Work from Home. Work from Anywhere.

It was only a year ago that the idea of Working from Home (WFH) gave many organisations anxiety. It was an unfamiliar world that was often considered a ‘perk’ and something many organisations were reluctant to embrace. Twelve months on and a COVID-19 global pandemic and suddenly, the potentially frightening WFH has become a somewhat comfortable reality. With WFH seeming to be more normal, many organisations and employees are now dipping their toes into the idea of WFH or… ‘Working from Anywhere’.

COVID-19 did not create the world of WFH, it was the catalyst for the mass global WFH trial. The unexpected and rapid onset of COVID-19 gave organisations and their workforce very little option but to adopt immediate change. Home became the new office overnight and the digital transformation that the working world went through was almost radical.

The new WFH reality:

There is no doubt that there are people all over the world that cannot wait to get back to the office. They enjoy the commute, the social interaction and the home/work divide. But then, there are those who love WFH. They have found their flow, are efficient and don’t see the need to return. Many organisations have been surprised to witness how WFH actually…works. Knowing all of this (and wearing my designer hat), I naturally consider what this new found world will look like…

• Taking space seriously: Sitting awkwardly or lying across a couch is not a sustainable, long term workstation strategy. Now that WFH is here to stay, organisations need to get serious about what it will look like. Posture and ergonomics are important. A good chair makes more of a difference than many realise. If you have a good chair on a mediocre table, you can get by but if the chair is bad…your body will soon let you know. If organisations want their workforce to stay home, they need to support them in setting up the right environment. Some organisations have started to reimburse employees for their newly purchased workstations but I think that organisations should start to consider this process more carefully to ensure that unaware employees purchase the right support for their environment. Perhaps in the near future, organisations will team up with office environment experts such as Steelcase to develop a WFH catalogue of products to choose from so they can maintain control over a safe WFH environment.
• Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S): If the home becomes the office, then where does the OH&S responsibility sit? In Australia for example, if an employee is working from home then the organisation has a responsibility to ensure they are set up in an environment that supports their emotional and physical wellbeing including the right chair, table and technology — even if that environment is outside of the corporate office. This is an OH&S issue and organisations that do not police/own this could result in employees on Workers Compensation leave. It’s one thing to consider the financial real estate savings of an employee working from home but if they injure their neck/back and require two weeks of sick leave to recuperate then companies could just be shifting the financial loss to another outlet. Organisations all over the world will need to consider these new challenges as their employees WFH — no matter if it is a legal requirement to do so or not.

While many are still in the ‘adjustment’ phase when it comes to their work environments, the reality is that change is here to stay and I don’t believe it is over yet. Different organisations will certainly adapt differently to these new times. The younger, technology savvy organisations will most probably gracefully embrace the change as if they have been longing for it for some time while others may feel discomfort in the required adjustment. Then there are those organisations that will say no to change in the hopes that the old normal is still a profitable possibility. One thing we know for sure is that COVID-19 has been the catalyst for change and I believe there is only more in the pipeline to come including…

Commercial Real Estate Downsizing: A significant proportion of the workforce will continue to work from home post COVID-19 and I can only see this affecting the number of square feet that organisations occupy. In my previous article ‘Where to from here? Prototyping our way to the new post COVID-19 normal’, I talk about ‘humanised performance spaces’. If organisations now see the office space as a place to collaborate and build the social fabric of the organisation then their design will certainly evolve and the size of the space to execute this new focus function could very well shrink. This will have an effect on the Commercial Real Estate Market; a market that for many organisations in some prominent cities such as Hong Kong, London or Manhattan, was becoming a astronomical financial burden.

Campus and/or Hubs: As offices start to focus on a new function and morph into something else, there will be employees that can’t (or don’t want to) work from home. If the office is gradually transforming to a space to predominantly collaborate/connect, where will they go? Further, we cannot discount that for some, the once acceptable commute to the office may be considered a potential tunnel of disease and I believe that it is the organisations that provide options to deal with these new realities that will come out on top. Perhaps the time of one mothership head office is soon to be over as we see organisations downsize their head campus and sprinkle smaller hubs throughout the country/city. While organisations can set up these smaller working hubs, the agile reality is that they do not necessarily need to be owned by the organisations itself and could include for example a co-working space. Welcome to the world of ‘Working from Anywhere’.

The unknown workforce anxiety scale: There is no way for organisations to know what the psychological profile of their workforce will be like once they return to work. As the world comes back to work, organisations that do well will be the ones that observe and listen closely to quickly understand the emotional aftermath of COVID-19 and take action to meet this new observed reality. How will organisations design out of this problem? Will work station design need to change as design solutions such as ‘hot desking’ lose their appeal? Will air quality become something on everyone’s mind? Will shift work become a new reality for many as organisations try to limit the number of employees in the office at any one time? I don’t expect offices to be rebuilt anytime soon but it will be interesting to see the solutions that surface to eradicate crowded lifts during peak hour pockets often seen at the start/end of the day and during lunch. Organisations will need to observe and listen to better understand the post pandemic lay of the land and to navigate through the uncertainty of trying to hold together the social fabric of the company as the WFH distance potentially challenges its strength.

Protocols, certifications and regulations: COVID-19 might be very well the inspiration behind a new array of protocols, certifications and regulations. Organisations may no longer be looking to design their office spaces with a gym and funky cafe space but rather turn their focus towards the demands of the post COVID-19 world. For many, the time and resource required to ‘keep up’ with this new world may not be worth the effort and this is where we will see companies meeting these standards by outsourcing the environments in which their employees work from and therefore embracing the idea of ‘working from anywhere’. Companies may start to look to co-working spaces or renting space from another company who has a firm grasp on the new COVID-19 office certifications and regulations. These regulations and protocols might include processes but also the furniture that is used (and how often it is cleaned) and even air quality.Organisations that try to meet the requirements of this new world on their own may find themselves as an ‘employer of choice’ but the question is, will they have the manpower and the finance to support the effort?

While many fear this new world we are about to walk into, I see many benefits which include:

• Access to global talent: If an organisation is now more accessible from more places, they will also have access to more talent who have perhaps been restricted in the past by the geographic location of the office.
• Real Estate cost efficiencies: Working from home or anywhere will mean that organisations need less space to conduct business which will save money on real estate.
• The new Recruitment tool: Organisations that provide more support and comply with the new world of certifications and regulations, which will no doubt make employees feel more safe, will be seen as an ‘employer of choice’.
• Employee Perks: supporting a WFH environment offers the potential for a whole new world of organisational perks. From supplying the right performance furniture to subsidising air conditioning, internet and other WFH expenses.
• Access to more time: With no (or less) commute time, employees will have more time for themselves and their family. A happy employee results in a more productive employee.
• Reshaping our cities: Will this new world result in less traffic or smaller lunch crowds? Or will it be more diverse as more organisations have smaller footprint offices ‘downtown’? I’d like to believe we find ourselves in a time where there is potential to reshape the dynamics of cities. As WFH affords the new arrangement of the occasional commute, employees can live further out. With lower rents, more space and cleaner air.
• Building new company cultures: Spatial experiences shape behaviours which ultimately become the company culture. At the same time culture needs to change constantly to stay relevant. This time in history has presented us with the opportunity to build company culture that stretches far beyond the dependency of physical spaces. Companies now have a perfect window to build/reinvent themselves to better marry the physical office and digital world. It will be different and there will be some resistance to change but, if done right, it can be incredibly powerful.
• Palette of choice: With WFH or Work From Anywhere, suddenly many employees will have a lot more choice when executing their work life. The ability to work from anywhere and having more choice to customise the work/life reality for many was seen as a ‘dream’, a utopien scenario or science fiction but in a very short amount of time, the palette of choice has broadened. Before Covid-19, 5% of the global work force were working from home in a more permanent manner. During the pandemic this increased rapidly to 95% percent. The pendulum will swing back but it is anticipated that 25% — 35% percent of the workforce will be working from home — either permanently or at least for the majority of their working time, once the COVID-19 dust settles.
• Learning from the new kids on the block: We will see a growing number of digitally founded companies. It will be interesting to see how a group of people with such a forward thinking, technology embracing mindset scale an organisation (or at least welcome this time of evolution with grace and ease). I am sure many more traditional organisations will be looking at those that embrace the change with two arms to learn from them. For the majority of organisations there will no doubt be discomfort in transitioning into the new world and it might help to simply start by changing the mindset from ‘premise first’ to ‘remote first’; allowing to somewhat comfortably prototype a mixture of both worlds.

COVID-19 truly has been a catalyst for rapid change and intense learning. As organisations and individuals walk into this time of change they will be met with new environments/arrangements which will no doubt result in new fatigue and in the longer term, new behaviours. I believe all organisations will have to change in some way, shape and form and it is those that listen, watch and adapt that will find themselves more solidly planted in the workforce ‘circle of trust’. Organisations need to keep in mind that when people feel good, they feel safe. When people feel safe, they are more likely to productively perform. Many organisations, particularly those established in the 21st Century, will perform better with this change and in fact, many of their workforce may have been waiting for work to be this way for some time. Now it’s time for us to come together to better understand what employees need and design/adapt the environments to support them whether that be at work, at home or…anywhere.