Future Work - what happens next?

Nearly two years on from initial lock-down in March 2020 ,what have we learnt and how does that inform how we choose to work in the future? I’m curious as to what the future of working looks like post-pandemic.

Welcome to The Future Work blog series! In each piece, I explore a theme from my research report, Future Work, about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on workers and employers.

In this blog, we discuss how thinking about the future working model is a fundamental adaptive challenge facing organisations today.

It’s February 2022 and for the UK at least, the days of severe lockdowns and ‘work from home if you can’ orders are almost starting to feel like a dim and distant memory. The government is suggesting that all Covid restrictions in the UK might be lifted by the end of this month; even if that feels a little too ambitious, then it is almost likely that most restrictions will be lifted by the end of March.

Nearly two years on from that initial lockdown, which drastically changed the way many of us live and work, what have we learnt? I explored this question in my FutureWork report back in 2021, and now I’m curious as to what the future holds as we start the recovery post-pandemic. Many organisations have realised – often to their great surprise - that a flexible hybrid working model is not only feasible but highly workable. Others have taken a bold decision and done away with the office altogether – how will that pan out longer term I wonder? And others are simply going back to how it was before with staff required to be in the office most of the time.

Whatever path organisations choose, it’s important to factor in the needs of the business, and the needs of the workforce. Some people love to work from home, others hate it or simply can’t. Some jobs can be done remotely, all or most of the time. Others simply cannot. Most people can plot themselves on the love/hate: can/can't spectrum. It would be interesting to see how that exercise pans out across a team or a whole organisation.

Adaptive Complexity

My sense from talking to clients across different sectors is that this is a time of adaptive complexity. And that adaptive complexity creates some interesting challenges for leaders at all levels. Here’s my take on some of those challenges:

• As one of my clients described it: it’s about creating freedom within a framework.

• Do we go hard and fast on making a decision about the future working model, or do we allow time for exploration and experimentation? Many organisations are embracing this idea of experimentation, seeing how things pan out, consulting regularly with staff, checking in on how people are managing, and keeping a firm eye on productivity and wellbeing. As I outlined in FutureWork, the pandemic saw many more organisations focusing on wellbeing as something critical to workplace productivity, which for many was a seismic cultural shift.

• Leaders may be struggling to know how to lead in a hybrid environment. It’s fair to say that hybrid working is both more flexible and more complex than an all in/all out framework. The FutureWork report outlines many of the challenges of leading a remote/hybrid workforce which may be useful. Support, boundaries, being mindful of the different needs of the innies and the outies, creating a sense of community and belonging, giving feedback, communicating well – all of these things need a different approach with a hybrid working model.

• Productivity is often measured on the basis of input; being present is equated with working hard. This simply doesn’t stack up in a hybrid or remote working environment. Although we’ve been banging on about measuring output for years now, the pandemic highlighted to many organisations just how important this is: clear measurable goals, clear measurable outputs.

• Belonging and community is critical – how do we make sure that people working in a hybrid or remote way feel that they are part of the organisation, and have that sense of connection to just not their immediate team but the wider organisation? How do we integrate someone who works from their bedroom on a regular basis? How do we ensure that new and younger staff build relationships and get the guidance they need from more experienced colleagues.

Organisational identity and culture

And ultimately, what does all of this mean for the culture and identity of your organisation?

I'm a firm believer that organisations that continue to embrace home and hybrid working will need one fundamental ingredient to make it work: trust. Trust and belief that people will do the right thing; trust that enables people to be vulnerable and shout for help when they need it; trust that supports people to work collaboratively with each other; trust that experimentation is a good thing and will reap rewards longer term.

Building trust in a remote and hybrid environment may take a little more effort from all involved. But if that means that organisations are better equipped to respond to the needs of their employees, enhance wellbeing, maximise productivity, and create a strong sense of community and belonging, surely its worth expending that little extra energy and thought.