July 06, 2022
— Kasper Ullits (CPO/Founder)
The state of the return to the office 2022
How is the return to the office going? Are companies returning to the office? What does employees think about returning to the office? Let’s take a deep dive into the data surrounding the return to the office.
How do we use the office after covid?
Looking at the data from our meeting room scheduling software shows changes in the way we are using our office spaces after going hybrid. Most notably is the length of in-office meetings, which has seen a steady reduction month for month, when compared to meeting lengths during covid and lockdowns.
You might be returning to the office, but you’re not returning to 2019
Having spent the past two years improving remote working experiences, there’s no reason to go back, but at the same time, there’s no reason to stay in the place we were during the pandemic either.
Returning to the office needs to be a collaboration
Communication needs to be a part of your return strategy, and the communication needs to go both ways.
Making your return to the office successful requires both employee and employer to enter into an open dialogue on how it is going.
Employee surveys can be a great addition to shaping your return strategy and presenting the data along with the strategy can help employees understand why certain choices have been made.
Your office needs to be ready for the future of work
It’s not enough to install bigger monitors and provide better coffee. You need to adapt you office to how employees use it, and that will require constant changes.
You can’t bribe employees back to the office
Flexibility and work-life balance is more important than bonuses and pay raises when it comes to retention and employee satisfaction. But it shouldn’t replace financial compensation.
Changes to the way we work is not going to stop next year
This year one of the biggest experiments to implement a 4-day work week is taking place in the UK.
3300 workers at more than 70 organizations are currently adopting the 80-100-100 model, which means that they will be working 80% of normal hours while retaining 100% of their pay and 100% of the expected productivity. *
But the 4-day work week isn’t an alternative to hybrid and remote work. Its merely a change to how much we work. Changing how we work and where we work from can easily compliment the 4-day work week.
Additionally, it’s important to note, that a change to a 4-day work week requires just as much planning as adapting to hybrid work, if not more.
