Teleworking: What Value Does an Office Have in a Company?

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to quickly adapt their habits by switching to teleworking. Workers quickly saw that working remotely has its share of advantages.

Work-family balance now seems more accessible for employees as they have been freed from the constraints of office life. They can more easily juggle their various responsibilities on a daily basis. However, this new reality comes with certain limitations, including social isolation and sometimes, a lack of team spirit.

The current global situation does not yet allow organizations to draw an accurate picture of what the post-pandemic reality of workers will be like. Will a very large part of the work be done from home? Will desks always have their place in the office?

Even if the majority of office spaces are still virtually unoccupied to this day, the office still has significant value within organizations. What if we talked about adapting the office rather than reinventing it?

In this article, we offer you four ways to highlight the importance of the office, even in the context of teleworking.

Office: Creating a Balance Between Freedom and a Feeling of Belonging

1.Adapt a Collaborative Space

One of the aspects most affected by teleworking is collaboration within teams. While technological tools allow video chating, nothing beats an in-person brainstorming session. The creative chemistry of a group gathered in the same space is much more effective and conclusive than a virtual meeting.

It is still possible to meet with colleagues while maintaining the recommendations for distancing. Companies will have to review work shifts (flexible, staggered or rotating hours) in order to reduce the number of workers present at the same time.

Moreover, the office will become above all a place of collaboration if not a place of work as it was before.

This will create a distinct change between time spent at the office performing tasks of a more collaborative nature and time spent at home dedicated to performing tasks requiring more concentration.

2. Promote Community Spirit

The coffee break, the morning greetings, the stories coming back from the weekend and the community spirit were very important concepts before the crisis. People have a fundamental need to socialize. The need to socialize and be part of a community is all the more important today.

Despite the distancing measures, the office must continue to nurture this aspect, even if this represents a challenge for managers. Being an integral part of the corporate culture, makes it difficult to maintain this social aspect by video.

Although teleworking saves precious time on the move, the fact remains that going to the office, meeting colleagues and discussing with them has a major impact on the feeling of belonging to a team. The employer brand is a considerable factor linked to employee happiness that should not be overlooked.

3. Consider Echo Learning

Locker room echoes have a major impact on the learning curve for employees on a daily basis. We learn a lot professionally by witnessing the conversations of our colleagues and joining them.

By teleworking, an employee’s learning curve is more complicated. By being more isolated from the rest of the team, an employee may ensure growth within the organization by himself.

Being in the office makes it possible in particular to soak up the corporate culture, which is more complex from a distance, even more so if an employee has just joined the team.

4.Prioritize Access to Tools

Even if your employees have set up a workspace at home, the office can provide all the tools necessary for the employee. By going to the office, they have access to documents, books, specialized resource centers such as material libraries, not to mention printers (3D, CAD or others) to which they do not have remote access.

With weekly accessibility to these office resources, employees can ensure that teleworking will not affect the quality of their work.

Finally, we can conclude that access to the office in a physical place is just as important as teleworking. Although teleworking allows you to work in safety and in full concentration, having access to the office a few days a week ensures a balance and contributes to the quality of the tasks performed. It also provides a sense of belonging to the organization.

By using workspaces for collaboration and exchanges, team spirit and the morale of your employees will be positively impacted.

By favoring a flexible approach to this new reality, companies will be able to adapt these changes to their own context. Then, these organizations will ensure that they operate efficiently while keeping the well-being of the employees in mind.