Why business leaders should prioritize reuniting their teams in offices first and foremost and the benefits of an office-centric culture.
The pandemic has forced enterprises all over the world to rethink the workplace. The rapid shift to remote work forced companies to focus on their digital transformation efforts and support team collaboration and communication among dispersed teams. The result? The realization that a workspace doesn’t need to be limited to a desk or a 9 to 5 workday. Ernst & Young and Goldman Sachs have determined that working from home is ‘not sustainable’ and want to quickly move to a hot-desk or cubicle working environment. While companies such as Twitter and Salesforce, have vowed that employees can work from home “forever.” As teams reunite in the months ahead, there will be a wider variety of work environments than we’ve seen in the past. Some will be remote-only, some will be office-only, and others will be somewhere in between. No matter the approach, companies wishing to survive and thrive in the next chapter of hybrid work must be flexible and intentional in their approach. As a global company, we are accustomed to our teams working remotely across the globe and we will naturally facilitate hybrid work moving forward. But we also recognize the benefits of face-to-face communication. ‘Water cooler’ moments and impromptu co-creation simply can’t be replicated remotely, so as soon as it’s safe to do so, we will be prioritizing an office-centric hybrid approach. The workplace has radically changed from the first emergence of COVID-19. Almost overnight, the world transitioned to remote work, with little warning or preparation. Despite the efforts of many organisations to rapidly roll out the technology to help their teams navigate lockdown, productivity is on the decline.
