Leesman UK, a leader in measuring workplace effectiveness have created a new Leesman Index for home working. In almost a year they received 160,000+ responses, making it the largest independent study of its kind. The main results coming out of the study were quite interesting. It found that home working was delivering an excellent and supportive experience for the majority of employees, and continues to do so.
Is home working for everyone? Can it be a long-term recipe for productivity and success, or should some employees return to the workplace? These are just some of the questions that employees and employers are asking themselves all around the world.
48,413 employees also told Leesman how they saw themselves distributing their time between home and office in the future. 85% stated a preference for a blended workplace model which includes remote work for at least two days per week.
What will make employees return to the office?
The study from Leesman found that employees’ intentions to return to the office greatly depend on both the quality of their home working experience and on the quality of the workplace they would be returning to.
After the majority of people adapted their home to create a work space, they will not want to return to the same old workplace of January 2020. With many employees preferring to work from home, employers will need to create a brilliant office experience for them if they are to return.
There are some key questions employers must ask themselves.
People – Are you putting employee purpose first? According to Leesman 83% of home working employees agreed that their homes enable them to work productively – a higher proportion than the average office (64%) and even outstanding workplaces (78%). But informal social interaction (55%) and learning from others (66%) were the least supported. The office is really where social interaction and learning from others takes place. Have you planned to create a collaboration space, a break out space that will impress employees and encourage them in more often? If employees come back to just an average office post pandemic, how will they feel?
Place – Go big or they will stay home. Future-ready organisations understand it’s not what a workplace looks like, but how it works, that matters more. The best workplaces are carefully crafted ecosystems tuned to the needs of their users. These brilliant workplaces will draw willing employees back. How do we do this? At 2468 Group we have seen first hand the benefits of canteen refurbs, the creation of break out spaces and collaboration hubs, refreshments zones, hydration stations and coffee docks. These all help to invigorate employees and draw them back in regularly.
Time – Do it now, and with urgency. Some are keen to return, some not. But you owe it to both to be ahead of the game. Future-ready organisations returning employees to offices must acknowledge the lessons learned and repurpose their workplaces for a new fluid, video-first workstyle now. Act on those lessons, don’t dismiss them. When this pandemic started, employees repurposed spaces in their home to enable them to work effectively for a year (or longer). Now employers need to repurpose workplaces for their employees to encourage them back in regularly.
Email [email protected] now and speak to us about collaboration spaces, break out areas, recharge zones, canteen refurbs and great coffee. We can help!
The Leesman Index is the world’s foremost employee workplace experience assessment benchmark
