Returning To Work Won’t Be Easy. Have A Plan For It.

Reports that JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM ordered senior employees in its sales and trading groups to return to the office by Sept. 21 have fueled a discussion about whether and how other companies should make that same transition.

When COVID-19 forced financial firms to relocate their operations from well-equipped office buildings to employees’ homes, they were simply trying to survive and maintain continuity. As the experiment has worn on, both employers and employees have realized some unexpected benefits.

There’s data showing that, as we’ve begun working from home, productivity has increased, employees feel that time management has become more flexible, the costs of commuting and maintaining offices have declined, and businesses have greater accessibility to global and diverse talent. Of course, there are also some problems that have emerged from the long period of working from home: the back-to-back video calls, the move from work-life balance to work-life integration to work-life invasion. Businesses are starting on the difficult task of reconciling their own needs with what works and what doesn’t for their employees.

A recent Broadridge survey that examined our own workforce and many of our clients’ workforces, as well, offers some findings that can be used to guide the best approach for establishing the workplace of the future, drawing from the strongest features of working from home and the office as businesses push to reopen. As president of Broadridge, with 12,000 associates distributed across 17 countries, each amid a different stage of the pandemic, I’m intimately familiar with this balancing act.

Our Broadridge Return to Work survey shows that our associates have, for the most part, adapted well to the remote work environment. The poll says that 88% of associates feel they have the resources to work from home, and 95% feel able to effectively perform their job remotely. While 53% of associates hadn’t previously worked from home, 92% report that, for them, working at home at least two days per week is optimal.

From a manager’s perspective, there are some benefits to working remotely. A study published in the Quarterly Journal of Economics cites a 13% increase in productivity when people work from home. (Workers were more effective because their environment was more convenient, and they took fewer breaks or sick days, the study said.) Having people work from home makes it easier for managers to develop plans that ensure employees are socially distant, particularly those who feel sick or at risk because of underlying conditions. Remote workplaces are also allowing companies to broaden their search for the most talented workers as location becomes less of a barrier than in a traditional workplace environment.

Yet there are other important factors that need to be weighed. Many workers miss some aspects of office life, including socializing with colleagues, access to larger, different spaces than they have at home, and more opportunities for collaboration and career development. They also appreciate having a clearer line between work and home. Some people report feeling isolated or depressed working remotely. One study found that after 9 months of working from home, 50% of participants chose to come back to the office. In our Return to Work survey, taken after only a few months, 23% percent of Broadridge remote associates wanted to return to the office. This data shows how important it is for people to have choices.

The big question companies face is how to balance these benefits and drawbacks of working from different locations once social distancing becomes less necessary and as they plan for the return to work. At Broadridge, we will be facilitating working both from the office and remotely to take advantage of each situation’s respective strengths. The final model will be driven by how our clients adapt, and by our ability to attract top talent in the industry.

There are going to be a lot of moving parts to the eventual solution. After all, it must blend settings and personnel in a way that optimizes collaboration, innovation and productivity as well as employee satisfaction and engagement. We’re going to have to operate in a manner that gives people working anywhere a sense that their role in the process isn’t determined by their location, but by their performance and impact, and that they have the latitude to deliver in a new and different way.

That’s going to involve establishing best practices for running meetings and maintaining connection between colleagues and managers, assessing performance and providing continuous feedback on results and outcomes. A key part of our task is going to be creating a culture that focuses on results over how individuals achieve them, and empowering workers to manage workflow so that they can succeed no matter where they are. And because we’re focusing on results, when we see clients and competitors improve their models, we need to be agile enough to learn from their examples and incorporate what works for our teams.

This approach will require support to ensure that we are providing employees with the necessary technological infrastructure to maintain a level playing field, no matter the location. We’ll also need to have HR help with tools to assess our work models and protect workers from the particular stresses of remote work, such as feeling isolated, depressed or burned out. And these processes will need to be codified so that they become part of how we respond and help our teammates when they need it. We think of it as FACS — Flexible, Accountable, Connected and Sensitive.

We must be a flexible employer because all 12,000 associates are dealing with different situations, from childcare, schooling, elder care, commuting and their own mental state. Today’s company must offer flexibility with trust. Of course, flexibility does not mean an absence of accountability. Rather, with the gift of trust, associates must be even more accountable and deliver on their terms. For all of this to work well we must be connected, communicating like never before; top-down, bottom-up, peer-to-peer, internally and externally. Communication ensures that barriers don’t arise just because we’re not seeing each other in person.

How we manage our office space is also going to change. These changes should help facilitate collaboration between people in the office and those working remotely, while also increasing the informal encounters with colleagues throughout the organization that make being in the office feel rewarding.

Having fewer people in the office will lead to a reduction in space. This is going to be important for all businesses, as the cost of office space averages $12,000 per employee annually, meaning a smaller footprint is a huge opportunity for cutting costs. Our goal will be to shrink offices by up to 50%, while closing some smaller spaces where possible. We’re going to establish hubs in major locations and implement hoteling — that is, reserving space and resources ahead of time — for almost everyone working from the office. We’ll also have to reach agreements on how to allocate space for group meetings and ad hoc needs, perhaps relying on outside locations for certain purposes. While social distancing remains in effect, we’ll limit office attendance to 25% of capacity, increasing to 50% when restrictions are reduced.

We’re going to need to provide a rhythm and structure so that this “new normal” feels, well, normal, and so that everyone gets the most out of their time together. One foundation of that structure is scheduling, where teams rotate in and out, for example on two-day cycles. We’ll determine which teams benefit most from regular collaboration, as opposed to those who do best with a monthly meeting, which can be planned differently.

We’re also going to be scheduling work meetings between managers and teams. Behind that thinking is research showing that formalizing a virtual team’s goals, roles and communications processes at the beginning improves effectiveness. We’ll also work to level the playing field for remote and in-office workers during meetings. One step in this direction is using video conferences as our default, so that remote workers can pick up nonverbal cues, and establishing protocols so people “in the room” don’t dominate discussions. And because we view remote and in-office work as equal, we’re discouraging the idea that people need to be in the office just because their boss is. Understanding that people appreciate the informal mentoring that comes from face-to-face contact, we’ll focus on ensuring there are career development opportunities in this new context.

And while most of us now take access to remote working for granted, some of our associates live in places with limited access to broadband, or have problems establishing privacy. We are developing plans to incorporate them into the workflow.

By considering the needs of those working both in the office and remotely, our goal is to build a culture where we share a sense of purpose and can forge bonds that bridge whatever our physical locations may be.

By Chris Perry, Contributor