The big question on the table is: Should employees be allowed to continue working from their home offices or do they have to go back to the office?
Many company leaders disagree on this question. Some (such as Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk) insist on office presence, while others recognize that office presence is not necessary in every case. A shift in thinking is taking place, not least as a result of the experiences of the last few pandemic years. Companies are increasingly realizing that working from home can work well if they learn to trust their employees. Trust and connectedness are more important than ever.
As a result of the pandemic, many company leaders were forced to send their employees to the home office from one day to the next. For many company leaders, this working model was completely new and posed challenges in its implementation. Especially since they no longer had full control over their employees. However, they had no choice but to learn to trust their employees. In the end, even the biggest doubters were able to put aside their prejudices about working from home, as they noticed that their employees were significantly more productive in the home office, as they were able to work in a self-determined manner.
Some companies (e.g. the energy company RWE) rely on trust-based working hours. This means that employees decide for themselves when they work. They have recognized that as a company you have to move with the times and become more modern if you want to attract young people to the company. However, it is important that employees take care not to work more hours despite this freedom. Many trade unionists are critical of the danger of “extra work”.
This question should be considered from different points of view. There are employees who commute every day and accept a long drive to the office just to be present in the office. This only makes sense if the presence is urgently needed to carry out the work. Certainly, most companies cannot do without an office presence. But an employee-friendly solution can be found for this as well.
Gunnar Kilian (Volkswagen board member), for example, reports that the company made a digital push when the pandemic hit. They realized that they wanted to work more creatively together as a team in presence in the future. Judith Wieso (Siemens board member) reports something similar. She believes that people need to exchange ideas directly wherever cooperation and creativity are required. Zvezdana Seeger (Labor Director RWE) adds that first meetings were personal and emotional and gave them a creative boost.
One has learned from the last 3 pandemic years and does not want to fall into old patterns. Today, many companies offer their employees much more flexibility on the job. Team members decide jointly with their managers who comes into the office and when. If flexibility in location is out of the question, there should be flexibility in time for employees. However, not every company manager knows how to implement this in a target-oriented manner. Here, one should consciously rely on the personal responsibility of the employees. A regular exchange with team members is important, especially if you are new to the company. This is often underestimated, but it is important in cooperation.
As Fränzi Kühne (Chief Digital Officer Edding) said so well: “Corporate culture is created at the coffee machine.” It’s where team members can talk to each other, both professionally and privately.
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*Source: SZ-Wirtschaftsgipfel
In an interview, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company has no plans to force your employees to return to the office.
“We have no plan to require people to come back,” Jassy said on stage at the Code Conference in Los Angeles last Wednesday. “Right now, we don’t. But we will be adaptive as we learn.”
In early 2020, Amazon tech employees were ordered to work from home to avoid infections. In October, Jassy said he was leaving it up to respective managers to make a decision on how often employees need to come into the office, which is the opposite of what he had previously planned – an “office-centric culture.”
Jassy said most employees returned to physical offices last Wednesday and worked from home some days. Certain teams tend to be in the office more often, such as the hardware or creative departments, while others, such as engineers, continue to work largely remotely, he added.
“I think there are some things that are harder to do remotely,” Jassy said. “I think it’s a little harder to invent remotely.”
Jassy had previously said the pandemic could have a lasting impact on how offices are used in the future. He noted that it has already impacted Amazon’s hiring of employees. Today, Amazon is much more open to remote work and will recruit employees from any location, rather than focusing only on areas as it has in the past.
In April, for example, Google began requiring a majority of its employees to work at least three days a week in physical offices. This led to some backlash from employees who opposed the mandate. Apple also required a majority of its employees to come into the office three days a week starting this month.
Watch CNBC’s full interview with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy
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* Source: CNBC
Do you want to ensure that your employees have the best conditions to work in a home office?
Then it’s up to you to actively support your employees in creating a work-friendly environment. There are a few points to consider.
Not every employee has a separate room within their own four walls that can be used as an office. Nevertheless, it is possible to set up a home office even in small apartments, which makes it possible to work in a focused manner. However, it´s important that the employees are equipped with the right technology. This includes a powerful laptop as well as a headset that can be used for virtual meetings and block out distracting background noise. In addition to the right technology, a fast and stable Internet connection is another important factor.
Many employees don´t have professional office equipment in their home office and often use the kitchen table and a normal chair. This may work for a short period of time, but in the long run it´s detrimental to health, as it leads to poor posture and back and neck pain. Make sure that your employees have professional and ergonomic equipment by providing them with it. By doing so, you will not only actively promote the health and productivity of your employees, but also be able to retain them at the same time, as they will feel valued.
To ensure that employees have access to all documents relevant to their work at all times, you should also be well positioned digitally and ensure that documents can be edited together regardless of location and device. A cloud solution isan ideal solution.
However, digitization doesn´t only include work-relevant documents, but also the HR department, which is responsible for ensuring that it´s accessible to employees at all times, even in the digital age. Applications, sick notes, pay slips should be transmitted in digital form. An all-in-one HR solution is an solution.
When it comes to working hours, it’s up to you whether you want to track them or alternatively opt for trust-based working hours. If there is no longer a fixed office, you as the employer relinquish your control to a certain extent and have to trust that your employees are also productive in the home office. One way to express trust in your employees is to introduce flexible work schedules.
Working from a home office eliminates shared communication and small talk in the office. This makes it all the more important to strengthen the sense of community within the team, for example by using virtual team meetings, team events or coffee breaks where employees can exchange ideas with each other. Don’t underestimate communication, as it´s important for any working relationship. Employees should get along and work well together as a team, so it’s important that they can build a relationship with their team members.
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