With the democratisation of teleworking, the COVID-19 pandemic has also seen the emergence of terms such as the “death of the office”, “digital overload” or the “new normal”. And even though a return to the pre-pandemic situation does not seem to be possible today, the Agility Solutions Group is putting its resources into designing workplaces that comply with the standards of social distancing against COVID-19, but are also stimulating for employees.
The Agility Solutions group conducted a survey among members of the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce to see how Franco-British companies have tackled this pandemic.
First, we learn that the process of teleworking was in fact widely used by companies before the pandemic. This hybrid method of working is expected to see continued us by companies
(as employees hope), without moving to a fully home-based working frequency.
In response, companies face several options: remain as they are, downsize, or adapt. For example, 30% of respondents are considering changing their work environment to a coworking method. The idea here is to make employees keener to come to the workplace, by allowing them to work from home when they want to, or to come to the office to have real human interaction.
These human interactions are also present during the commute to and from work, which has become a “regretted element” for many employees. To compensate for this, the Microsoft Teams application offers virtual journeys to and from work.
In conclusion, it seems essential for a company not to exclude any possibilities in its working methods. The well-being of employees is a factor to be taken into account. Notably by finding a method to incorporate the office values to create a productive work from home while maintaining a pleasant environment. In order to adapt its capacities and resources to the current health situation, this is a real challenge that companies will have to address in the future.
To read the entire report from Agilité Solutions, click here.
