{"id":54282,"date":"2021-08-30T08:33:35","date_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:33:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/?p=54282"},"modified":"2021-08-30T08:33:35","modified_gmt":"2021-08-30T15:33:35","slug":"do-employees-want-to-work-from-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.creativecircle.com\/blog\/do-employees-want-to-work-from-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Do Employees Want to Work From Home?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pandemic disruption of work has been a learning experience, and the lessons\u00a0<\/span><\/b>keep<\/span><\/i><\/b>\u00a0coming.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

Many companies had planned for employees to return to the office in tandem with the beginning of a new school year, but things are getting upended \u2014 <\/span>again.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>Amazon<\/span><\/a>\u00a0recently\u00a0delayed its office return by four months; corporate staff is now looking at a January 2022 return<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>This news comes on the heels\u00a0of similar postponements at\u00a0<\/span>Apple<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Uber<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Lyft<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<\/span>Google<\/span><\/a>, and the\u00a0video\u00a0game juggernaut\u00a0<\/span>Roblox<\/span><\/a>\u00a0as\u00a0the highly\u00a0transmissible\u00a0<\/span>Delta varia<\/span>nt<\/span><\/a>\u00a0drives a surge in COVID-19\u00a0cases.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0sudden,\u00a0pandemic-induced\u00a0experiment in remote work\u00a0dramatically changed the way that most knowledge workers work. For many, WFH allowed for\u00a0less time commuting and more freedom while working,\u00a0which led to increased productivity and happiness. But\u00a0others struggled and missed the\u00a0cleanly delineated separation of office life\u00a0from home.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whatever your personal preferences, our collective remote work experiment has laid bare the holes in some long-held ways of evaluating performance. <\/span><\/b>The\u00a0\u201c<\/span>derrieres in office chairs<\/span><\/i>” metric\u00a0was once seen as a key\u00a0indicator\u00a0of office performance\u00a0\u2014\u00a0workers who spent more time in the office were generally seen as being more productive and dedicated. But as it turns out, arriving early and staying past dark\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0necessarily\u00a0correlate with\u00a0productivity. And as we look\u00a0at the\u00a0options being weighed by companies large and small<\/span>: 100% remote? Hybrid? 100% in-office? Combination thereof?\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/i>it\u2019s clear that we need to move\u00a0away\u00a0from rewarding physical presence and\u00a0instead\u00a0focus on the work itself.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Research<\/span>\u202f<\/span><\/a>shows that many folks thrive when they have autonomy over their work lives and environment (here\u2019s looking at you,\u00a0thermostat tug-of-war)\u00a0and increased flexibility in managing their schedules. Excising stressful commutes has enabled focus and efficiency\u00a0and allowed for more energy to be used where it counts\u00a0\u2014\u00a0making the work magic happen.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDelta is probably the final nail in the coffin of the five-day return to the office,\u201d<\/span><\/b>\u00a0shared\u202fNick Bloom, a Stanford University economics professor who has studied work-from-home trends, in a recent Bloomberg\u00a0<\/span>article<\/span><\/a>\u00a0on the topic. \u201cThe five-day return was still an option after the initial pandemic in summer\u00a02020, but\u00a0became increasingly unlikely when this stretched into 2021\u00a0and we all got used to working from home.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And employees, it seems, are willing to pay a price to avoid a return to the old status quo. This is\u00a0particularly\u00a0true for\u00a0older workers, who have accelerated\u00a0their\u00a0retirement\u00a0plans, causing an exodus that may well be permanent for many. From data released in late\u00a0March 2021, the labor force participation rate\u00a0\u2014\u00a0the proportion of\u00a0Americans 55 and older\u00a0working or seeking work\u00a0\u2014\u00a0has dropped from 40.3% in February 2020 to 38.3% in February 2021. That\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>a sizable loss of 1.45 million from the workforce<\/span><\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of this is undoubtedly due to\u00a0the outsize health risk\u00a0COVID-19 poses\u00a0to older folks. Still, for others, the pandemic may have unwittingly provided a looking glass into what really matters to them. Plus, they may have realized that\u00a0the\u00a0money they were making for doing unpleasant jobs wasn\u2019t enough, an epiphany with far-reaching implications.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

By now, you\u2019ve likely heard the term the \u201c<\/span>Great Resignation<\/span><\/a>,” coined by Professor Anthony Klotz at Texas A&M. He says there’s been an accumulation of\u00a0resignations stemming from realizations about work\/life balance and new passion projects that are morphing into possible entrepreneurial enterprises. Many workers would rather vacate their jobs than slide back into the “old normal” of a 9-to-5 office slog that no longer fits.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All of this has led to a tight labor market that is making hiring top talent tough.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>We spoke to Caroline Coons, a\u00a0senior\u00a0account\u00a0executive\u00a0at Creative Circle in the D.C. area, about how she is helping companies navigate choppy hiring waters, thorny questions about WFH, and flexibility.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Increasingly,\u00a0Coons\u00a0has been recommending freelance as an interim solution for\u00a0full-time\u00a0roles that are increasingly difficult to fill. She shared\u00a0that “with so many resignations, especially at agencies, there\u2019s additional pressure on the folks left behind, who are taking on extra work, but then getting burned out and quitting themselves. Current teams are being forgotten and taken for granted as companies are scrambling to fill open roles.\u201d Coons emphasized that \u201csmart companies are reinvesting in their current employees, with some even extending retention bonuses as an added incentive.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Leaning\u00a0into listening\u00a0may offer the best way forward.<\/span><\/b>\u00a0If you are\u00a0crafting a work plan, experts advise talking to your teams\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>listening.\u00a0<\/span><\/i>If\u00a0most\u00a0of\u00a0your\u00a0workers\u00a0want to\u00a0primarily work from home\u00a0(as\u00a0was the case\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span>this LinkedIn survey<\/span><\/a>), then heed what you are hearing. Otherwise, your valued staff may be joining the exodus.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Strive to cultivate a mindset that anticipates the crucial role of trial and error. Accept that it may take time to learn how to navigate the ever-shifting new normal as the mercurial winds of microbiology continue to buffet us in\u00a0unpredictable\u00a0ways.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

About the author.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist\u2014Karina Margit\u00a0<\/span>Edelyi <\/span>writes, produces, and edits compelling content across multiple platforms\u2014including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film.\u00a0<\/span>Her work<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop,\u00a0Psycom, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That,\u00a0thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The pandemic disruption of work has been a learning experience, and the lessons\u00a0keep\u00a0coming.\u00a0\u00a0 Many companies had planned for employees to return to the office in tandem with the beginning of a new school year, but things are getting upended \u2014 again.\u00a0Amazon\u00a0recently\u00a0delayed its office return by four months; corporate staff is now looking at a January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":54284,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[97,98,99,100,101,102,103,104,105],"class_list":["post-54282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employer-insights","tag-amazon","tag-apple","tag-covid","tag-delta","tag-great-resignation","tag-hybrid","tag-office","tag-pandemic","tag-work-from-home"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDo Employees Want to Work From Home? | Creative Circle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"COVID-19's Delta variant is upending the best-laid plans of the largest companies in the United States. 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