Return to Desk: Is It Affects The Future of Work?

This is a Guest Blog by Ms. Yogita Tulsiani, MD & Co-founder, iXceed Solutions (Global Tech-Recruiter Provider).

People are stumbling aimlessly across the globe in the absence of covid curbs. They are returning to restaurants, concerts, and even fitness centers, but the office is one place that many of them are unsure about moving forward with.

A Great Resignation Wave has resulted as businesses reevaluate their work-from-home strategy and call employees back to the office. When the office reopened, many business leaders and employees who had previously yearned, demanded, and waited were disappointed to return to their routine.

Employees are required to work from anywhere in the world in today’s hybrid workplace. In contrast to 2019, employees want more flexibility to maintain work-life balance. At the moment, this strategy is somewhere in the middle. Many businesses are still experimenting with hybrid work arrangements in an effort to return their employees to the workplace and demonstrate to them the distinct advantages of working from home.

Organizations’ emphasis on work from office strategies

Employees are searching for more compelling reasons to return to the office after two years of minimal commute time and the capacity to successfully manage work-life balance. The issue over bringing the employees back into the workplace, though, has business leaders scratching their heads. As a result, leaders are putting aside the hoopla surrounding increasing productivity and concentrating on creating a purpose-driven workplace. They are forcing their staff members to recollect the organization’s goals and the benefits of their expertise. Working from an office makes it easier for the teams to decide on the work to be done to reach these objectives. In a creative agency, for instance, building a successful brand campaign requires all to have strategists, copywriters and graphic designers to be in the same room. Working cohesively can expedite the operations and help enhance employee engagement, recognition and networking. 

Creating new rituals to bring back the workforce

Organizations strongly desire to satisfy their appetite for seeing “bodies in seats”. To enable that, HRs need to prioritize building the connection between people to stimulate creativity and boost teamwork spirit. Unlike the pre-covid work era, HRs need to understand that no one wants to come to the office to spend the day on the laptop, be on calls, answer emails and report to bosses. Work-related tasks need to be paired with in-person time and space to reconnect. 

Repudiating the old adage, in-person time and socializing never lead to reduced productivity. Instead, it spurs creativity and innovation in the workplace. Encouraging employees to socialize in the office certainly helps them foster professional bonds between team members that further makes them meet the deadlines. Furthermore, new-age talent leaders are also leveraging the idea of instituting team meeting-free days for completing deep focus work. This way, employees get uninterrupted time to focus on work by blocking off their calendars.

The future of the new work culture 

A lot of HR leaders are trying to figure out how to deal with the consequences of work-from-home policies.HR departments are making significant changes to recruitment contracts, ranging from satisfying the requirements of employees to adhering to the terms of the employer-employee contract. On the one hand, they are placing a greater emphasis than ever before on maintaining employees’ motivation, engagement, and fulfillment. On the other hand, business leaders are putting their faith in the capabilities of employees to achieve the best results and assisting them with career advancement.

Bottom line 

As a result, businesses need to adapt their talent strategies to include onsite, hybrid, and remote working in order to meet the changing needs of their workforce. Understanding the value of people working is more important than the location. This will help businesses build relationships with their workers, which will make the transition to the work-from-home culture go more smoothly.