Working From Home v. Back to the Office — The World Is Not That Binary

Many organizations around the world are asking one question right now, that goes something like this: Do I need to keep the amount of office space I have currently?

The question is no surprise to anyone. The answer that often follows is either yes, or no.

And I think that’s wrong: The answer is not that binary.

It should address the collaboration options that best meet the needs of the organization and the employees working for it, and consider the collaboration technology that allows organizations to consider how to embrace both working options.

Collaboration solutions need to allow the human element to be considered in new ways, on-campus and on your porch.

If you look at the IT industry, there are any number of opinions being expressed about these options. What’s interesting, of course, is that IT companies have two perspectives: we want to be as effective and as collaborative as possible, and many of us have collaboration solutions.

Lenovo’s President and Chief Operating Office Gianfranco Lanci recently discussed the surge in “remote and flexible work” around the world, with an associated “rise in demand for productivity technology from laptops and tablets to monitors and accessories.”

And Microsoft’s Satya Nadella has said that he misses the interaction and social (human) aspects of collaborating in the office.

There’s no doubt that Covid-19 has accelerated this thinking. I would say that collaboration has risen up the CIO and C-suite priority list over recent months, to nudge alongside other priorities such as security and data.

But I also believe this was a trend that had already started pre-Covid. It’s not a trend that’s going to go away once Covid-19 is over, because this is something much more important than some kind of feel-good experience.

There are three legs to the platform that supports the success of any organization: user experience, customer experience, and employee experience — and within employee experience, there are also three sub-foundations: culture, HR and technology.

Neglect any of these three pillars and you compromise the success of the organization — including its ability to maximize revenue and attract future talent.

What’s more interesting still is that if you ignore any of the three elements that together form the employee experience pillar, the platform still topples.

More large enterprises are now looking at the collaboration aspects of how they deliver value to customers. For example, if I want to set up a meeting to collaborate with other team members internally in New York, Sydney, London, and Tokyo, I want the experience to be as good as I can make it, and consistently so, in all of these locations.

And the focus is increasingly on technology — and how it enhances the user’s experience. Many organizations, as another example, are now running meetings using technology platforms even if employees are in the same city or even campus, so that collaboration and the shared experience is the same for everyone in the meeting, whether that’s across borders or across the office.

So as enterprises increasingly load collaboration and employee experience into their planning, here are four things to consider:

• the choice of office v. home is not binary, nor is it mutually exclusive: what’s important is the best solution for the organization and its employees, and this solution will likely be hybrid and scalable
• collaboration will be an integrated solution, not just a collection of devices, and will involve a number of vendors working in partnership — companies such as Lenovo with smart devices, software tools and professional services designed to improve the user experience further, specialist devices such as group video conference systems, in-room systems, personal collaboration solutions, and so on, with secure infrastructures
• work with a lead partner able to consider the best option for your organization, with the partnerships that translate your organization’s needs into a sustainable, scalable solution
• think strategically for the long-term: meaningful successful collaboration is more than being able to start meetings on time or having the right bandwidths to be able to share data (though both of these are important!)

Collaboration is about being productive anytime, anywhere. Covid-19 has accelerated everyone’s thinking on collaboration, but the future will not see either a return to what we had before, or some new normal: what we will have is a highly-distributed workforce.

Agility and flexibility that enhances employee experience, productivity and improves engagement will be everything.

And the requirement and expectation to be able to work from anywhere means great collaboration tools will increasingly define how successful companies are. If they break, productivity and customer satisfaction goes off the cliff.

Collaboration should be at the heart of every company’s digital transformation strategy.

About the Author

Joseph Mingori leads a team anchored around Lenovo’s Smart Office collaboration solutions, that help customers break away from the limitations many face today, to create better customer and collaboration experiences. He loves the entrepreneurial vibe that still lives in Lenovo! Start a conversation with Joseph here, on LinkedIn or on Twitter.