This is the Moment

A 2020 survey by CoreNet Global and Cushman & Wakefield indicated that in pre-COVID-19 times, most companies followed an office-first approach and less than a third operated in a hybrid model. In a post-COVID-19 world, remote-first models are predicted to be just as prevalent as office-first models, while hybrid models could more than double. And according to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index annual report for 2021, 73 percent of the respondents expressed a desire for flexible remote work options post-pandemic, and 66 percent were contemplating revamping their offices to accommodate hybrid work environments.

With vaccination deployment underway, many organizations are reopening their offices. However, workers in many industries can expect their offices to be radically different from the ones they left in March 2020. Safety will be the bedrock of the post-pandemic workplace, set to be organized around a culture of flexible and hybrid work. Organizations must rise to meet the challenges that come with this transformation.

Post-pandemic challenges

Employers are obligated to ensure the safety and welfare of their workers. Never has this been more critical as they reopen their offices to a largely unvaccinated workforce. Traditional offices were not built to contain diseases. Therefore, the post-COVID-19 office must be redesigned to guarantee the safety of all its occupants. Before companies reopen their offices, they must implement risk assessment programs to detect and eliminate COVID-19 risks.

Hybrid work models ease COVID-19 safety management, allowing organizations to reduce the risk of overcrowding and make it easier to implement social distancing. However, manually monitoring hygiene and social distancing will be a huge endeavor, especially in large organizations. Many offices are also modifying their real estate portfolios to adapt to hybrid models. In some cases, large offices in the cities are giving way to smaller offices in the suburbs. This comes with the challenge of buying more space per employee. Space requirements must be determined by the number of employees in the office each day.

In addition to their on-site employees, organizations must also ensure the well-being of their remote and hybrid workforce. They would need to assess the potential health risks of remote work. For instance, home workstations are often makeshift arrangements unsuited to long work hours. They may lack the ergonomics to mitigate physical strain.

Also, poorly managed workloads and the absence of regular face-to-face managerial supervision owing to flexible work puts workers at risk of anxiety and depression. Managers will need to carefully allot the assignments of their workers, provide the required training and equipment and consider safety measures. Clear communication will therefore be critical in the absence of regular personal contact.

Welcoming employees back to the office

According to a 2020 survey by Dimensional Research, 97 percent of employees expected their employers to make changes to their workplace to help them feel safer. Touching shared office devices (such as conference phones and remotes), riding crowded elevators, sharing desks, not knowing when a room was last cleaned and not knowing if a room has reached its capacity for social distancing were among their chief concerns.

A return to business-as-usual right from day one is both unlikely and inadvisable. Employees have legitimate concerns about returning to work and must be reassured before they are confident enough to come back. A phased reopening would be a good way to start. It would help workers ease into the workspace and avoid the risk of infection by potentially contagious employees. Regular cleaning has become more important, and cleaning and sanitization will need to be more frequent. A phased reopening will reduce the burden of work placed on cleaning staff. Occupancy limits can also make it easier for staff to concentrate their efforts specifically in spaces with high usage.

Organizations must place occupancy limits on their floors or buildings once all phases of reopening are complete. It will ensure that employees have enough room to practice safe social distancing and reduce the risk of infection. Employers must modify employee schedules to ensure occupancy control. This way, different teams can occupy the office at other times, thereby ensuring that occupancy is within safe limits.

Companies must communicate their guidelines clearly to their employees to successfully implement all these measures. It will go a long way in building trust with them and fostering a culture of safety in the workplace. However, they are likely to encounter challenges in executing these measures. For instance, how can employees know when the occupancy limit on a building or floor has been reached? What can organizations do to ensure that social distancing is always maintained? How can cleaning staff know which desks and rooms need sanitization?

Technology provides the necessary tools. The Dimensional Research survey revealed 96 percent of respondents would use intelligent technology to improve the workplace environment and ease the transition back to work. COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation on multiple fronts. Smart technologies have been around for years before the pandemic enhanced their adoption. In organizations with large workforces and high footfall, where traditional means of crowd control and hygiene maintenance are insufficient to curb the spread of infection, technology provides the means to execute these functions seamlessly. Enterprise technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) provides the means to effectively meet the safety needs of the post-pandemic workplace.

The future is here

Consider the management of building occupancy limits. IoT sensors can monitor the number of people entering and exiting an office at a given time. They can then feed this data into workplace experience apps that employees can access through their smartphones. This data can alert them when their office occupancy limits are about to be breached. AI can similarly help organizations automate their workforce scheduling to meet occupancy limits.

In addition to managing occupancy, enterprise technology can drive seamless visitor and employee health safety management. Self-service workplace experience apps can enable contactless entry by allowing employees and visitors to sign and submit health declarations digitally before entering the office. Should anyone test positive for COVID-19, contact tracing can allow employees to self-isolate or seek medical help as soon as possible.

Similarly, QR codes on enterprise apps can help employees and visitors navigate the office without using keys and access cards, thereby eliminating physical contact. Such apps also enable contactless parking by allowing employees and visitors to automatically book parking slots and enjoy contactless food delivery through cloud kitchens.

In hybrid environments, employees often do not have their own desks. A single workstation used by multiple workers increases the chances of infection. IoT sensors can identify desks and rooms that need sanitization based on the frequency of their use. Self-service workplace experience apps enable employees to automatically book desks and meeting rooms. By drawing on AI-driven insights, they allow employees to only choose from workstations and meeting rooms that are fully sanitized. AI can also analyze building floor plans and provide organizations with insights to reduce touchpoints, automatically implement social distancing and offload underutilized space and manage their expenses. Videoconferencing technologies can allow teams to collaborate seamlessly with their remote colleagues.

Offices are adapting through technology. Consider one multinational confectionery brand with branches across 160 countries and a workforce of more than 80,000. To keep its offices safe from COVID-19, the company mandated the submission of self-assessed health declarations for employees and visitors before entry. Before long, all its branches were greeted by enormous queues as people had to fill out and submit their declarations manually. It inevitably proved cumbersome. The branches still used keys and access cards to help employees and visitors navigate the workplace. These contact-intensive practices were unsuitable during the pandemic. Going digital was the logical solution.

The organization then adopted enterprise technology to make its offices contactless. Health declarations had to be filled online and employees and visitors used an enterprise app to book their seats and parking slots. QR codes helped them navigate the workplace, eliminating surface contact. These solutions were adopted across the organization’s offices, which had earlier been tackling these challenges piecemeal.

A leading global real estate business leveraged similar solutions. With 350 global tenants, it adopted enterprise technology to protect its clients. Close to 6,000 users downloaded the enterprise app. Paper-based health declaration processes were digitized to reduce long queues. Ninety-thousand health declarations were processed this way. Eighty-thousand visitors have entered its offices since the solutions were installed. Employees and visitors used QR codes to navigate the workplace. Elevators were integrated with smart technology to improve access control. Desks and room booking were completely automated to improve hygiene and provide access. Cloud kitchens enabled contactless meal delivery.

Automation has long been predicted to redefine organizational operations, and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this development. A 2020 survey by PwC found that AI adoption increased last year. Around 70 percent of the organizations surveyed had implemented AI in some form, up from 62 percent in 2019. It is a clear sign of what the future holds.

As companies reopen their offices, technology provides the tools to meet the challenges of a post-pandemic workplace, and we can expect to see its increased adoption on this front. History shows that investing in innovation and new technology, particularly in times of recession, helps companies thrive when the tide turns.

This is such a moment.