Guides for Workplace Strategy and Management
Issue link: https://resources.agilquest.com/i/1380821
Pre-COVID Office Trends Before we can answer the question of "What will the office look like post-COVID?," we first must take a look at what it was before all of this. Let's head back to January 2020. Traditional Office / Office-first The traditional office means working in-office, 5 days a week, from 9 to 5. In 2019, only 5% of U.S. offices offered flex- ibility while the others followed a tradi- tional workplace strategy. The biggest benefit of a traditional of- fice is the ease of collaboration. Your coworker could walk right over to your desk to get a quick answer but that can just as easily lead to more distractions and loss of focus. Remote-Friendly A remote-friendly workplace means employees have the option to work re- motely but they are more than likely working in-office 4+ days a week. A remote-friendly organization may of- fer remote options but puts an empha- sis on in-office employees so important decisions happen at the water-cooler or while passing each other in the hallway and if an employee isn't there, they miss it. Remote-First Remote-first means employees have the option of working remotely or in the office, but the office is used more for collaboration space and meetings. A remote-first organization puts high priority on digital, so tools are available for virtual communication & documen- tation, decisions are made online, all meetings are online & easily recorded, and productivity is measured by work done, not hours spent in the office. Fully Remote Remote work is a flexible workplace practice that eliminates the office and has employees working from anywhere (home, coffee shop, co-working site, etc.) 100% of the time. It can reduce or eliminate real estate costs, plus since the pandemic, many companies and employees have stated seeing the same or higher productivity but many don't have the right setup, or experience too many distractions. With these competing trends, one workplace style was created to incorporate the benefits of each trend while working to eliminate the cons. Post-COVID offices will be creating and managing HYBRID WORKPLACES. 4