The Covid pandemic has forced millions of people to try remote working for the first time as lockdown measures shut offices down. Researchers from Swinburne University suggest that for many Australians, this exposure was sufficient to convert them to the benefits of flexible working.
“As we begin our return to office, organizations should not be rushing to resume normal programming (just with reduced days in the office),” the researchers say. “This is an opportunity to rethink our approach to hybrid working, and what makes sense for hybrid models today might not be as effective in six months’ time.”
New converts
The researchers highlight how beneficial remote working has been for individual productivity, but how this does not always translate into team or organizational productivity. Indeed, the research found that flexible working is less productive than both fully remote or fully office-based.
This is in large part because people operating under a hybrid approach have the dilemma of where to work and when to consider. What’s more, the authors argue that people working under these conditions were least likely to know precisely what to do and also struggled with creativity and collaboration. Despite this, the option to work flexibly is increasingly important for workers.
“We surveyed workers and what we found was that every single worker who had a work-from-home experience wants to convert to flexible working,” the researchers say. “Only a pay rise might convince them to stay, which could be very expensive for companies unwilling to shift to new ways of working.”
Ideal working
The researchers found that the ideal approach tended to be one that allowed remote working, as this boosted productivity, while also allowing office time to allow relationships to be built and maintained. This flexibility also helped to improve the work-life balance of employees.
It’s vital that this approach actively involves employees so that it is co-designed with them on an individual and team basis. This is especially important to ensure that remote working doesn’t penalize employees, especially those in minority groups who can often end up being frozen out of the best opportunities when working remotely.
The authors go on to highlight the importance of building workplace conditions that foster learning, collaboration, and creativity. They believe that this can be done via rituals that help to support the right kind of in-person behaviors, with these often distinct from the old office work habits.
This could include:
- Designating set spaces for certain collaborative activities
- Starting a certain day each week with a brainstorming session
- Ensuring major project kick-offs occur in the office
- Holding ‘meet and greets’ with new employees
Offices of the future will see fewer individual workspaces, more spaces for collaboration and socializing, a greater focus on multipurpose spaces with reconfigurable workplace settings and furniture, and tech-enabled spaces.
