New Workplace After COVID

The New Workplace

New Workplace After COVID

Now that restrictions are being lifted and businesses are beginning to open up again, many organizational leaders are trying to make decisions about the right way to adjust and adapt to a newly transformed working world.

Chris Herd touched on this in his article “I Spoke to 2,000 Companies About Their Plans for Remote Work After Covid” and cited many of the choices and changes that organizational leaders are making in this new world of business now that they have the opportunity to return to offices again.

So, what are they doing? Turns out that many are planning to drastically reduce and even eliminate the use of office space altogether.

According to Herd (2021), many businesses plan to cut their commercial office space by as much as 70%, allowing employees to work from home 2-4 days a week. Additionally, as many as 30% of organizational leaders are planning to eliminate office space entirely and go completely remote.

 
Why are business leaders choosing to do this new workplace setup?

Well, when looking at the facts it becomes more surprising that businesses didn’t switch to remote work sooner!

 

  1. Money.

Is this not the leading factor in most business decisions? On average businesses spend approximately $20,000 per worker per year in office space rental, when they can instead set an employee up with all the materials, they could ever need to work from home space for a fraction of the cost. The money saved in office space can be reallocated towards improved employee training, team building trips, better employee healthcare plans, or gamification tools, such as GoodGames (see what I did there?), that help to enhance team creativity, productivity, and engagement. Several companies are even considering creating company resorts! These elements can help to improve employee well-being, reduce workplace injury and turnover (saving even more money), and drastically enhance overall organizational performance.

 

  1. Increased talent and productivity.

Remote work allows organizations to increase their range when hiring new employees and, therefore, gives them the opportunity to hire more talented people. Additionally, the productivity in companies that have been operating fully or even partially remote has seen employee productivity skyrocket. This also prevents managerial psychological biases in which organizational leaders equate employee presence with increased output instead of assessing employees based on the quality of their work.

 

  1. Better for the environment.

More and more organizations are beginning to care about the effect that eradicating the office, and subsequent commute, will have on the environment. Something that is absolutely worth noting, considering the projected 108 million ton reduction in Co2 emitted by organizations who choose to work from home every year.

 

Although a fully remote workplace is not possible for all organizations, many businesses are maintaining a hybrid work environment with plans to move more of their workforce into partially or fully remote positions in the future. With reduced cost, improved employee well-being, enhanced organizational performance, and reduced carbon footprint, the real question is, why wouldn’t you want to transition towards remote work?