The Road From Workplaces To Workspaces

The COVID-19 pandemic has permanently transformed ‘workplaces’ to ‘workspaces’. Here is a summary of what is occupying the minds of industry leaders as we enter the endemic stage.

Hybrid Working Model

WFA (work from anywhere) via the Zoom’s and Teams is like watching a soccer match on TV in your apartment all alone. The magic that gets created watching that same match in a stadium along with your buddies is missing. But the last 18 months, we had no alternative. We had to adapt to working from our homes.

Today, as the risk of infections is going away, WFA isn’t. So much so that employers insisting on returning to office have started losing talent to those with flexible WFA options. This indicates we will never return to 100% work from office ever in the years to come. It is indeed flexibility that most workers are interested in, not a wholesale rejection of the traditional model of full-time physical collocation with colleagues.

Organizations will have to design innovative interventions for better employee engagement and productivity as hybrid working becomes the new normal.

Productivity & Efficiency

By WFA, we might have become more efficient but not necessarily more productive. One future trend that all experts agree on is that work will become more self-directed. The classical hierarchical organizations, where managers spent time on delegation and reviews, will get more composite.

Work-culture and DNA of the organization has a direct bearing on organization productivity. It was so much easier to define it while working physically together. Highly disruptive interventions will be required to offer employees that sense of purpose & direction.

Employee well-being

In the past couple of months, as employees start returning to office, we have seen client enquiries for either hiring a doctor on site or hiring staff well-being officers. Organizations also are taking efforts on reducing the stigma associated with mental illnesses inflicted by stressful times we have seen recently. A BCG study predicts post-pandemic workforce to be less healthier—physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.

We have observed succession plans getting accelerated in relatively grayer organizations.

During the time away from office, employees have shown evolving attitude towards personal lifestyle. Some have taken up a pet to curb loneliness whereas some others have hit the gym regularly. Future workspaces will need to be accommodative of these changes.

Other Trends

Globalization: Crossing borders remotely has been easier more than ever. People are creating vast global networks that drives innovation and growth in both destination countries and origin countries.

This is a big opportunity, particularly for tech talent in India.

Automation & Digitization: Reasons for substituting humans with machines and automation before the pandemic were largely economical. It was not exactly welcome by those losing jobs to machines. However, now it is done primarily for a safer environment and lesser human interactions. The Economist calls this “forced automation”.

Heraclitus had said, “change is the only constant.” Eventually, people and companies bosoming this novel reality will be the real winners. Those that get it wrong will lose employees, customers, and revenues from the era we all want to forget. Hustlers must figure out alternatives to that 1-min elevator pitch. Those with desk jobs have to be more and more self-directed. Business leaders must find innovative ways to keep their folks engaged and aligned being equally mindful of well-being of their employees.