If you haven’t developed a return-to-work strategy yet, it’s time to consider the benefits of creating one. The return to work is imminent. This reintroduction of the traditional workplace comes with the possibility to maximize what the last year has taught American businesses about their employees, their business resilience, and how design enhances business functionality.
75% Of Employees Want To Be Back In The Office
A recent survey conducted by JLL, which included a sample of 2,033 respondents, revealed that 75% of employees want to return to the office. This data expands on the general sentiment that full-time remote work is not feasible for long-term productivity and output.
Working from home has not only affected employees’ well-being but has had a significant impact on teamwork, long term plans, and most importantly, the execution of those plans.
When telecommuting was first touted as a preferred alternative to in-office work, it was just that, an alternative. However, this pandemic has enabled many businesses to do a dry run of this option and ultimately conclude that such an approach to work is not viable and is more likely to be detrimental to output.
Employees want to be efficient and productive, something that working from home greatly inhibits. The lack of communication with colleagues is said to increase depression and feelings of isolation, in addition to preventing teamwork and meaningful collaboration. Working from home also is fraught with inadequacies that can decrease productivity because employees are more distracted and have less motivation and structure to maintain their output.
Employees Are Efficient When Working In-Office
Although employees want to return to the office, there are additional benefits to allowing employees to return to the office, besides meeting your employees’ needs.
Working within the office increases morale, productivity, and essentially profitability. It is one of the best ways to kickstart your company goals and objectives as the economy begins to recover. In a nutshell, in-office work helps you increase individual employee efficiency, by
- Limiting distractions
- Enhancing teamwork
- Improving mental wellbeing, and
- Reducing stress
The Role of Design in Expediting Returning To Work
The return to work means you have to rethink your office design to meet employees’ new demands and needs. Recent data reveals that employees want to feel safe but also want more social spaces that facilitate valuable interaction with their colleagues.
The changes you make may not require an entire overhaul of your existing design. Something as simple as retrofitting employee workstations with privacy panels or creating workstation clusters that enable collaboration are some of the ways you can make a worthwhile change in your office that enables employees to be more efficient.
Going forward, the best way to begin the return-to-work strategy is to anticipate what office changes will have the most significant impact on your employees’ morale.