Working from..? A quick poll on virtual and office-based working.
Perry Timms
Founder and Chief Energy Officer: People & Transformational HR Ltd - a self-managed Certified BCorporation
On 19th July I kicked off 2 polls - one here on LinkedIn and one on Twitter asking the same question:
Given the choice, what would you choose between working virtually or in an office?
Not being insensitive to people who HAVE to go to a place of work, the UK's Office of National Statistics reckons on 50% of workers are office or desk-based.
1559 of your responded across the 2 platforms. That is over 500 more than a recent CIPD research study into working virtually/office-based covered in this BBC article here and a recent study completed by the Institute of Facilities and Workplace Management (IWFM) covered here in a recent webinar.
The choices were framed around the 4 poll options on either platform so is somewhat limited with little room to elaborate. So it should be taken that this is indicative and not at all a comprehensive state of play for the entire office-working world. Those options then were as follows:
a. 100% virtual working
b. 100% office working
c. 60%-40% in favour of office/virtual
d. 80%-20% in favour of virtual/office.
Whilst some people wanted 50/50 or other permutation, they would have been forced to make a choice of the one that was nearest their actual preference. So that needs to be taken into account.
The results are combined and (where useful the difference between the 2 polls) as follows:
a. 12% of you polled 100% virtual working (15% LinkedIn; 9.7% Twitter)
b. 1.5% of you polled 100% office working (1% LinkedIn; 1.8% Twitter)
c. 30% of you polled 60/40 Office/Virtual (28% LinkedIn; 31.5% Twitter)
d. 56.5% of you polled 80/20 Virtual/Office
So what does this tell us?
98.5% of us don't want to spend 100% of our time in the office. Whatever that was before, that's pretty telling.
That same 98.5% of us need either the same choices we had pre-coronavirus or more choice and flexibility mid- and post-coronavirus.
Draw from that what you will about the impact on culture, connectivity, comfort, team spirit, togetherness, isolation, preference, life-work integration and so on.
If you're a leader, workspace designer or colleague, what this appears to be saying - with its admittedly limited scope, reach and options- is this:
Flexibility, choice and dialogue are needed when it comes to the 'place' of work and we will need to be listened to, supported and guided in making a flexible way and place of work, work.
Thanks to the 1559+ of you who voted, posted and shared.
CEO | ?? Work From Anywhere | On a mission to empower work and hire from anywhere globally
3 年Hi Perry, thought-provoking article. I'm curious what kind of trends you're seeing next, for example, is work from anywhere beginning to really kick in? How can you tackle that particular challenge?
Author, Advisor, Non Executive Director, Co-Founder Everythingomni. President London Irish Amateur RFC
4 年Congratulations Perry Timms on a really useful analysis which once again brings the spotlight on that word CHOICE. I think we are seeing a real shift from fixed to fluid where the focus will be on the individual as the workplace, Sadly in terms of the physical dimension of such we are stuck with the mentality of the fixed office in a city centre. As Neil Usher said we need to reframe our thinking to all urban centres? As we try to get our heads around the emerging new reality all of us involved in people and place need to innovate and come up with a new human centric model. Not one based on a binary choice of office versus remote working but taking into account the wider permutations available. Where in many cases the focus will be on “localised” work. Lots to do...
Helping Landlords Combat Fraud | Exposing Fraudster Tactics & Solutions | Synthetic Fraud Detection | Identity Theft Prevention
4 年Perry Timms thanks for sharing this. It absolutely is telling but makes sense from some of the same conversations I've been having. Namely that there's been this shift (caused by technology/software) that's been going on for almost a decade at this point; which we didn't really notice until COVID forced us to. That shift comes from recognizing that the office is not where the tools to do our jobs are. We now have tools like Salesforce, Workday, Asana, Monday, SAP that allows us to do our work from anywhere. Obviously this varies to some degree based on a person's role, but this shift is not going to change anytime soon. Garry Turner (He/Him) - Interpersonal Catalyst agree this is a massive opportunity for companies.
New Ways of Working Leader, acting in areas of open innovation, thought leadership, communication, customers and employee experience
4 年Great insights, Perry. Thanks for sharing.
People expert | Business Speaker | Understanding the Ripple Effect of your Behaviours
4 年Thanks for this Perry Timms - a real support to me as 2020 was my plan to start delivering programmes virtually to support global clients. With C19 it has became a valuable tool to have started developing. I don’t think I’ll be on a stage in front of large audiences for a while . ??