Q& A: Gartner official on new work routines after COVID
The number of employees who were working in offices during the same hours, Mondays through Fridays, had been dwindling for years. Then the coronavirus crisis hit, disrupting the office schedules for millions more.
About 90 percent of mostly North America- based human resource leaders plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time, even after COVID- 19 vaccines are widely distributed, according to a survey conducted last month by Gartner, a Stamford- based consulting and research firm. Sixty- five percent of respondents said that their organizations would continue to give employees flexibility when it comes to when they work.
In a recent interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, Elisabeth Joyce, vice president of advisory in Gartner’s HR practice, discussed how companies and employees are adapting to the pandemic’s transformation of the workplace.
The following is a condensed and edited version of that interview.
Q: How has the pandemic influenced how companies think about workplace arrangements?
Joyce: What we’ve seen in what I would call the “globe’s largest remote- work pilot” is that even where we had biases against remote work, people can be quite successful. And when we layer in other flexibility around not just where do you work, but when do you work and how much you work, we see folks getting even higher levels of performance out of their workforces.
This giant shift is really around the posture of organizations around flexible work — remote being one of the options. It will more likely be a standard part of standard operating procedures in most organizations where you’re allowed to work at home in an alternate location based on the work you do, as opposed to what your manager or organization allows.
You’re going to see organizations that will have people come into the office all the time because they like to or because their work requires it, and some that work remotely all the time. But the large majority will be somewhere in the middle.
Q: What do employees now want with their work routines?
Joyce: What it really comes down to is people want flexibility and choice. What they really to do is make choices about where they work, when it fits them best.
I think there’s going to be a lot of people who are going to opt into the office at least some of the time. When you start looking into the data, there’s still only like 20 percent who are saying they want to work remotely full time.
The larger majority is actually saying “I want to work in the office sometimes, but out of the office sometimes. And I want to make that choice.”
There’s a lot of value in coming into the office space, and I think people will want to do that when they feel comfortable doing it.
Q: How do you expect companies to continue adapting to the pandemic this year?
Joyce: We expect organizations to have a plan around the vaccinations and to say something about it.
With this entire experience, we’ve had to course correct basically every day — watching what the scientists are saying, watching what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and World Health Organization are saying.
We adjust and adapt with every day that we find out more information, and I think that’s true with vaccinations as well.
I think the organizations that plan to adapt will be the best- positioned to navigate the next few months.
The short term is really around keeping people safe and productive, including from a mental health perspective.