At first, many thought the stops would take several 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 experiment on a scale never seen before – and a lot has changed in the last 12 months.
The line between our work and our personal life has become 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 were also forced to become more agile. They had to loosen the restrictions on the workplace of employees, equip them with the tools they do and support them both professionally and personally.
Now that more people are getting vaccinated and children are returning to school, things seem as if they could return to “normal”, but the job as we knew it can be changed forever.
And, of course, some companies will want everyone to come back.
Regardless of the approach, workers and employers can expect to hit a few bumps along the way as they go through the next phase of this great work experiment.
“Many companies managed to work remotely in 2020, largely because everyone did – there was no built-in preference for office workers or stigma over remote workers,” said Andrew Hewitt, senior analyst at the research firm. Forrester Market. “The hybrid will make managing this difference more difficult.”
The initial shock
At the Yelp business review site, the IT department had to work hard to find nearly 3,000 laptops for workers, mainly engaged in sales, when he left in March.
“We’ve always had backup laptops, but not 3,000,” said Carolyn Patterson, general manager for people.
The artificial intelligence software company, Coveo, 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’s culture.
“We were a company that used to get together; literally people from all over the world fly … to get together. People have to interact personally,” said CEO Louis Tetu.
From the outset, the company has focused on ensuring that workers are well-equipped in their home office, allowing for the cost of technical equipment and noise-canceling headphones, as well as providing subsidies for high-speed internet. And it didn’t come cheap.
“That meant we would give you the best chair, the best screen … which cost us seven figures overnight,” Tetu said.
The cost, he said, was worth it. “You can’t build great company if your people aren’t well.”
But he wasn’t alone discovering the logistics of working from home that challenged employers and their workers at the beginning of the pandemic. It was also the mental and emotional tribute he took.
“We recognized that our employees came to guide us through everything: the pandemic, the way they lived, wanting to know what’s safe and what’s not safe,” said Cisco’s executive vice president and chief executive officer, Politician and Purpose. Fran Katsoudas. “It became very natural for us to have meetings where we had medical and mental health practitioners and discussions about business strategy, all in the same meeting.”
To help employees cope with pandemic changes and uncertainties, some companies have improved their benefits, offering things like free counseling, childcare allowances, and increased office and vacation arrangements.
But when it comes to the post-pandemic workforce, remote work will no longer be considered a special advantage.
“It is no longer:“ Do you offer distance works? “But you provide it with enough organization support to be able to be as successful as people working in the office? “Hewitt said.
He expects that about 60% of companies will offer a hybrid working model, while 30% of companies will return to the office and 10% will be completely removed.
Now comes the hard part
Despite the challenges, Hewitt says last year was easy compared to what will follow.
“We played remotely in the easy way. We all did the same thing, everyone had equal access to information and promotions,” Hewitt said. “It will become harder in 2021 with the hybrid.”
Inequality between remote and office workers can become a problem among the hybrid workforce. People in the office get more time to deal with the boss, which can lead to better relationships, increased access to information and top tasks.
“It simply came to our notice then [before the pandemic], that remote workers were less productive and career-oriented, “Hewitt said.
Preparing managers on how to incorporate redundant workers and staff equally into meetings and decision-making, and how to communicate is a critical step in equalizing the workforce.
At Yelp, most employees worked in the company’s offices before the pandemic. The company now offers most employees the opportunity to continue working remotely or coming to the office a few days a week.
“We will be very careful that managers do not change into models that you have to introduce in the office for an important meeting, because this is not possible if people move away,” Patterson said.
Workers who move to areas with a significantly higher or lower labor cost may see their wages adjusted.
The company has created a three-tier system to manage compensation changes for moving workers.
“If you move from a level one to a level three location, you’re going to experience a low salary, but we still want to be competitive,” Patterson said.
Coveo also intends to give employees the flexibility to choose where they work, but it has done so. there are no plans to require everyone to be 100% removed.
“It’s very dehumanizing,” Tetu said of companies that go completely away and run out of offices. “I think Slack and Zoom are great, but there’s no equivalent to bringing people together and promoting a common culture.”
He is looking forward to the day when he will reunite his team safely.
“We will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on plane tickets to bring them all together. There is no doubt. There are massive gains and benefits in terms of cohesion.”
As things begin to return to normal and services such as childcare are reopened on a regular basis, employers are likely to become stricter with their remote work requirements, according to Hewitt. This could mean that the employee takes care of the children instead during the work schedule or standardization of a time zone in which everyone works.
“The other thing that comes with ‘workplace anywhere’ is tax laws,” Hewitt said. “This can get complicated and complex.”
decrease office
Companies will also probably need less office space as more employees start working remotely.
Tetu expects his company to use about 70% of the square footage it made pre-pandemic.
To meet the needs of a hybrid workforce, office projects are likely to look the same.
Not every worker will need a designated office. Collaboration spaces are likely to become a higher priority, so that more team-focused work can be carried out in the office, while individual work will be done at home.
Yelp is also looking to reduce the size of office space, according to Patterson.
“As our leases begin, we will begin to reduce our footprint,” she said, adding that Yelp’s office space could be redesigned to include fewer offices and focus more on collaboration.
Even if more people get vaccinated, experts warn that it will take time to return to any sense of normalcy. the work.
“There will be a long queue here, there is no doubt about that,” Tetu said. “There is a lasting psychological impact. Life has been shaken quite a bit and there are several ramifications in this regard. “