Returning to a Better Work Experience. But this time, it’s for Everyone.

Molly Wilson

Manager, Workplace Strategy

Molly believes in the power of people, and advocates that with tailored support strategy, impactful change can be implemented at any scale.

As we look ahead at the next year and reflect on the last, it goes without saying that the pandemic impacted the lives of nearly everyone on the planet to some degree. In the realm of workplace, employees—essential workers and knowledge workers alike—showed extraordinary resilience as they adapted to different work environments, new technologies, shifting protocols and compromised work culture. In the midst of all this, we experienced a new kind of flexibility in our work and home lives. We are now in the next phase of the pandemic response: figuring out how to come back together. 

So how do we move forward in a way that protects the safety, comfort and flexibility that most have had at home, while building a bridge back to the social capital and human connection that we’ve been missing? How do we leverage what we’ve learned about ourselves and be intentional about our future? The answer is complex and will take time and resources to do it right, but building trust with your employees is at its core. 

If we’re going to earn trust (and let’s face it, earn the commute) from our employees, our work experience must be better than our pre-pandemic work experience. Frankly, it must be notably better than our current WFH experience. Mandates for a full return to the office have been ineffectual at best; most acknowledge that we will never get back to the version of work that we practiced in 2019. Hybrid work is here to stay, and how it will work for your company is most likely still being analyzed.

The way forward will be found in a holistic approach to redefining a work experience that supports the current-day requirements of your people, place and technology. Plan on a timeline of 12 to 18 months for implementation of a successful return-to-office strategy, invest in the resources necessary for the transformation, and know that course correction will be required as you learn what works best for your company and employees. People understand that this is difficult, and if you include their voices and bring them into the process, their buy-in will help solve or even prevent problems along the way and ease the transition for everyone. You don’t need to have the definitive answers now, but you can’t afford to passively sit back and watch your people leave for organizations that have started to clear a path to support their workforce. 

FIRST THING’S FIRST: PEOPLE

Tap into your number one asset, your people. Improving our hybrid experience isn’t exclusive to knowledge work; this is a critical time to catch up with essential and front-line workers, recognize them for everything they’ve been through over the last several years, and learn if there’s anything that can be done to improve their work experience. Ask “what do we like about our current state, and how can we take that into our desired future state?” If you’re worried about not having all the answers, remember that transparency is your best tool for building trust in these times. People aren’t demanding immediate solutions. Instead, they need to know you’re working on a plan that will support them with intention and care. Interviews, one-on-ones, team meeting updates, and a regular cadence of surveys will help keep a pulse on this ever-changing environment. Our friends at Steelcase have done more than 80k surveys worldwide about what people feel they need during this time of uncertainty. This will come as no surprise to the psyche-heads out there (cue Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs)—the data is clear: leadership will need to center decisions on the themes of purpose, wellness, productivity, equity and engagement to navigate the  transition to a better future.

STEP TWO: PLACE

Once the team is aligned on a vision for the future, it’s important to craft a space that supports your employees’ desires. Let’s be honest: we’re different people than we were when we left the office in March 2020. Transitioning to a better future will be a difficult sell, whether you’re updating your existing space, right-sizing, or rethinking your lease altogether. We want more flexibility, choice and control, and the reassurance that we’ve finally started moving toward a better, more inclusive future. Your space needs to be a reflection of just that. It should shine with your values, it should buzz with your purpose. It should feel like your favorite neighborhood with amenities that stimulate social ties, opportunities to cultivate connection and collaboration, and get-it-done focus spaces that blow a living room couch out of the water. These elements can all exist together, all at once, and they’ll need to if we’re going to compete with the convenience of working from home.

STEP THREE: TECHNOLOGY

The days of the traditional conference room are gone. Today the structure of meetings is less about convening around a conference table and more about the technology that provides an equitable “table” to seamlessly include participation from both in-office and remote workers. Custom-designed AV installations mitigate the conferencing pains of the past. Desk reservation and scheduling apps help give colleagues visibility to who is in the office and when. Sound masking solves for the distraction of the Zoomification inherent in most hybrid office experiences. These are just some of the tools and technologies that set the foundation for a successful “workplace of the future.” 

Consider this modern era our workplace Renaissance, with hybrid as the catalyst for new ideas, innovations and achievements in the realm of work and beyond. If you take anything away from this article, please remember this isn’t easy, and you’re not alone. Also remember that it won’t be perfect right out of the gate. The best approach to this scale of organizational transition is to invite your people along for the ride as you test, measure, and tweak your workplace strategy, then test, measure, and tweak again until, together, you design a solution that is right for your organization. Trust and empathy will be the currency you need for shared ownership and buy-in as we move forward together, step by step.