
Director of Marketing | Integrated Marketing Strategy & Planning | Market Development | Partnership Marketing | Brand | Advid Traveler & Baking Enthusiast
2 年I worked a boundaryless (ok, within the US) role prior to the pandemic. I have not been office based since September 2018. As an extrovert who is also an auditory learner, I find most offices to be overstimulating with too much sound. My industry has been heavily impacted by the pandemic, and it's been quite challenging to find the flexibility I had prior to the pandemic. It's great to see progress in how we define work locations, but we still have a long way to go to balance the needs of employees with those of employers.