There’s a popular notion that it takes three weeks for a practice to become a habit. Though, based on the recent shift we’re seeing in the workplace back to old, pre-pandemic practices, it seems as if three years might not be enough. In March of 2020, the world – and the very dynamics of work — changed. With the proverbial snap of our fingers, non-essential employees packed up their laptops for what was thought to be a few weeks working from home. That change in work location turned out to be the biggest experiment work has ever experienced. But what was learned over the 2+ years of the pandemic has been rolled back by many organizations, leaving employees with confusion and frustration. The question to leaders now becomes, how can we keep the best parts of pandemic work practices and ditch the rest?
What worked?
Despite challenges in adapting to long-term shifts of large segments of the employees working from home, many organizations powered through the unknowns. The road may have been bumpy, but as the saying goes, “when things get tough, the tough get going,” and as it turns out, the world has a lot of tough people in it. The world of work embraced an understanding that employees are humans too, that co-workers working together can do amazing things, and that with a little bit of grace we can trust that employees will still get work done even if they’re working remotely.
As work settles into this new, post-pandemic “normal,” there are approaches that can help give employees the agency they experienced while working from home and still satisfy organizations’ desires to have employees present on-site more often.
What’s next?
Consider new meeting norms:
If you’ve ever been the one person to join a meeting from afar when everyone else is in the same room, you know the awkwardness of trying to be part of the conversation. Not only is it hard to get someone’s attention, but it often feels like you’re watching a movie rather than being in the movie. This means that the work at hand could be missing out on valuable insights and ideas. To ensure meaningful participation from everyone, consider having all attendees attend virtually or all attendees be in the same location. And note, it often feels strange having people come into an office only to dial into a meeting from their desks. If your organization has hybrid work schedules, use off-site days for call-in meetings and on-site days for on-site meetings.
Reimagine connections:
Staying connected to colleagues is critical for collaboration and being well-informed about work. Pre-pandemic, these connections often happened in stand-up meetings and huddles. Synchronous get togethers ensure everyone hears the same message at the same time and allows for spontaneous conversation.
However, not all communications need to happen in real-time. Some employees may actually prefer asynchronous digital connections. They can be less distracting, allowing team members to determine when best to engage with the communication content so they can stay in the flow of what they are working on. Asynchronous communication also provides equal access to information in hybrid work environments.
There may be a few norms to reset. Consider setting a 30-minute digital huddle time where team members can update the group on important issues, ask questions and generally share what’s happening in their worlds. Depending on the cadence of work, these can take place anywhere between once a day and once a week. You may also need to reset some norms around expected response times. One very simple way to do this is to signal urgency levels in messaging, whether it be email, text or digital collaboration tools. For example, if an item is truly urgent, start off the message with “!” If it’s not urgent but requires action, try “Action required: timeframe need by.” And if no action is required, you can use “JSYK (Just So You Know).”
Normalize mental health at work:
During the pandemic, many employers normalized workplace conversations about employee mental health. Now that the pandemic has abated, some organizations might be tempted to assume that the need for mental health support is over as well. However, according to ADP Research Institute’s “People at Work 2023: A Global Workforce View” report, while fewer people report that their work is suffering due to poor mental health than last year, the proportion still remains high. Although stress levels have eased slightly, the report finds nearly two-thirds (65%) say stress adversely affects their work. The study sees that team building activities, offering employee assistance programs and the idea of implementing a four-day work week are gaining traction as mental health-boosting initiatives, with team building activities and stress management breaks topping the list.
If wellbeing services are still available to employees at your organization, be sure to let employees know that they still exist and how to access them. And if you don’t offer them now or never did, consider integrating them into your benefits offerings. Showing employees that their well-being is important to the business can only help the employee experience.
Continue growing:
Work will never be the same as it was before March of 2020. And the world of work today isn’t the same as it was during the pandemic. How, and where, we work will continue to shift and evolve. It’s tempting for organizations to bring back old practices as we continue to distance from the pandemic, but that would be unfortunate. We’ve learned so much. “Best practices” fade with time and new context, rendering them outdated. There’s no one “new normal;” there’s only what’s next. Don’t be afraid to keep what’s working and ditch the rest. You’ll continue evolving just as the world does.
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