It’s been almost 5 months since we’ve gone into lockdown from the global pandemic in the U.S. and studies are coming out revealing the effects of this work-from-home experiment. Microsoft Corp. shared their analysis in the July 2020 issue of Harvard Business Review. In the same issue, researchers from Harvard, University of Texas Austin and MIT shared their results of a comprehensive survey of 600 U.S. based white collar employees beginning in the second half of March and every 2 weeks hence (releasing results as of May 2020). They asked this question: “What impact has working from home had on productivity and creativity?”
While history shows that significant change reduces productivity, respondents quickly adapted to the new lifestyle and ended up working more hours because of the reduced commute time. Key differences emerged among employees who adapted better. Personality types showed who would thrive in the all-virtual work environment and who would struggle. At least as of mid-May when the data was analyzed, employees collectively strived to navigate challenges and work continued. Having family members, or even pets appear in video conferencing calls became the norm. The idea of working from home received a collective reset with new norms and a new culture.
Should we stay virtual?
Some tech companies are making working from home a permanent option but this move comes at the cost of creativity and collaboration. Offices cause people who don’t normally work together to bump into each other and spark new ideas. Working from home limits this interaction. Researchers from Stanford, Columbia, and Northwestern University assert that less small talk among virtual workers leads to lower levels of trust, resulting in a big negative impact on innovation and collaboration. Virtual work also undermines activities that are critical to long-term organizational health. New employees need numerous in-depth interactions with more experienced employees. Meeting other coworkers in an organization plays an important role in performance, including innovation, raising or maintaining product or service quality, and attaining project milestones. These are difficult to create virtually. Company leaders are also finding it difficult to see how employees work and foster relationships with employees. Sure, people are still getting work done, but the long term relationships that formed from shared experiences are at risk. Creativity is at risk when there are limited in-person interactions driving collaboration and innovation. The push to innovate to address what’s lacking in virtual work remains top of mind. What worked two months ago is becoming stale, and people want something new to engage each other. Managers have been trying to solve this problem by calling more meetings. The Microsoft data revealed an emerging night shift with work creeping into the night hours from 6pm to 11pm.
What can we look forward to?
The survey affirms that the majority of workers want to spend some time in the office once the pandemic is over. Eventually workers will return to a form of hybrid work environment mixing both virtual and office-based work. Safely working in a close physical space requires many measures that will make conversation and meetings end up shorter inhibiting face-to-face communication. Majority of employees would rather continue working from home, rather than go to reconfigured offices and be required to wear masks.
After years of research we believe managers and leaders need to navigate this hybrid environment very carefully, team dynamics could suffer creating two tiers of employees, those in the office and those who are not. Paying workers differently based on where they live as proposed by Facebook produces the same risk of a hierarchical organization. In 2017 Link2Lift CEO Sheri Lozano spoke on the need to hire Chief Collaboration Officers, whose primary responsibility is to measure and manage the distributed team. It’s a great idea. Virtual work is here to stay. Commercial office space leases are being reviewed and right sized for many organizations. If people are working from home, then a smaller office footprint can save a lot of money. Virtual work is likely to become the default where people work and office space is the add-on space. The office footprint will change focusing the purpose of physical space on all the factors that are missing from virtual work. There will be a huge rise in the need to rethink the use of commercial buildings.
The most likely work environment for office work following the pandemic is a hybrid scenario of virtual and office work. Organizations will adapt by conducting experiments and pilot projects will produce innovations that can be adapted company wide. Going back to work the way it was pre-pandemic is not going to happen. Innovation is on the rise! When we improve the effectiveness of virtual work and reimagine the physical workspace, an organization’s agility will prove it can adapt to the next challenge it will face.
Link2Lift
Through research, human centered design and experience, Link2Lift guides global and local organizations to rethink their underutilized space and activate the symbiotic relationship between teams and their workplace. The results have been an increase in collaboration among coworkers in their reimagined space equipping them to reach their audacious goals.
