McKinsey highlight new research that demonstrates how resilient organisations thrived through the pandemic. Here’s how to use those lessons to craft a better approach to how work gets done across time (real and asynchronous) and space (digital and physical).
Many companies are already in various stages of a physical return to the workplace. In the United States, for example, employees are starting to return to office locations at a greater pace. Consumer and retail footfall to headquarters has increased by 80 percent, travel and logistics are up 50 percent, and pharmaceutical and healthcare are up 10 percent.
A few short months ago, it wasn’t clear that business leaders would so fully embrace a return to the office. But it’s now evident that they will. Some 52 percent of C-suite executives we surveyed espouse an almost full return to the office, with workers on-site four days per week or more. Nine out of ten think that employees will be in the office at least three days per week.
Company leaders have good reasons for wanting workers back in the office. As the pandemic dragged on, people’s sense of belonging and social connections suffered, especially among newer employees. Interactions across silos became increasingly difficult via remote. Many women left the workforce, widening the gender gap. Mental-health issues, grief, anxiety, and burnout are on the rise, reflecting a decline in the informal and intimate human connections that often occur at the workplace.
Reversing these trends is critical. But leaders are coming to realize that a physical return to the office is no panacea.