Large tech giants such as Facebook and Google have said they will let employees continue working from home for the rest of the year and Twitter even announced that their staff can work from home ‘Forever’!
I guess with such bold statements you might ask yourself, ‘is this the death of the Workplace?’ I mean if you have the space for a home office set-up, a spare room to escape from other members of the family, a study overlooking a garden, a love for isolation, then working from home for the foreseeable future sounds like a mighty good plan.
But what about young adults, graduation leavers who might just rent a room in a house share? Or still live at home with the parents. What about the couple living in a 1 bedroom flat fighting over who works in the lounge today? Or the mother that can’t concentrate on work because she’s distracted by cleaning up after the kids/husband whilst the house is empty. Or any number of people who can’t bear the isolation and the loneliness of being at home 24/7.
If you are struggling with WFH one of our partners, Give-a-grad-go has produced an article including advice from recent graduates starting new jobs whilst in lockdown. How to Work from Home: The Benefits of Working Remotely
Whilst in lockdown with very little else to do, (such as drinking in The Old Ivy) we’ve been keeping up with trends, watching webinars and following statistics from a variety of sources. A very informative survey carried out by WKSpace highlights some great points including 17% of the participants commenting that they would ONLY want to work from Home in the future. Meaning that 83% want the ability to work at the office for at least part of their week.
Other interesting stats included how people feel about virtual meetings: 15% said ‘I am tired of doing them, please stop!’ 36% have missed the workplace and can’t wait to get back. And one of my favourite stats – even though the market seems to be flooded with them as a solution… Only 19% would want to return to work, to their own desk with clear protective shielding panels around them. We need to think further than just these ‘band-aid’ ideas.
The WHEN, WHERE & HOW WE WORK is changing. Thinking about every member of staff commuting to a single place of work for a 9-5 working day again? I’m not so sure. So, is the workplace dead?
NO, I shouldn’t think so, it’s just EVOLVING.
The Evolving Workplace
Right now, we know that the workplace is needed for a percentage of employees, this can be due to the work itself, but also includes health & wellbeing, home technology issues, lack of space at home and more.
For that reason, we have pulled together our experience, knowledge and resources to create this helpful guide. Because we understand that during this current period of pre and during vaccine implementation (and after lockdown) businesses will no doubt require to get back up and functioning, whilst maintaining social distancing and introducing working practices to protect and build confidence in your people for the future.
Please check out AND DOWNLOAD NOW our ‘Working Solutions for the Office and WFH Teams’
When we do enter a post COVID vaccination world, It will still be vital to create a safe, welcoming environment for each member of your team to essentially love where they work, whether that be in the office or in their homes. We envisage the workplace of the future becoming a HUB for users to choose when, where, and how they work best. So why not start creating that space now?
Where and how we work has hopefully been changed for better and forever by COVID-19. The technology is here; there is a desire amongst more people to find balance and harmony. We are instinctively sociable beings. We want to belong, we want to be recognised for our achievements and to be a part of the ‘Team’. Office spaces will change from being the ‘factory style’ production space to places in which we meet, communicate, share, engage, collaborate, and socialise on a more flexible basis.