The percentage of people vaccinated is rapidly approaching fifty percent, and many public access restrictions have begun to fall, which also hails the return to regular office conditions.
What is normal? What have we learned over the past year? Did we lose productivity, effectiveness, and innovation? Many organizations have improvised and transformed their processes and procedures over these unprecedented times, leading to improvements. Employees have been grateful to have the flexibility and a sense of safety to stay home. Team dynamics changed, onboarding new employees is less than ideal, and the development of individuals is more complicated. While many organizations did not experience a significant change in their overhead structure, those who could exit property lease agreements benefited financially.
What was the impact for your organization? We should conduct a cost-benefit analysis on performance in the past year. At the very least, maintain the benefits and innovation from the past year, and permanently discard redundant of value sapping practices.
As organizations consider a return to the office, we begin to tackle a set of new challenges. Early surveys of CEOs and employees indicate 80% plus of leaders want to be back in the office, while only 10% of employees want to return. At a minimum, organizations should address the disparity in desires, and not ignore them. Leaders believe this is necessary to restore normalcy while employees feel they continue to perform their jobs as well, if not better, remotely, and some have real health concerns about a return to the office.
Is the solution one or the other? The likelihood, if organizations invest in understanding the learnings through the pandemic, a different model will surface. Nevertheless, it will require careful attention, and at minimum, some dynamics and requirements to change. We will learn about people and how well we have adapted, both essential in creating lasting positive change.
