Back to Work… Or Not!

We’ve come a long way in the last 18 months.  From blissful ignorance of the more immediate dangers of global commerce and travel for many of us, through the trials of a pandemic, to a time where we are now expected to create a “new normal”.

For many of our clients and contacts a large part of this is the return to the office, or not!  What we’re finding is that new working practices are expected, but there’s still uncertainty about what will work and what won’t and even what the options are.

A recent conversation amongst Motion coaches threw up the following points.

Hybrid v Flexible v Traditional

The whole area of hours is proving a fascinating but at times challenging one for business leaders and HR professionals.  There’s been an unprecedented increase in requests for flexible and hybrid working hours and conditions in a wide range of industries, as employees have experienced and come to expect a greater degree of autonomy around their work.  In a bid to acknowledge the realities of this effect, businesses are now in the mire of revising contracts to include home working, flexible hours and dealing with the knock on consequences of those significant changes.

However the decision-making around these issues is difficult to corral.  Organisations that might normally want to empower the workforce are finding that line managers can be making dramatically different decisions around issues like hybrid working for members of their teams, that have an organisation-wide impact.

With a large percentage of the workforce wanting the chance to work from home at least some of the time, and a further group involved in the “great resignation”, organisations are addressing the need to offer a much more bespoke environment.

The End of Furlough

The clear message we are receiving about the end of the various furlough schemes offered by the government, and the linked national or regional restrictions on movement and congregation, is that this is now an individual organisation’s problem to deal with.  Handling those who have returned from a long furlough and those who aren’t coming back is a sensitive issue.  The approach required is one of a case by case basis, which is time consuming and difficult.  HR teams are still learning how to most effectively handle this particularly tricky set of circumstances.

Teams Want to be Together 

Finally, we hear that teams want to be back together, in the same physical space, but organisations are wary of giving them free rein without sufficient health and safety measures in place.  Not everyone is able to be as organised as one of our clients, with daily covid tests for all employees and visitors to site.

Interestingly, a change of workplace behaviour as a result of Covid restrictions and working from home has come to light in a number of our conversations.  For all that team members like the contact with their colleagues, they are experiencing a higher level of frustration at all the interruptions that go along with that contact!

As coaches, our work enables us to support leaders and managers as they navigate this new set of challenges, helping them to take a clear view of a complex situation and make considered decisions.  It’s not easy, for them or us, but it’s very rewarding when you get it right!