At first, many thought the shutdowns would last a couple of months. But a year later, millions of workers are still working remotely.
The pandemic has forced a large segment of the global workforce to go through a remote work experiment on an unprecedented scale – and a lot has changed in the last twelve months.
The boundary between our work and our personal life has blurred. Working at the kitchen table has become commonplace and for parents, juggling virtual school while trying to meet work deadlines has become a daily challenge.
Employers have also been forced to be more agile. They have had to let go of the restrictions on where employees can work, provide them with the tools to do so, and support them both professionally and personally.
Now that more people are getting vaccinated and kids going back to school, things seem like they’re back to “normalcy,” but the workplace as we knew it can change forever.
And, of course, some companies will want everyone back.
No matter what the approach, workers and employers can expect blows on the road as they navigate the next phase of this great work experiment.
“Many companies managed to work remotely in 2020, largely because everyone did: there was no integrated preference for office workers or stigma against remote workers,” said Andrew Hewitt, a senior analyst at the firm. Forrester market research. “The hybrid will make it difficult to manage this difference.”
The initial shock
On the Yelp business review site, the IT department had to struggle to find about 3,000 laptops for workers, mainly sales employees, when he marched at a distance in March.
“We always had spare laptops, but not 3,000,” said Carolyn Patterson, director of people.
Coveo, an artificial intelligence software company, emptied its offices in early March 2020. With more than 600 employees worldwide, employees were accustomed to working in different time zones and locations. However, in-person collaboration and meetings are an important part of the company culture.
“We were a company that used to get together; it literally flew people from all over the world … to get together. People need to interact in person,” CEO Louis Tetu said.
From the beginning, the company focused on making sure workers were well-equipped in their home office, allowing technology and noise-canceling headphones to be worn. in addition to offering grants for high-speed Internet. And it didn’t come cheap.
“That meant we would offer you the best chair, the best screen … that would cost us in seven figures overnight,” Tetu said.
He said the cost is worth it. “You can’t start a big business if your people aren’t right.”
But he was not alone find out the logistics of how to work from home that challenged employers and their workers at the start of the pandemic. There was also the mental and emotional toll it entailed.
“We recognized that our employees were coming to us for guidance on everything: the pandemic, how they lived, wanted to know what was safe and what wasn’t,” said Cisco Executive Vice President and Policy Officer Fran Katsoudas. “It became very natural to have meetings where we had medical and mental health professionals and debates on business strategy, all in the same meeting.”
To help employees cope with the changes and uncertainties of the pandemic, some companies improved their profits, offering services such as free counseling, childcare stipends and office facilities and larger rest days.
But with respect to the post-pandemic workforce, remote work will no longer be considered a special advantage.
“It’s no longer, ‘Do you offer remote jobs?’ But do you offer it with enough organization? assistance so you can be as successful as the people who work in the office? said Hewitt.
It expects that approximately 60% of companies will offer a hybrid work model, while 30% of companies will return to the office and 10% will be completely remote.
Now comes the hard part
Despite the challenges, Hewitt says last year has been easy compared to what comes next.
“We’ve been playing remote work in easy mode. We’ve all been doing the same thing, everyone has had equal access to information and promotions,” Hewitt said. “It will get harder in 2021 with hybrids.”
Inequality between remote and temporary workers can become a problem among the hybrid workforce. People in the office have more time to deal with the boss, which can lead to better relationships, greater access to information, and better tasks.
“There was the stigma [before the pandemic], that remote workers were less productive and career-focused, “Hewitt said.
Training managers on how to equally incorporate remote and face-to-face workers into meetings and decision-making, as well as how they communicate, is a critical step in equalizing the workforce.
At Yelp, most employees worked in the company’s offices before the pandemic. Now the company gives most employees the chance to continue working remotely or enter the office a few days a week.
“We’re going to be very cautious so that managers don’t turn into bosses who have to come into the office for an important meeting, because that’s not possible if people walk away,” Patterson said.
Workers moving to areas with significantly higher or lower labor costs could see their wages adjusted.
The company created a three-tier system to manage compensation changes for workers who relocated.
“If you go from a position from one level to a third, you will have a reduced salary, but we still want to be competitive,” Patterson said.
Coveo also plans to give employees flexibility to choose where they work, but yes there are no plans to require everyone to be 100% remote.
“It’s very dehumanizing,” Tetu said of companies that go completely away and get rid of offices. “I think Slack and Zoom are great, but there’s no equivalent in bringing people together and fostering a common culture.”
He is wishing he could assemble his team safely.
“We’re going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on plane tickets to bring everyone together. There’s no doubt about it. There are massive benefits and benefits in terms of cohesion.”
As things begin to return to normal and services like daycare reopen regularly, employers are likely to become stricter with their remote work requirements, according to Hewitt. This could mean requiring the employee to take care of the children on site during business hours or standardizing a time zone in which everyone works.
“The other thing that comes with‘ working anywhere ’is tax laws,” Hewitt said. “This can be tricky and complicated.”
The contraction office
Companies are also likely to need less office space as more employees start working remotely.
Tetu expects his company to use about 70% of the pre-pandemic square meter.
To meet the needs of a hybrid workforce, office designs are likely to look different as well..
Not all workers will need a designated desk. Collaborative spaces are likely to become a higher priority so you can do more team-focused work in the office, while individual work will be done at home.
Yelp is also considering downsizing its office, according to Patterson.
“As our leases arrive, we will begin to shrink our footprint,” he said, adding that Yelp office spaces could be redesigned to include fewer desks and focus more on col. collaboration.
Although more people are being vaccinated, experts warn that it will take time to return to any sense of normalcy to work.
“There will be a long queue here, there is no doubt about it,” Tetu said. “There is a psychological impact that is lasting. Life has shaken quite a bit, and that has several ramifications. “