Up until very recently, the shift away from traditional office design towards more dynamic workplaces and work habits that promote wellbeing has felt relevant only to certain types of organisations, workers, demographics or personalities. The coronavirus pandemic has changed that overnight. As a consequence of self-isolation rules, many employees and organisations have been thrust into working in a completely different way. Remote working has become the norm and office buildings left empty. Organisations and their employees are having to demonstrate agility, resilience, patience and understanding to make sure that work gets done among all the disruption.
Before the crisis struck, we published an article that discussed trends that we believe would shape the ‘future office’. Given that the discussion around the future of work is now entering uncharted territory, we thought it would be a good time to revisit and re-examine those trends – as much as this current crisis is going to show us what is unnecessary and obsolete, it also has the potential to create a cohesive human agreement on what it is that we value about work, which will go on to shape our future workplaces.
People and their wellbeing will matter most
Workplaces have been upping their commitment to employee wellbeing over the last decade, evident from how many times ‘wellbeing’ pops up as a forum or conference topic. But what will we have learned from recent events about what we value most about ‘going’ to work and ‘being’ at work? Will employees want a return to strict nine-to-five routines, or will they want more flexible working to incorporate personal wellbeing objectives? The mass stay-at-home exercise could also convince many that it’s not necessary to live in a city for employment opportunities and career advancement, which up until now, has been the traditional view. We know that choice and control are the two most significant factors on a person’s wellbeing – would a recalibrated option for when we work and where we live point us towards healthier living?
Workplaces will be increasingly centred on developing a community base — virtual and physical — that supports comfort, creativity, productivity and job satisfaction. But understanding and measuring the impact of workplace environmental factors on issues such as employee motivation, satisfaction, productivity and mental health is going to be even more complex moving forward. Furthermore, we are witnessing first-hand how digital technologies are rapidly reshaping what we do and how our workplaces need to be re-imagined, built and operated. Looking further ahead, the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will be driven by automation and artificial intelligence (AI), will means that some jobs will cease to exist in the coming years while others will be created. We think that this will not change.
However, added to this mix will be an unintended assessment of job functions, criticality of different roles and operating models to come up with an optimal model of working, both for people and organisations. As more and more organisations recognise that their people are their most expensive and valuable asset, there’s going to be a revaluation of the kind of work we truly value; and it may look drastically different from what we previously thought.
The prevailing logic is that as AI takes over the mundane, low-skilled tasks, people will be valued for the ‘human’ things we’re good at (e.g. empathy, creativity, etc.): in short, people will always matter most. This probably won’t be derailed by the current crisis but our perception of the spectrum of jobs that we think will require a human touch may alter. This prolonged period of non-contact may change minds about how we feel about the cashier versus the self-checkout machine conundrum.
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