During the course of my professional career, I’ve worked in both remote/virtual and traditional office environments. I’ve spent time in seemingly-endless conference room meetings and hours-long conference calls. Water cooler talk about Game of Thrones, office kitchen conversations about whether the Patriots were still a dynasty, and mid-hallway “hellos” to peers were all typical parts of my work days over the past two decades, as have been writing research at 2:00am, whiteboarding ideas at my home office, and silently hoping that the dog wouldn’t bark at the UPS driver while I was on a webinar.
In short: I’m one of many business professionals that understands and respects the many forms of workplace structure, be it traditional office settings or fully-remote, home-office-led environments.
Several months into a pandemic and a cursory scroll through a LinkedIn news feed will uncover swaths of articles and how-to guides on being productive while working from home and the best ways to effectively manage a newly-remote team (Ardent, of course, is no stranger to contributing to these displays of thought leadership).
Based on over 15 years of covering, research, and analyzing how businesses engage, acquire, and manage their talent and how that talent addresses how work is done, I’ve come to a stark conclusion about the “office vs. remote” debate that has now been raging for weeks and months.
The workplace of the (near) future needs both structures to truly thrive.
In essence, the workplace of the future blends the core benefits of an in-person model with the flexibility enhancements and productivity gains of the remote environment. Today, obviously, it isn’t the safest bet to bring back any more than 25% (or less) of a workforce to traditional office environments given health and safety concerns and out of respect for social distancing guidelines. Businesses that can continue to drive productivity from a remote workforce must do so until the pandemic begins to fade. In the greater discussion of how to approach the future workplace given what we have experienced and will continue to experience in business over the next several months, however, there is inherent worth in balancing a hybrid workplace structure to drive the most value from both traditional and remote setups:
- Bi-weekly or monthly team meetings are often catalysts for new and innovative ideas. A research organization like Ardent Partners is heavily reliant on my team and I hunkering down to develop, organize, and write research and content, sometimes without meeting in-person for a week or two at a time. The pandemic’s forced remote work structure has resulted in many business leaders struggling to recreate “proximity collaboration” that only happens in-person and losing the “spark” of a room filled with eager voices, something I often crave after two consecutive weeks of home office work. Hybrid work structures should require some frequency of in-person team meetings to capture those new and innovative ideas and ensure that collaboration between leaders, workers, and stakeholders can drive fresh concepts.
- Workers are human, and, rightfully so, crave human connection. Today, we are ensconced in video meetings and conference calls. Many of us have had to, in an age of social distancing, cancel birthday parties and family gatherings in favor of FaceTime conversations and Zoom meetings. From both the business and personal perspectives, none of these outright replace the face-to-face, human connection that is made in an in-person environment. Simply put: humans need human connection. It’s energizing when we can see someone standing in front of us, smiling and receptive to our thoughts and ideas. Remote work has been transformative over these last several months, but the biggest missing element has been that level of human connection.
- Sanity! There are various points throughout the year when I am working on a large-scale research project and spend a week or two confined to my home office. I can take quick breaks to recharge, eat lunch while listening to a podcast, and pop downstairs to say hello to my kids before getting back to work later in the evening. After 10 or 11 business days within this routine, it is incredibly beneficial to “step outside” of this environment to be around like-minded individuals who share my passion for this profession. Fatigue is a real factor for fully remote workers who find that everyday home office routines often grow stale, resulting in a lack of motivation or drive. Likewise, traditional office workers can feel the same without a standing “work-from-home day” or something similar. Changing up the routine and the environment can help prevent mental fatigue.
- The spirit of camaraderie. Many business leaders are passionate about their professions and how they approach their goals and objectives. Sharing that energy with like-minded colleagues is what builds true camaraderie between functional groups and teams. Although a weekly team video call may be efficient in today’s new normal, holding an in-person meeting (when it’s safe to do, of course) can help team members level-set on expectations, ask questions, and address concerns in a close-knit environment in which everyone is striving for the same outcomes.
There is incredible merit to the engaging discussions happening in businesses across the world. The so-called “biggest remote work experiment in history” happened out of necessity and has taught so many lessons about business trust, productivity, and flexibility. Some businesses will find that they can move significantly larger numbers of their workforce to remote work infrastructures, while others will attempt to reclaim traditional office environments. The value, however, lies somewhere in the middle: the ideal workplace of the (near) future is one where businesses can enhance productivity, provide flexibility to their workers, and maintain some semblance of human connection and camaraderie.
