{"id":18783,"date":"2021-06-08T15:15:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T14:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/?p=18783"},"modified":"2021-06-14T17:42:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-14T16:42:59","slug":"the-return-to-the-office-has-started-how-can-businesses-support-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/the-return-to-the-office-has-started-how-can-businesses-support-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return to the Office Has Started. How Can Businesses Support Workers?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As people return to high streets and services reopen, there\u2019s no getting away from thoughts of coming back to the\u00a0<\/span>office<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

While some await the green light from managers, and others consider how their work-life balance might change again, there\u2019s planning going on behind the scenes. Organisations are getting ready for more workers to come back.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent research from Microsoft highlights that 66% of business leaders are redesigning physical spaces to accommodate hybrid working and improve staff retention. But this type of responsibility (that is, the employee experience) isn\u2019t down to just the CEO, facilities and CHRO anymore. For too long, the chief information officer has been misconceived as \u201cthe person that makes the computers work\u201d. The pandemic changed that.<\/span><\/p>\n

As CIOs take on a broader role driving strategy and transformation, the skills they need are changing too. So alongside a requirement for knowledge of technology such as AI, CIOs also need soft skills.<\/p>\n

It became clear during the latest CIO Institute event that skills and responsibilities have evolved in this way. Shikha Hornsey, Gareth Johns, Dave Roberts, Danny Attias and moderator Samuel Sonnenfield discussed the future of the office post-pandemic.<\/p>\n

Create equal experiences for all\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

\"Video<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to be working in this\u00a0<\/span>hybrid<\/span><\/a>\u00a0environment where there are going to be people in the office, and there are going to be people working at home. We need to make sure that\u2019s an inclusive experience. I\u2019ve seen it in the past, in other organisations where there\u2019s someone on the phone, and they don\u2019t feel engaged in the meeting. We\u2019re now going through how to set up our meeting rooms to ensure they are inclusive. We want to make sure that collaboration is equal,\u201d Dave Roberts, global IT director at Stantec, commented.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gareth Johns, senior director of vertical solutions at RingCentral, discussed why parity should be a top priority for companies that continue with\u00a0<\/span>remote working<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of where people work from, parity of experience is needed. People who are remote shouldn\u2019t have a second-class employee experience. Hopefully, when we go back into the office, we make sure the conversation is inclusive. Yes, there’s an element of this that technology can help with. There are things that providers are working on to make that more immersive. But it\u2019s also on us as individuals to make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avoid transactional interactions\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s so easy to become disconnected from each other in a remote or partially remote work<\/a> environment. Despite technology being there for us to chat whenever we want, we need to work hard to keep connections we would normally make face-to-face.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen life becomes a little more normal, I think we have to remember what it\u2019s like to be remote because as human beings, we tend to forget. So we need to keep in the forefront of our mind what it\u2019s like to be off-site and remote while others are on-site during meetings. We\u2019ve all been there; the person who dialled into the meeting room<\/a> almost routinely got overwritten or ignored, regardless of rank,\u201d said Shikha Hornsey, chief digital and information officer at Crown Commercial Service.<\/span><\/p>\n

On a similar thread, Gareth covered why we need to be informal sometimes and make an effort to check in and support employees:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we\u2019re in an environment like this, our interactions become too transactional. With this, we lose some of the goodwill credit we build up from actually having social time to get to know each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Be wary of burnout\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Findings from Microsoft show that 73% of staff want flexible remote work in the future. This means they want to choose when they work remotely and when they go into the office, and the time of day they work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Organisations must give employees the\u00a0<\/span>mental health support<\/span><\/a>\u00a0they need. Many have been struggling with technology overload for a while. This is why we\u2019ve seen so many reports of burnout and people working longer hours since the pandemic hit.<\/span><\/p>\n

The question is, how will organisations prevent burnout if employees are working from anywhere?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Stress<\/p>\n

Introduce relevant policies\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Organisations are creating all different types of hybrid or flexible working policies. For example, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai shared his return-to-work plans calling for roughly 60% of Googlers being in the office for a few days a week, while another 20% will work in new locations and 20% will work in their home offices.<\/p>\n

The panellists agreed that there isn\u2019t a one-size-fits-all approach, and leaders should take individual work-life balance seriously \u2013 regardless of the number of people in an organisation.<\/p>\n

Shikha kicked off this discussion, \u201cYou should have corporate rules in place where you have what\u2019s considered healthy work hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danny Attias, chief digital and information officer at Anthony Nolan, described the need for policies to ensure people aren\u2019t overworked in the hybrid future, \u201cWe\u2019ve [introduced] a policy where people will work at 80% efficiency for the next few months. Because they\u2019re 100% is 120%. It\u2019s not sustainable. We know it\u2019s not sustainable because people are exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave explained Santec would \u201chave three days in the office and two days at home, but that will flex.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, some people need to be in the office every day because of their role. But Dave\u2019s view is that ultimately all roles are going to change. CIOs will become the \u201cenablers\u201d of such changes.<\/p>\n

Seek alternatives to physical workspaces\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Traditionally, the office is a place where people create culture, share knowledge and inspire creativity. But will this be the case in the future if some employees don’t feel motivated to return to their desks?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Leesman Index<\/a> found that there has to be a driver for people to go back into the workplace,\u201d Gareth explained. \u201cPeople will be asking if the physical workspace reaches their requirements. Unfortunately, not every organisation has got the funding for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, businesses will need to find ways for all workers to feel included post-covid, regardless of where they are. \u201cThe future workforce will need to have a common area, a common capability for people to share their experiences and knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

What will offices look like now that people are going back in?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In reality, there isn\u2019t\u00a0<\/span>one clear\u00a0<\/span><\/em>answer because it\u2019s going to be different for everyone. But we can map how technology is evolving and how companies could use it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, in London, fintech firm Revolut overhauled its office space to include Rev Labs: flexible, collaborative zones for brainstorming and training whenever staff do go in. BaseKX, University College London\u2019s startup hub for entrepreneurs, offers a snapshot of what the future workplace might look like. The hub is adopting meeting pods for more one-to-one conversations when using collaboration tech.<\/span><\/p>\n

With more\u00a0<\/span>innovations<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on the way, we\u2019re yet to see how companies beyond big tech firms create common areas for workers and the role CIOs will play in developing this for employees in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n\t\t

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Now that people are returning to the office, how can you make hybrid working sustainable?<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t\t

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\r\n\t\t\t\t\tFind out here<\/a>\r\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\r\n\t\t\t
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As people return to high streets and services reopen, there\u2019s no getting away from thoughts of coming back to the\u00a0office. While some await the green light from managers, and others … Read more “The Return to the Office Has Started. How Can Businesses Support Workers?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":18803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3],"tags":[56,66,39],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow can businesses support workers returning to the office?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There\u2019s no getting away from thoughts of going back to the office.\u00a0How can employers support workers through transition?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/the-return-to-the-office-has-started-how-can-businesses-support-workers\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Samantha Clayton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How can businesses support workers returning to the office?","description":"There\u2019s no getting away from thoughts of going back to the office.\u00a0How can employers support workers through transition?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/gb\/en\/blog\/the-return-to-the-office-has-started-how-can-businesses-support-workers\/","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Samantha Clayton","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":":\/gb\/en\/blog\/the-return-to-the-office-has-started-how-can-businesses-support-workers\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/the-return-to-the-office-has-started-how-can-businesses-support-workers\/"},"author":{"name":"Samantha Clayton","@id":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/f5e7b51c5870a1f2e6f07368d605e574"},"headline":"The Return to the Office Has Started. 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Before joining the business, she worked in content and public relations roles. She has worked with companies in ed tech, marketing and advertising, connected home, telecoms and publishing. She has a BA in English Literature and an interest in story writing. In her spare time, she enjoys reading and live music.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/claytonsamantha\/"],"url":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/author\/samantha-clayton\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18783"}],"collection":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"\/gb\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}