Designing ‘Back To Workplace’

If there was a silver lining about the third Covid wave, it was how shortlived it was and the comparatively controlled loss it entailed. Both these factors played an important role in encouraging companies to earnestly plan their work-from-office strategies. Some companies are thinking as simplistically as getting all back in. Social distancing norms at the workplace cannot be ignored yet. Surprisingly, some offices are not factoring in post-covid norms and that in itself needs a revisit.

However, many companies are still looking at a mixed or hybrid version of back to work. In these cases, more meticulous planning is required because back-to-office means different things to different people, both from their performance and their personal lives standpoint. As concepts such as diversity and inclusion and hybrid come together, some new areas of concern arise that require organisations to carefully weigh in on how do design their hybrid model.

Will it be as simple as functions that require teams to work together, will have to come to the office on certain days and the single-person tasks can be enabled under remote working? Should it be left to the employee to decide? There is nothing wrong with any of these except one step forward is taken, and the bigger picture is factored in, there is the foreshadowing of apprehensions.

In one of our earlier conversations in April 2020, when the pandemic was just about finding new ways of working, Nestlé India’s Chairman and Managing Director, Suresh Narayanan had very correctly pointed out that the spirit of a company, and some of the means that contribute to creating a culture, is in the famous watercooler conversations. As we look to work with a set of people who will not be partaking in these, and for good reasons, how do we ensure equality in hybrid?

The remote working lifestyle had pushed many advantages to the fore, inclusivity of talent being one of them. Now, as we look to normalcy, what happens to some of these benefits? What is the right model that can retain the best of both worlds?

The remote working lifestyle had pushed many advantages to the fore, inclusivity of talent being one of them. Now, as we look to normalcy, what happens to some of these benefits? What is the right model that can retain the best of both worlds?

A company’s HR cannot just put the new workplace model together, it has to be designed. It needs to be both strategic and long-term. There may be a need here for more minds to come together to work out what back to work should look like so that they can take inclusivity forward instead of regressing.