"Will remote work continue in 2023? Companies are starting to pick sides"/ "Back to the future of work: Three predictions for productivity in 2023"

Dec. 29, 2022 "Will remote work continue in 2023? Companies are starting to pick sides": Today I found this article by Jo Constantz on the Financial Post:

If the U.S. job market continues to weaken next year, companies will be emboldened and may pull back on letting employees work remotely.

Executives generally fall into two camps on working from home, which surged during the pandemic when workers gained leverage during a tight labour market. Some believe it has advantages, like happier employees, while others say company culture is built in the office.

“There’s a genuine divergence between organizations,” said Melissa Swift, a workforce transformation leader at consultant Mercer. “You’re starting to see companies pick sides.”

That said, remote work looks like it’s here to stay. Gallup projects that about 75 per cent of remote-capable workers will be hybrid or fully remote in the long term.

Here are the top reasons why experts say remote work will continue in 2023:

1. Retention

Allowing remote work is crucial for retention.

Hybrid work boosted employee satisfaction and productivity, slashing attrition by 35 per cent, according to a study published this summer by researchers at Stanford University, the University of Chicago and the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México.

“Employees experienced new levels of fulfilment working from home, and it has been hard for companies to justify walking that back,” said Caitlin Duffy, research director at consulting firm Gartner.

Meanwhile, turnover has become an expensive problem as quit rates remain above pre-pandemic levels. In a labour market that remains tight, many companies can’t afford to hemorrhage talent. That’s especially true for high performers, even if the economy sours, according to Prithwiraj Choudhury, an associate professor at Harvard Business School.

“In any economic environment, top talent always has outside options,” said Choudhury, who studies remote work.

2. Recruitment

Remote work opens recruiting to a bigger geographic area and a larger talent pool. That’s a major advantage, especially for specialized roles where qualified candidates are hard to find. It also gives employers, such as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which has struggled to convince people to move to Washington, a better shot at winning talent from tech hubs on the West Coast.

Offering work flexibility can also support a company’s diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. That’s especially the case for groups, like disabled workers, who were often shut out of the labour market. Working parents and people of colour have also reported tremendous benefits from remote work.

3. Recession cost cuts

Rather than reversing the shift to remote work, a recession might accelerate the trend because it can reduce the need for office space and help companies cut costs, according to Choudhury.

This summer, Yelp Inc.  closed its New York, Chicago and Washington offices with plans to put the savings toward hiring and employee benefits. Not long after, Lyft Inc. rented out about half of its office space in San Francisco, New York, Seattle and Nashville. Other major companies, such as Meta Platforms Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., have scaled back office expansion plans.

Employees who are allowed to work from home are willing to take a pay cut in exchange for greater flexibility and lower commuting costs. 

Work-from-anywhere policies also allow bosses to keep labour costs down by hiring in states, such as Idaho, Louisiana and Kansas, that have lower costs of living.

4. Reversal risks

If a company does an about-face, executives risk damaging their reputation. Just look at Twitter. In an effort to shake up the company last month, new chief executive Elon Musk ended the company’s remote work model. But so many employees opted for severance instead that he had to soften his stance to coax some staff back.

Taking maximum advantage of leverage in this way isn’t a good long-term strategy, according to Ben Granger, chief workplace psychologist at Qualtrics.

“Future candidates can see the comments from employees who left,” Granger said. “They can read the articles. Leaders would be wise to think about that.”

Will remote work continue in 2023? Companies are picking sides | Financial Post

DECEMBER 30, 2022

in short ...its a crap shoot

"Back to the future of work: Three predictions for productivity in 2023": Today I found this article by Julia Hobsbawm on the Financial Post:

What will the workplace look like a year from now? The snow globe of work has been undeniably shaken to its core since the arrival of COVID-19. And the swirling mist is far from settled. But one thing is clear: The working assumption that office life can “go back” to what it was before 2020 is just wrong.

Three out of every four workers say that working hybrid is now non-negotiable for them. The coming year will see a return of a kind for the office, but one which is organized in a very different way. Here are three predictions for a healthier, happier and more productive workplace.

An end to flex-shaming

Early in 2022, the British HR expert Gemma Dale coined the phrase “flex-shaming” in a LinkedIn post. It captures well the bad faith some leaders showed to workers who aren’t physically in front of them. 

Among the most famous is David Solomon, chief executive of Goldman Sachs Group Inc., who in 2021 called working from home “an aberration we’re going to correct as quickly as possible.” 

In October, Solomon told CNBC that about 75 per cent of its people were in the office on any given day of the week pre-pandemic and now it’s about 65 per cent. 

Even if bosses think they can impose their will, legislative changes around the world are favouring flexibility. Over a billion people from Greece to Thailand are already being affected by changes in the law to facilitate remote or hybrid work. 

What matters is creating a culture of trust and transparency between bosses and employees to reach solutions, not as dry policy but by mutual agreement. There’s no place for flex-shaming in 2023.

Softening hybrid’s hard edges

This is not to say that hybrid work is a picnic. Recent global data from property consultancy JLL show that compartmentalizing between office and home is a major problem. 

Some 25 per cent of hybrid workforces feel socially isolated 

and 59 per cent expect wherever they work to pay attention to their health and well-being. 

Anxiety around social cohesion and productivity in hybrid offices is gaining traction: Marc Benioff, the founder and chief executive officer of technology firm Salesforce Inc., who also sits on the board of the World Economic Forum, recently told a company-wide Slack forum that new hires weren’t being productive enough, and asked “are we not building tribal knowledge with new employees without an office culture?”

Joanna Swash, group CEO of the call answering and live chat company Moneypenny, who has built a pub in her Wrexham headquarters in Wales to make her office as attractive as possible nevertheless told me on my Nowhere Office podcast that “I’m a big believer in the office, but I’m also a big believer in wherever somebody’s working, it’s got to be the right environment for them.”

In other words, iterating workplace by workplace is the only way forward. Speaking recently at the Global Drucker Forum in Vienna, Frauke von Polier of German manufacturing group Viessmann, voted European CHRO of the Year 2022, said that piloting changes for as little as three months or as long as a year should become the new normal until things settle down.

The workplace as social space

In a recent LinkedIn post von Polier said: “How do you ensure that your culture is reinforced? Well, you start from the top and serve food to the people … and of course, dessert must be for free!” 

Since joining Bloomberg Work Shift as a commentator, I make a point of coming into the London office frequently to check in with colleagues and the elevator comes to the same floor first. 

It’s called “The Pantry” and is designed as a social hub for meeting, snacks, hot drinks and exchanging face-to-face contact before people continue on to workstations or meeting rooms. The Instagram @bloombergpantry is labeled “where our purpose & our people meet.”

Although data shows that 84 per cent of the reduction in office space 

is associated with hybrid working, 

the repurposing of both offices to be more social, 

plus an investment in the experience of work, is growing. 

The U.S. Office Occupier Sentiment Survey from property firm CBRE  shows that 36 per cent of leaders are curating workplace experiences and events as part of their strategy to create community and increase presence in offices. 

I expect this percentage to grow. People need a reason to come to a place which goes beyond mobile technology they can access from anywhere. 

That reason is simple: Other people.

While the base of work’s snow globe has shifted from place to person, we all do need to work and meet somewhere. Here’s hoping 2023 is the return of the office in its new, improved form.

Julia Hobsbawm is a columnist for Bloomberg Work Shift and a speaker, broadcaster and consultant on The Nowhere Office email: jhobsbawm@bloomberg.net

Back to the future of work: Three predictions for productivity in 2023 | Financial Post