Not long ago, we were still talking about teleworking and new flexible offices as emerging trends, and today they are already a reality.

 The emergence of the pandemic worldwide and the need to confine the population have led to a cultural and organizational change in companies such as we had not known before.

Overnight, and without any preparation in most cases, companies were forced to send their staff to telecommute and adopt new flexible and remote working relationships.

New reality: teleworking and new offices

In reality, these changes were already there, but the pandemic has accelerated them. Indeed, years ago we began to talk about the VUCA environment; of a different world as a result of the unstoppable advance of information and communication technologies, and of the globalization of relationships.

We live in an interconnected world, in which distances and schedules were already losing relevance. But above all, we were beginning to live in a new paradigm in which change was permanent and the tangible was being replaced by the intangible: ideas, knowledge, speed and flexibility were becoming the sustainable competitive advantages of this new it was.

Change had become a constant, and the fundamental values ​​to compete / survive in this new global environment are called dynamism, innovation, creativity, knowledge, flexibility, mobility, adaptability, learning, continuous improvement and speed.

Teleworking, one of the most significant changes, but not the only one

Among the most important changes in what the work itself is, it is worth highlighting:

  • Greater doses of flexibility and mobility – “work where and when you want.”
  • New corporate cultures, more transparent, innovative and horizontal, and a different leadership style, with differential attributes such as communication, flexibility and empowerment.
  • Greater prominence of people and their physical and emotional well-being.
  • Implementation of agile methodologies, which facilitate quick responses and generally favor innovation processes.

Scrum, agile, kanban … These are some of the agile work methodologies that emerged in the world of computing in the mid-eighties and early nineties, and that today have already been introduced in all types of companies. They offer a way to respond to the dizzying pace of change in this society of hyper connectivity and shared knowledge. 

What the pandemic has done is accelerate these changes that had already been introduced in our lives and ways of working, and especially the first, teleworking that has come to stay.

Teleworking has been one of the great changes that the Covid19 pandemic has imposed on our lives. Before the outbreak of this health crisis, the number of companies with employees teleworking in Spain was 5% compared to 34% in May. The increase in these figures led the Government to work on a Telework Law.

95% of workers would like to continue teleworking partially

As published by RRHHDigital , Alares and Fundación Alares have taken stock of how companies and the people who work in them see this modality and what changes will be experienced this year. 86% of companies value business experience in relation to teleworking as “good” and “very good” and 95% of workers would like to continue teleworking.  

Teleworking creates stress

In general, 50% of companies say that teleworking has increased competitiveness, but 70% have not established procedures to measure the productivity of remote work.

According to this article, almost all experts agree that, while new forms of teleworking are being implemented, problems of anxiety, stress, fear, phobias, family and couple related issues are growing.

58% of companies will continue with the teleworking modality

58% of the companies affirm in the aforementioned study that they will continue with the teleworking modality once the current situation is normalized. Eighteen percent will carry it out at least two days a week; 14% continuously except for occasions that require physical presence, and 11% will allow it one day a week. 

The report on teleworking carried out by Fundación Alares shows that the main challenges that male and female employees have had to face have been general anxiety due to the impact of the situation (15%), followed by social isolation (14%) and the difficulty to maintain a regular schedule (14%). Despite the stress, the most significant data is that 95% would like to continue teleworking to a greater or lesser extent, with two days a week being the highlight (39%).

Telecommuting? We want to go back to the office 

For all these reasons, workers do not want to give up their newly acquired job flexibility but also not to meeting up with others. Employees want to go back to the office. The question is: if I go to the office when I want and mainly to socialize, has the traditional concept of the office become obsolete? What should new workspaces look like to attract a much more flexible workforce? 

The majority bet is to move towards a hybrid system, which makes work at home compatible with offices or with working from “the third space”.

Hybrid model, teleworking and face-to-face, and offices to socialize

The office is not going away. So what about this widespread commitment to remote work? The answer seems clear: The future of work and workspaces is hybrid.

Does any type of office work? Certainly not. In fact, companies are already designing and implementing spaces that are quite different from those before the pandemic. The alternative, today more than ever, are shared non-territorial positions in which each space belongs to everyone.

The office is the connection point of the workforce and the soul of the companies; it is the place where things happen. Its function today is socialization, and this has clear benefits in terms of motivation, communication, cooperation and well-being of people. In this sense, the offices represent an essential asset for the productivity of the companies.