To say that pandemic changed things, feels like stating the obvious. Some things, however, did stay the same. For instance, organizations often still find it quite challenging carrying out business transformation projects or shaping the future of the workplace successfully. In 2020, however, businesses learned that projects that normally would have taken months to finish, such as the whole company being able to work from home, can be realized in a matter of weeks. The pandemic changed the workplace in a split second, but how will this influence the workplace in the future?
This year influenced businesses to become less risk-averse towards digital transformation and automated tools. This movement is everything but undesirable as the customers become increasingly digital focussed and have certain expectations of businesses in the same area. Therefore, an increase in automation and augmentation to benefit the efficiency of the services. As a result, employees in the workplace able to focus more on elements that could possibly help businesses differentiate and keep claiming in the market. Also, individuals start to incorporate more of their personal Internet of Things (IoT) devices in their work such as voice assistants and smart earbuds (Rimol, 2020). The way jobs were structured before the COVID-19 situation, could be quite different afterwards.
Additionally, some studies show that working from home leads to an increase of productivity and happiness of the employees (Allen, Golden and Shockley, 2015). While other show that the current situation is mainly built as an emergency solution and not ideal in the long term perspective (Johnson and Suskewicz, 2020). Therefore, experts would currently advise businesses to combine the two by offering a space for regular meetings and support employees to work from home (Fisher, 2020).
The future of the workplace will be built on a base of agility, flexibility and technology. Combining these three elements can support a future of the workplace where creativity and efficiency flourish, while supporting both autonomy and team involvement.
Allen, T., Golden, T. and Shockley, K., 2015. How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(2), pp.40-68.
Fisher, L., 2020. How Technology Will Shape The Future Of The Workplace. [online] Information Age. Available at: <https://www.information-age.com/how-technology-will-shape-the-future-of-the-workplace-123492020/> [Accessed 6 October 2020].
Johnson, M. and Suskewicz, J., 2020. Does Your Company Have A Long-Term Plan For Remote Work?. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available at: <https://hbr.org/2020/07/does-your-company-have-a-long-term-plan-for-remote-work> [Accessed 6 October 2020].
Rimol, M., 2020. 6 Trends On The Gartner Hype Cycle For The Digital Workplace, 2020. [online] Gartner. Available at: <https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/6-trends-on-the-gartner-hype-cycle-for-the-digital-workplace-2020/> [Accessed 6 October 2020].
Nice blog on an interesting and hot topic!
Without being held back by any academic review of the topic I’d say that the company culture could make a huge difference in the ability to work from home with pleasure.
My personal experience taught me that the formal company I worked at at the start of Corona was well able to work from home. There, meetings were mostly just work related and people appreciate it to be able to work from home now. Also, this wasn’t allowed before the pandemic.
At the company I work at now the story is completely different. People could work from home before but nobody did as it was too ‘gezellig’ in the office. Now, people are still not used to working from home. This does create even more of a bond as everyone feels the importance of staying in touch with one another.
Now i’ve got to agree it is super comfortable to sit at my own desk with my own screens and being able to have lunch with my roommates, but I can’t wait to go sit next to the collegues again.
Would you be okay with working from home as a standard?
Hi Marike, that was a great read! I think you’re definitely right in stating that the pandemic that we are currently living in has accelerated some organisational processes and has, in certain corporate environments, showed people how big can be achieved in so little time, when truly needed. The huge shift in digital transformation that you mention, I fear, is still a double-edged sword. On one hand, as you mention, this movement is very desirable nowadays and hence these times feel innovative in that matter. On the other hand, this shift is often taken at colossal costs for companies and thus are not currently integrated in business models and operations as efficiently as they should be. I fear this might hinder digital transformation and progress in the long term.Overall, I definitely agree with your conclusion and believe that the development of remote work is inevitable and will be beneficial for society, yet face-to-face interaction and office work will resume as soon as this pandemic is over.
Thanks for the article!