Despite the many obstacles and devastation caused by COVID-19, one of the positives emerging from the rubble is the global shift from working in an office to working from home. This change shattered long-held beliefs about the relationship between the work environment, productivity, and responsibility. About the Author Suzanne Adnams is vice president of research at Gartner. As a result, the post-COVID work environment now demands radical flexibility in work policies, changing work patterns, and how the office supports different job demands. In response, CIOs can lead workers and support the organization by implementing flexible work models that meet the changing needs of employers and employees.
Adopt flexible work models
Global research data collected throughout 2020 from all areas of the business highlights changing expectations for the post-COVID work experience, with findings highlighting a return to a pre-COVID work environment. Employees believe they have this flexibility, with half of those surveyed indicating that they would leave their current employer if they were not offered the option to work from home. However, the shift to a flexible work environment introduces new variations of work models that were not part of most workplaces in the pre-COVID experience. These emerging models of work that we continue to hear about and discuss include employer office, home office, and hybrid, but we are also seeing a fourth, borderless model take shape in some organizations, with its own unique characteristics. The borderless model represents truly distant workers (employees, freelancers, contractors, or construction workers) who are not in the same locality, region, or perhaps country, and who work different hours and arrangements. Organizations moving towards a flexible work environment should expect this model to appear and be relatively small at first, with the potential to increase over time as organizations become more comfortable with it.
IOC actions:
Set an example of leadership in the IT organization and model good planning practices by working with other senior leaders to understand the expectations and attitudes of the workforce.Collaborate with HR to develop surveys and feedback opportunities to collect data from employees, managers, and executives to inform flexible work strategy and planning.Use this information to determine what proportion of the workforce belongs to each of the four models, so that you can develop a set of flexible labor policy guidelines and a focused, functional design space.
Communicate new expectations in the workplace.
Current survey results show that customers expect 57% of their workforce to be able to work fully remotely and 63% could work remotely at least some of the time. Business leaders should plan for the home office to be the primary workspace for more than half of the workforce in the post-COVID work environment. This sea change in the workplace means that working from home can no longer be considered an exception to the normal workplace. As organizations make this transition, current remote work policies that were developed on the assumption that working from home was an exception that required special criteria, justifications, and approvals, will no longer be effective in guiding decisions and leading planning. the workforce where flexibility of location and hours is the norm. The withdrawal of the old telecommuting policy and its replacement with a new flexible working policy sends a clear signal to the entire company, management and employees that the work environment is changing to accommodate new models and expectations. .
IOC actions:
Discuss radical flexibility with HR and business leaders and how to apply this approach to benefit the workforce and support management decisions.Work with HR and the IT management team to distinguish this from all legacy thinking and practices by defining new terminology and definitions for flexible work.Avoid surprises by consulting finance, human resources, facilities, and the legal department to identify regulatory or contractual obligations to consider before planning and implementing a flexible work policy.
Determine the functional purpose of the space.
The traditional office was designed to operate under a single, dominant work model: employees who move into the facility, sit at a workstation, complete their assigned tasks at a set time, and commute home. Places of pleasure such as dining rooms and other spaces for work and social functions, when available, were seen as secondary spaces, not necessities. In the post-COVID-19 workplace, employer placement requires a major overhaul to accommodate new work models. Post-COVID-19 office design should not be focused on replicating a workstation environment of the past, but rather designed to provide a variety of alternative work experiences. Some examples of creative use of space would add the potential use of 'green spaces' as a remedial antidote to cabin fever/social isolation in a home office. As business travel is drastically reduced or eliminated, workers report losing the time to think and reflect that the trip gave them. Consider creating retreat spaces similar to travel lounges to recreate that setting and experience.
IOC actions:
Apply radical flexibility to your work environment design to focus on why employees will want to leave their home offices for the employer. Work with IT managers and teams to identify types of interactions, meetings, or experiences that cannot be addressed virtually or in a home office.Consult the facilities to configure a variety of special-purpose zones designed to provide employee experiences that will keep IT teams engaged, productive, and high-performing.