Post-pandemic office: it is not about where, but how will we work in the future?
The daily trip to work, lunch with colleagues and constant social contact – these once unquestionable activities were replaced by work from home, video conferencing and a significant reduction of live communication. According to experts, the working model with employees meeting daily in the office will have to change, and this will first require a new approach to corporate management processes.
– Offices are facing a huge challenge today – they must change, but a corporate management needs to change even more. We are just starting to realize this, but remote work cannot go the way it did in the office. It requires different skills and methods, therefore companies need to apply the new models of management and performance measures. The most important decisions now should focus on the change of the company’s management, so the first question we have to ask is not where, but how do we want to work in the future?, emphasizes Lina Maskoliūnė, the Business Unit Director of Technopolis in Vilnius.
According to global studies, employees are satisfied with work from home and see many benefits of it. However, L. Maskoliūnė emphasizes that this is only preliminary data summarizing the warm season, and reliable information for further business decisions will be available only after the full cycle. Work from home is also accompanied by a number of challenges: decreasing motivation and productivity over time, blurred boundaries between work and personal life, and a lack of communication.
– Executives of international companies say that they significantly feel a decrease of employee motivation and they feel out of control of business results while working remotely.
In order to adapt to the new reality, companies will have to realize that the workspace is not about the office, but about a team. Therefore in the future, businesses that choose to work remotely will need to apply the best management practices based on vertical trust and employee responsibility.
The office itself will have to focus on the changing needs of employees according to particular tasks or projects they have to on a particular day. “The future office is no longer a ‘house’, but a formation of many multi-functional spaces for people to safely meet, collaborate, create, engage, get attention and recognition when they need it,” says L. Maskoliūnė. According to her, it is worth reconsidering the real need for a number of workplaces and collaboration spaces in the office, as employees with flexible schedules will mostly perform the tasks that require concentration at home – they will come to the office to meet and work with a team.
More information:
Augustė Sturlytė, tel. +370 674 31812, press@technopolis.lt
Lina Maskoliūnė was one of the speakers at Technopolis Workplace Talks feat. F-Secure on November 18, 2021
Watch the recording of the virtual event:
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