Once the Covid-19 pandemic is behind us, fully half of the global workforce will do their jobs in a “Total Workplace Ecosystem,” according to new research by Cushman & Wakefield.
The term refers to a combination of working from home, at the office and possibly at a third location, according to David Smith, head of Occupier Insights in Cushman”™s global research department.
“We wanted to get the investor”™s, as well as the occupier”™s, point of view in order to get a 360-degree view of the future of working in an office,” Smith said. “Part of what we found is similar to what a lot of the other data show, but we also found some other factors that should be kept in mind.”
Key findings of the report, “The Future of the Workplace” ”” which analyzes more than 2.5 million data points driving workplace experience from workers around the globe in the pre-Covid-19 era, as well as 1.7 million data points from more than 40,000 respondents worldwide in the current work-from-home environment ”” include that employees can be productive anywhere, not just in the office.
While hardly a revelation ”” many employers have expressed pleasant surprise at how well the remote work move has gone in terms of productivity and engagement ”” Smith said it comes with some caveats.
“It works well for focused tasks, scheduling meetings and to some extent working with a team,” he said. “And we”™ve also all seen how much technology has helped, with Zoom, Skype and other video conferencing tools.
“But there are other parts of productivity, innovation and creativity that have not gone as well,” he continued. “There can be a real bifurcation, especially when it comes to engaging with a company”™s culture, the ability to shadow and learn from a mentor and the employee”™s well-being.”
The last point can be particularly important, Smith said. While most workers may be able to achieve some semblance of the fabled work/life balance, that can be compromised by a lack of time away from work; in other words, there is a temptation to make sure one”™s home office never closes, lest one”™s dedication and/or productivity be called into question.
“There”™s also the general atmosphere with the economy going into and out of a recession,” Smith said. “That makes it all the more imperative from the employee”™s standpoint that they be seen as doing a good job.”
Even so, Smith said that the trend toward flexibility when it comes to working remotely, already in place to some degree before the pandemic, is accelerating. The report found that 73% of the workforce believes their company should embrace some level of working from home and 90% feel they can be trusted to do so.
Generational differences
One unexpected finding of the report is the different views of remote working in varying age groups.
“The assumption was that older workers would like it less,” Smith acknowledged, “but it actually works better for them. Baby boomers are more likely to have the necessary space at home for an office, while younger generations may be in a small apartment, living with a roommate or even still living with their parents.”
In fact, 70% of Gen Z and 69% of millennials reported challenges in working from home, compared with 55% of baby boomers. While subpar connectivity was the biggest complaint across all age groups, Gen Z also cited a lack of workspace as a top challenge, while both millennials and Gen X said that being caregivers ”” either to aging parents or younger siblings and children ”” complicated their at-home situations.
“People who have been at a company for 20 years or more feel that they have solidified their relationships with their coworkers,” Smith noted, “and you don”™t get that if you”™re just out of school, or even if you”™ve been there for five or six years.”
The onboarding process, a challenge for any age group during the pandemic, is made more so when it comes to those new to the workforce.
“Most people are still not back to working in the office,” Smith said, “so getting to know the job, being able to literally look over the shoulder of someone who can show you how to do something just isn”™t there. The connections you can make and the comfort level of talking to somebody in the coffee area ”” that”™s just not there right now.”
And while the aforementioned technology has “worked pretty well,” Smith said, “Most of us have experienced at least some fatigue as we headed into the fall and now winter. Not just eye strain, but you generally have to focus in a way that you don”™t necessarily do in person, so some energy is lost there.”
To offset the potential for burnout, Cushman suggests that employers encourage their teams to take time out and not be connected 24/7.
“The fact that the employee and the leader cannot connect in the same way can actually work in their favor,” Smith said. “There”™s a feeling of, ”˜We”™re going through this crisis together.”™”
Looking ahead, Cushman believes there will be a decided shift toward allowing employees to work remotely, at least part of the time, both for health reasons and in recognition that such flexibility can be attractive to new recruits as well as veteran workers.
Depending on the individual and their job description, “Some want to be in the office every single day and some want to be 100% virtual,” Smith said. “The vast majority is somewhere in between.”
If companies make no change in enabling flexible working, they could see their footprint size increase by 15% to 20% as a result of social distancing measures and new types of collaborative environments, according to the report. However, that can be easily offset with increased flexible working practices: If 50% of respondents who indicated they would increase their flexible working policy follow through on it, there would be no net change in footprint, the report said.
“There is an imperative to recognize that the workplace is no longer a single location,” according to Cushman, “but an ecosystem of a variety of locations and experiences to support convenience, functionality and well-being. In doing so we can reimagine the way we work and leverage location, time and technology to drive improved people, place and business performance.
