An unpredictable future of work and space
Today, every organisation is struggling with its strategy. The future of work and space is uncertain as the rising number of COVID-19 cases indicates a second wave of COVID-19 coming, possibly leading to new regulations and dynamics in society. For many organisations, it requires changes in roughly two areas: the work and space. In the field of work, some organisations are adapting their services towards the shifting demands. While in the field of space, some organisations are switching to hybrid and remote working policies. But how do you know when to do what? Adapting your services requires large internal changes which diffuse towards the field of work. What kind of work do your employees do? Can they do this remotely or do they need to be together in the office?
Switching to remote working
Across the news, there were many reports of big organisations switching to remote work. Google has told employees that the vast majority of them will work from home until 2021, while Twitter announced to allow remote working for all employees, with the quote “We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive” (source). Big-tech might have the ability to go fully remote, but this is certainly different for employees in other industries. Other industries’ workforce needs to interact directly with materials and tools that reside at the office. And there are also organisations that heavily rely on low-key communications in teams working tightly together.
The differences between organisations can be quite large. For example, our research showed that company face-to-face communications were (very) important for 73% of the employees, while for employees at another organisation it was only 46%. The strong need for face-to-face communication was accompanied by a higher need for relatedness, and a lower need for autonomy creating a whole different work dynamic. Basically, what we are trying to say is that every organisation is different. Clearly, only following news articles or adopting trending strategies is not the way towards an effective organisation. Using Benchmark Data of similar organisations in your branch might be useful, but that is just one way to look at it. Next to tracking the trends outside in the global trends, one should also focus on the trends inside the organisation. Needs and thoughts from your employees within your organisation hold valuable information that should form your strategy.
