Hybrid workplaces, those where most employees work partially in the office and partially remotely, can be a great tool for many credit unions to support their people in a post-pandemic world. And this is backed up by data. A survey of 9,000 knowledge workers revealed that 72% percent of employees want to work in a hybrid workplace, with only 16% preferring to be fully remote and 12% wanting to work from an office full time.
Yet this doesn’t mean that the workplace itself isn’t going to change. A year of working remote changed how we work, and it changed employees’ expectations around the workplace as well as highlighted some of the strengths and weaknesses of existing offices.
Organizations learned that employees can be trusted to get their work done no matter where they work, and employees found both freedom and restrictions working from home. On the one hand, workers had the power to fully customize their working environments and find what works best. Yet as our our own research, including a survey of over 1,200 credit union employees uncovered, only 46% of employees in the industry have a dedicated room in their homes where they could work and only two-thirds had ANY space at home where they could work – such as a kitchen table. It also became difficult to collaborate virtually, and the lack of human connection led to an epidemic of loneliness.
A hybrid workplace can provide balance. The office will ground your organization and play a deep, cultural role, serving as a physical embodiment of your brand, bringing your employees together, and allowing you to bring cultural values to life. Employees can work partially remotely to cut down on their commute and achieve better work-life balance, and to enjoy the other benefits of working from home.
The key to delivering a successful workplace is embracing the changing nature of work and applying the lessons learned over the past year to better understand how to support your employees and the work they are doing. Capture the great aspects of working from home, and develop an Activity Based Working strategy that gives employees the freedom to move to different spaces throughout the day that best support their work activities. This means giving them spaces to focus, spaces to collaborate, spaces to relax and socialize, and the ability to take control of how and where they work best.
And as always, keep in mind that it’s your people who make your organization what it is. A building isn’t just a place where people do work, it has a major impact on their lives, their wellbeing, and their engagement and productivity. Buildings don’t get the credit they deserve, and it’s time to change that by developing better workplace strategies.
If you would like to learn more about this topic, we've recorded a webinar discussing the impact that remote working has had on how people work, why this can be a good thing, and how to deliver an engaging workplace experience.