What Do Post-Pandemic Employees Need to be Successful? - Part Two

In part two of this two part series, Jennifer Stukenberg joins Coral Digatono to discuss how to successfully plan and execute the return to work with a Hybrid work model. Discussing the pitfalls to avoid and how to prepare for an equitable environment.

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Transcript

Coral Digatono  00:09

Hi, and welcome to sign up design from BWBR, a podcast for those who are passionate, curious and obsessed about the performance of organizations and the people in the facilities that power them. We're happy you're joining us for these discussions on the topics and issues, reflecting how we heal, learn, work, research, play, and pray, in essence, how we live, all with the sight of design. I'm Coral Digatono, your host for this episode. 

Coral Digatono  00:32

On our last episode I spoke with Jennifer Stukenberg about returning to the workplace after disruption forced them to quickly transition to work from home model. We discussed the cultural impacts power of routine and how workplace design is supporting flexible working programs. Today, Jennifer is back to talk more about the hybrid work model and what to expect and plan for. So thanks for coming back, Jennifer, for part two episode. 

Jennifer Stukenberg  00:56

Thank you. 

Coral Digatono  00:57

First I want to talk about remote work versus in the office. What are the benefits and what's missing?

Jennifer Stukenberg  01:02

Well, in the beginning of the pandemic, we saw some really surprising scores on productivity and of course, well being. And they have for the most part continued to remain fairly high. We are seeing some indicators of drops in workers feeling connected to company culture, and to other co workers, not surprisingly, as well as seeing a quite a large drop in skills developments and learning. So therefore, for the majority of workers, there are real benefits to physically coming into the office. And companies will likely see a benefit from both allowing staff the choice to work from home, and to encourage staff to work in the office part of the week.

Coral Digatono  01:49

When you're talking about a drop in skills development and learning it could that potentially be more to do with not having conferences, or all of those types of things where a lot of people go to to get their credits and continued education and so on. versus being in the office, do you think that could have caused a decrease?

Jennifer Stukenberg  02:06

Absolutely. And as companies start to navigate this new normal, they will, they've already started to modify a lot of their training programs, especially onboarding to accommodate a more online or remote work strategy. In fact, some early studies have indicated that one of the things that employers are doing really well is onboarding new employees. It used to be I know when I started a BWBR 25 years ago, it was we met with Angie in HR and went through that, and then I met with IT folk, and then I was given a manual.

Coral Digatono  02:43

Right. 

Jennifer Stukenberg  02:43

... to kind of learn, like the protocols, and then you got introduced around but ...

Coral Digatono  02:49

Here's your map. Here's a map. Here's the bathroom. Yeah.

Jennifer Stukenberg  02:52

Yeah. And and now, it's very purposeful, you know, now we have a complete, you know, scheduled activities, social events, all the training is done very, very purposefully, and other companies are doing the same. So we're seeing a lot of satisfaction scores with onboarding, and then those people feeling like they are connected. So it'll be interesting to see, what's the result of people just not physically being able to be together, or cutting costs during the pandemic? Or what is the result of just that, you know, informal learning that happens from being working next to other people. We also had an interesting pilot that we did last summer, and we've continued with some of our interns in the architecture design community, you know, this Coral. It's hard, it's very hands on and you learn a lot sitting next to architects and designers on a day to day basis. And for someone who's still in school learning, there's, there's not a lot of that you can do. So our interns were all remote. And for those of you who don't know out there, and we literally would open a Zoom meeting window and we would have them work side by side on the camera. Both of them on cameras to people meet paired up with a more advanced interior designer architect.

Coral Digatono  04:14

Yeah, but not only were they remote Jen, they were all over the country. Yeah, cuz we could bring in interns from anywhere there was, it was limitless. And so that was that was awesome, because not only could they have exposure to a different part of the country, a different firm, but we did you know, we had access to people just from different states, different cultures. I had a blast getting to know our interns last summer.

Jennifer Stukenberg  04:35

Yeah. And that really, really opened doors from a equity diversity and diversity and, you know, just outreach for our companies No longer are we constrained by the schools that serve us in our Metro are three metro areas. The talent pool, really opened doors for us and and our exposure as well.

Coral Digatono  04:58

Yeah, the remote work. The Zoom has just really opened up doors in every market sector, where it's just become more normal for everyone. Well, then I have a question, what should companies be focusing on as they return in place to the office, or they start developing hybrid programs?

Jennifer Stukenberg  05:16

Not surprisingly, the first thing that companies should really be focusing on is the people. Even in the last several months recruit and retain has been just, companies are really focused or really focused on that and concerned about getting skilled worker. And people are moving or there's a lot of movement going around. So during the pandemics, companies did a great job of being flexible, empathetic, and focused on well being, they spent a lot of time and energy communicating with staff and you know employees now expect that for their employers. And in return workers have been productive, kept the doors open in some even took pay cuts to prevent layoffs. And in this new tight labor market, those companies will continue to have to value that people first approach, we talked a little bit in our previous podcast about how the pandemic really hit younger workers and families and women, particularly hard and all for very different reasons. So that one size fits all approach is not going to work, or it will leave some workers behind. And companies can't afford to do that. So that's going to be why allowing employees, the choice of when and how they work, combined with a hybrid flexible model will likely be a popular solution for most companies. 

Coral Digatono  06:37

Yeah, I hear about it quite a bit. But I also talked to some people that have, they're like, what is hybrid? What is that? We don't have that we just went back to work? Yeah. So yeah.

Jennifer Stukenberg  06:50

Why do you say hybrid? You know, why do people understand the hybrid because if you've got kids, you probably went through hybrids, where they spend part of your time at school and part of your time in the office, or companies did that in order to densify the work environment to get people spaced out and safe distances. So you know, only having part of your workforce in in the during the week, this would be by choice, will likely happen.

Coral Digatono  07:18

So okay, so then hybrid, if we're going to go with hybrid, what are some of the modifications that a company needs to think about?

Jennifer Stukenberg  07:24

Definitely technology, everybody is adding an investing in video capability to almost all spaces, the new norm will be for many companies video first, if you try to give a presentation to a group of people, and they don't have their video on, it is really difficult to read the room and take room to actually be productive and meaning. So they're going to have to be providing this technology in a very user friendly format. We're not all technologically savvy, and we have to pay attention to acoustics and camera placements, lighting, all that there is a there also is a sense that this video is here to stay and will likely replace the regular calls. And Police also want more control over their environment. So control over those visual and audible distractions that they've had this last year working at home, control over how much stimulation like I like to go in the office because I like a little bit of buisiness around me on certain days, when I'm feeling drained. ergonomics, I think a lot of people miss their nice, sit to stand desks, and they're good chairs, and then even temperature and lighting. I like the fact that my office isn't freezing at home. So I'm more comfortable, right. So in order to do that, employers will likely offer a range of work settings that offer individually more individual control, everything from access to private focus rooms that a lot of employees never had before, to more collaborative areas. So a couple of other modifications would be just that, as we talked before, the shift away from private individual spaces, you know, open benching, and open cubes, you know, just seas and seas of cubes, you're not going to see that much anymore. You'll see a little bit of it, but it'll be a lot of individual focus rooms, and collaborative spaces.

Coral Digatono  09:18

Okay, let's talk about a schedule for workers, you know, if they're if they're going hybrid, what does that look like? I mean, is are they going to have different schedules every day? Do you think it's going to be more routine? Because, you know, we talked in the last episode about, about routine, the power of routine. So what are the benefits to having that routine, and being able to go in and out with a different schedule?

Jennifer Stukenberg  09:41

Well, the benefits of the routine, obviously, for the worker allows them just to, you know, be able to concentrate and focus on the work at hand. But the problems that are going to result from this hybrid work are you're going to want to go into maybe connect. And Coral I'd want to come in and schedule a day and connect ith you. But unless I plan for that, you may not be in the office. So we are going to see, I mean, we already have a lot of the scheduling platforms, apps, easy to use apps that allow people to check out spaces, but also when you walk in, you can, you know, see where where you're sitting, or we may choose, I may choose to check out a room next to you. There are some privacy concerns about that. But quite frankly, it's no more than I walk around the office, and I know where you are. So you know, it's just gonna be in in a different format, so we can identify where and find people. So a lot of people who haven't been part of a flex environment, which means that you have an or an unassigned work environment, that's one of the change items that people struggle with and have a fear of is how can I find people. And these apps really do a lot to help. They also help with distractions, because what happened in their old environment is some people wander around and just bug people, quite rightly, right? And say, Hey, I noticed that I popped it on your desk, and you're just trying to get something done, Jenn, whereas now we're much purposeful, right? And I would be like, you know, sending you a text saying, Carl, do you have time? I have a question. And you may say, Well, I'm working on something right now. Can you stop by in an hour? And I'd be like, Sure. So I think I think this is all really good for American workers being a little more considerate, and being more purposeful is going to, it's going to benefit everybody.

Coral Digatono  11:36

Right. Because it sounds to me like these apps. Because I would think if I want to time with someone, I would look at their calendar, and I would schedule time, but that might be overkill, when you're looking for a five minute conversation. So just dropping by is really helpful. Or we've in the past, you know, we've used teams or in some sort of internal chat technology. And I know with that we would have our location on there. But you had to be sure to update that or some people don't even log into it. Right. So it's, it's going to be whether or not it gets used. But I think in time, as people get more and more used to this, this work environment, I think it might be utilized more, do you think?

Jennifer Stukenberg  12:13

Yeah, I do. And I think it's, it's going to be part of this success. I mean, bigger companies have been have been used to this more because they you know, it isn't you're not on floor, and you can stand up from your desk and see if someone's available. And there is there still is going to be people that just want to casually walk over, you know, a lot of companies that are built on consensus building and gathering input, those highly collaborative work environments. Sometimes there's difficult conversations and scheduling a meeting can be a little, maybe too heavy handed or feel more like a reprimand. And so I do know that just wandering over and having a casual casual conversation does kind of ease the blow of a tough topic. Or if I just want to bounce ideas off someone, I may not know who to ask, and I may happen upon someone and ask their opinion. And that gives me an opportunity to do forge a new relationship with them, in their opinion. And then, you know, we all we all like to work with people we know because it's easier to communicate, I know how to communicate with you. I know when you give me a response how like, what to expect from that, and how to you know how to respond back. And so that's that is those social spaces, and that's being in person, those casual conversations, that's what helps develop those skills that we need to work in a teaming and collaborative work environment. 

Coral Digatono  12:22

Right. Well, and now that you get to that point, one of the things that I love and respect so much about BWBR is that we have such a strong, collaborative team environment. And, you know, before I even came here, that was something that I just admired about our firm. That being said, we've taken our Zoom calls and our remote working to another level, we collaborate, but we're we're keeping it equitable, by asking staff, if you are if you're in a team meeting, and say you have five people in a conference room working on a project, but two people are working remote that day, and they're on zoom, we ask that everyone have their cameras on their their laptops in front of them, so that those people working remote, everybody is in a square on the screen. And you know, everybody's communicating that way. So they're not detached from the people in the room. you're communicating your face to face kind of, you know, through the through the screen. And I think that's that's a step in the right direction. Will it take off? And will it stay that way? I don't know. But I think it's definitely worth working on. Right. And it's good starting point. So my question then is, where does equity fall into all this and why is it so important?

Jennifer Stukenberg  14:42

Well, we we have three branches. And like you said, we didn't know before the pandemic, how badly they were suffering from that remote work experience. So as an organization, when you look at allowing your employees to you know, be the best and perform the best of their ability that actually But he absolutely needs to be front of mind. But it goes beyond just the people at the room, it is a whole cultural shift of hearing all the voices equally. And that the loudest voice, and I'm often one of them is voice is not always the best idea. It's just the loudest voice. Other tools such as Miro, some digital platforms, utilizing teams to keep track of minutes and conversations outside of meetings is a great way to reach those people who may have missed the meeting, or you want to include, but not including the meeting. And so they can join in on a conversation they can go into we do this a lot, we have a project mural board, we may have a workshop where we post things and people can go in ahead of time, think about it, add their content, we have a meeting where we discuss it, and then after the meeting, they can continue with the conversation, the benefit of you know, we all want equity, because it's the right thing to do. But we want Equity and Diversity because it makes us all better. Our company's better, our society's better. It's that diversity of of ideas has been proven over and over again, the key to success. And so just a real, you know, more than a commitment, but you need to move it forward. It's it's more than a passive, you know, thing it needs to literally be what are you doing to be more, you know, inclusive, and then everyone, everyone enjoys that, and everyone can see when you're being inclusive. And, and they they feel that as part of your culture. 

Jennifer Stukenberg  16:40

You know, I also want to touch on a little bit about offices that we are returning people to, you know, I find it interesting that we're in such a rush to get people back to the offices. But there are some interesting surveys out there that are showing that people are raiding their home offices fairly successfully. And so one study by leesman was I think over 840,000 employees asked them to rate their home office, and 83% of them said that their homes enabled them to work effectively. That was compared to just 64% of workers say that the office enabled them to work effectively. Can you believe that? Wow, that's incredible. I know offices that are made for work are not working the way they want to. And and that's an it's not a surprise. I mean, we can focus more routine tasks are easy, but it's people think we have better meetings at home. And it's better for that creative work. The Office, of course, is seen better for hosting clients for social interacting, and learning some of those topics we've already talked about. The key about the study was is when they started to look at different types of workspaces and divide them between high performing workplaces and just kind of average workplaces. The high performing workplaces caused that number to jump a little bit closer to home. So about 78% of workers agreed that their offices now enabled them to work effectively. So what does that simply put, if you don't have good office space, that supports the tasks that people need to do now, then people won't want to come to the environment because their home offices will likely be performing better for them. So companies are gonna have to make some modifications in order to adjust to this evolving way we work.

Coral Digatono  18:36

Absolutely. And on that note, if you're looking to make any modifications, Jennifer, how would they get in touch with you?

Jennifer Stukenberg  18:41

They can contact me at JStukenberg@ bwbr.com.

Coral Digatono  18:48

Perfect. Okay, that's gonna wrap up our return to the workplace topic for these two episodes. If you missed the first one, go back, there was another one that talked about a few other parts of this topic, go back, rewind, listen to that one. 

Coral Digatono  19:01

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