Workplace and Work style after COVID-19

Changing attitudes on the role of the office

    Before the pandemic, the conventional wisdom had been that offices were critical to productivity, culture, and winning the war for talent. Companies competed intensely for prime office space in major urban centers around the world, and many focused on solutions that were seen to promote collaboration.

Four steps to re-imagine work and workplaces

1. Reconstruct how work is done
2. Decide ‘people to work’ or ‘work to people’
• fully remote (net positive value-creating outcome)
• hybrid remote (net neutral outcome)
• hybrid remote by exception (net negative outcome but can be done remotely if needed)
• on site (not eligible for remote work)
3. Redesign the workplace to support organizational priorities
4. Resize the footprint creatively

WORKPLACE COMMUNITIES

    Before the corona virus hit, employees spent untold hours at the office talking with colleagues in the hallway or around the coffee machine. They discussed solutions to problems, provided advice, and served as sounding boards to their coworkers’ challenges. Occasionally, they shot the breeze and chatted about weekend plans. For the time being, this crisis is robbing them of those kinds of social interactions.

9 Future of Work Trends Post-COVID-19

1. Increase in remote working
2. Expanded data collection
3. Contingent worker expansion
4. Expanded employer role as social safety net
5. Separation of critical skills and roles
6. (De-)Humanization of employees
7. Emergence of new top-tier employers
8. Transition from designing for efficiency to designing for resilience
9. Increase in organization complexity 

How can we put safety first?

    The health and safety of the workforce should be management’s top priority as it considers how to bring operations back to some semblance of normal. This is, of course, a moral, ethical and legal concern for all companies. And from a business perspective, safeguarding employees’ well-being is paramount because no plan to resume normal operations can succeed without them.

Work-At-Home After Covid-19

• Increased demand for work-from-home from employees
• Reduced fear about work-from-home among managers and executives
• Increased pressure for work-from-home for disaster preparedness 
• Increased awareness of cost-saving opportunities in work-from-home
• Increased awareness of the potential impact of work-from-home on sustainability
• Reduced Business Travel

Who do we bring back onsite, and when?

    Returning to the workplace could mean recalling furloughed employees, transitioning away from mandatory remote work or ramping back up toward full productivity regardless of where work is being performed. For many companies, it likely means a combination of all three. But as management teams develop strategies to get their businesses back on track, most will probably focus on getting employees who really need to be in the office or on the factory floor back into the building as soon as it is safe and practicable to do so.

What do employees need to manage this change?

    Without employee buy-in, even the best-crafted plans are likely to run into trouble. Management teams should lead with empathy and demonstrate an understanding that while all of their employees have experienced this crisis, they haven’t all experienced it the same way. Some employees may have conditions that increase their risk of serious COVID-19 infection and may be reluctant to return to the office. Others may be eager to leave remote work behind, but have care giving responsibilities that make it difficult or impossible for them to do so. Sensitivity to this reality is a must.

Digital Security While Working Remotely

    Companies of all sizes are under attack. Meanwhile, remote work has become a necessity for modern organizations looking to recruit talent and create business continuity plans. A good example of business continuity occurred in the spring of 2020, when organizations around the world sent hundreds of thousands of information workers to work from their home offices in response to the COVID19 (corona virus) outbreak.

• Avoid public Wi-Fi; if necessary, use personal hotspots or some way to encrypt your web connection.
• Keep Work Data on Work Computers.
• Block the Sight Lines.
• Encrypt Sensitive Data in Emails and on Your Device

Physical Security While Working Remotely

• Lock Your Doors.
• Never Leave Your Devices or Laptop in the Car.
• Don’t Use Random Thumb Drives.
• Use a USB Data Blocker when Charging Up at a Public Phone Charging Station.