Working in the new normal – what lessons should we take with us?

For many families, September marks the beginning of the new academic year. As a working father I am all too aware of the understatement that 2020 has been a year like no other. No one expected the last academic year to be so disrupted by lockdown restrictions, the introduction of home schooling or the need to balance both full-time work and family life in the same place.

As families embrace Back to School routines this week, reflections on changing workplace patterns for working parents must surely follow. Will office-based workers want to continue working from home in order to reduce the toll of commuting? If so, how many days per week? How can workplace culture evolve in order to ensure the career paths of those who choose to work from home are as robust as those who are physically in the office? 

And a question that I am asked on a near-daily basis: with Google, Twitter, Facebook and others pledging indefinite working from home policies, is there still a role for the office in the future? These are just a handful of questions that leadership teams are grappling with. Even if we don’t know all of the immediate answers today, these are issues that we need to begin working through.   

As we consider what lies ahead in this brave new world, I am keen to share my insights and focus for the coming months. 

The future is blended:

As Philips employees, myself included, have adjusted to new working environments we have seen a significant shift in how our colleagues want to work in the future. Although Philips has supported agile working for several years, through employee conversations we know people are looking for even greater flexibility. In a recent employee survey, the majority (71%) of our workforce have indicated they would be open to even more varied working hours and a more flexible set up in terms of working environments – a mixture of home, office and sometimes, remote sites.

When we ran our employee survey, I was prepared for employees to say that they wanted the option to work from home indefinitely. That’s not the response we received back. Many employees responded they envisioned themselves being in the office two to three days a week. A majority said they felt they could do a significant amount of their work remotely, but equally, there was genuine interest in having a communal place to come together, to share ideas and to be part of a wider community.

This is why I say the future is blended: one size doesn’t fit all. Some of our colleagues need a physical separation from work and home in order to leave work at work and avoid burn-out from an always on, always there home office. Others are in shared housing and have been sharing Wi-Fi and limited work spaces for months. Others still live alone and crave the companionship of others. And some have relaxed into a working from home environment. Going forward, flexibility will be key to the employer / employee relationships.

People’s motivations extend beyond the office:

Understanding the motivation of our colleagues is also critical to the future of work and the workplace. Central to our colleagues’ reasons for increased time at home were for personal reasons like saving “wasted” time commuting (84%) and having greater flexibility in working hours (52%).  However, more insightfully, two thirds of employees (66%) said a key consideration to working from home more often was to reduce their direct contribution to air pollution.

When I saw those results, I felt immensely proud. It tells me our colleagues want an employer who enables them to live their values – and to empower them with the ability to do so through every day choices that add up to become something significant and meaningful. 

It also tells me that more businesses, not just Philips, must acknowledge what is important to employees and support these priorities. As we further develop future working policies, what is clear to me is that air pollution and a healthy working environment are mission critical if we are to succeed.

I encourage businesses to pull back the curtain and understand the emerging issues from lockdown and consider how these can be integrated into the working environment of the future.

Businesses have a responsibility to protect employees at home and in the office:

This brings me to the responsibilities of employers in supporting more employees working from home offices. It is not just enough to offer someone a laptop on the provision they have a Wi-Fi connection and leave them to it.

The World Health Organization and the UK Government recognise that air pollution is the largest environmental health risk we face today. Toxic air has proven to cause numerous heart conditions and respiratory diseases and inflicts vulnerability to viruses such as Covid-19. 

It is essential that we work to promote safe and healthy remote working, particularly for those living in pollution hotspots. Developing guidance and HR policies to help better inform employees on how to work safely from home will go a long way in protecting their long-term health.

This responsibility also extends to the communities in which we live. As more people work from home it is essential that policy makers and businesses proactively address the new environmental challenges that will undoubtedly arise from this new working model - such as increased home deliveries.

Finally, my key takeaway is that we should always strive to guarantee that our teams feel connected, safe and empowered to work in way that most suits them, their families and their local environment.

We have the opportunity to change how we work to protect our future:

It is all well and good pontificating, but what am I doing about this?

At Philips we continue to give serious thought to how we can better serve our employees and wider community. As part of my role at the Philips Foundation and the Clean Air for Schools Campaign, I have seen firsthand the importance of improving air quality in our communities. 

I recently welcomed the All Party Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution’s recent COVID-19 strategy and, as a guest speaker on behalf of the Business Clean Air Taskforce, presented at the AAPG for Air Pollutions’ July meeting some of the environmental lessons we have learned during lockdown and our proposed policies for tackling the silent killer of air pollution.

For those reading this post who want to do even more, you might choose to look into becoming a member of the Business Clean Air Taskforce, a coalition of businesses committed to improving air quality in the UK. Philips UKI is a founding member, alongside Uber, Engie and several others. We believe the business community has a vital role to play in ushering in a transition to a cleaner air society, through innovation, sustainable business practices and making it easier for employees and customers to do their part too. We are working alongside other members of the Business Clean Air Taskforce to inspire shared learning and increase action.

These programmes are just the start, but like so many things in the world around us, every action is interconnected to the outcome of our wider world. These are the fundamental Back to School learnings I will take with me into the future for many years to come.