As proven by the rise of new trends and companies, opportunities often present themselves during times of instability, crisis, and change. We have previously talked a bit about the post-COVID possibilities in workplace design and operations. Where the real impactful possibilities lie, however, is in workplace strategy.

Strategy Leads

Workplace strategy is the plan of attack and solutions that align the physical workplace, team workstyles, and organizational culture with the overall business strategy. By having a clear, decisive, and appropriate strategy, work is elevated to higher efficiency, teams achieve higher satisfaction, and return on investment is maximized.

There are four key principles that we as workplace professionals must fully understand and communicate properly to the team: People-Centric, Wellbeing, Value-Driven, and Trust. These concepts should be the underlying ingredients of everything we do, in both past and future eras of work.

People-Centric

It is an ubiquitous term that may seem overrated or overused. But in reality, the reason we see it everywhere is because people are truly the essence of business, community, and life. We must center all our decisions around our people. The people in any organization are always the most important factor and valuable asset for success. These individuals make or break the organization. It is imperative that we always show empathy and have the people’s best interests at heart in all workplace strategies and everything we do at work.

Wellbeing

After months of experiencing various kinds of lockdowns and quarantines, we have all come to realize that wellbeing is not merely clickbait or a gimmick. People and wellbeing come hand in hand. People-centric wellbeing measures need to be put in place as the top priority. These should cover both physical and psychological wellbeing. A single concern or doubt about wellbeing in the workplace will lead to more stress for the team. This is certainly not ideal for anyone who may already be juggling with COVID in their personal lives.

Value-Driven

Question of the year: What is the value of the physical office moving forward? As we briefly discussed in a previous blog post, offices will not become obsolete. They will remain an integral part of any organization. Their contribution to collaborative work and organizational culture will be even greater and more impactful than before COVID.

Surveys and research conducted by individual organizations and workplace consultants showed that the majority of the workforce prefers a mixture of WFH and WFO (Work-From-Office) work arrangements post-COVID if given the option. In other words, most people will choose to stay home for some days during a workweek because they are now able and capable of completing large portions of independent, heads-down work at home. They will likely only come into the office for collaboration sessions and social interactions that are clearly less effective when done virtually. As a result, the post-COVID workplace strategy must focus on safely facilitating these irreplaceable in-person activities while maximizing their benefits.

Trust

There is a reason why trust falls have long been a team-building activity. Whether we enjoy them or not, trust falls teach us a great deal about ourselves, our teammates, and our organizations. Trust, in the post-COVID context, speaks to the reliability of the organization’s efforts to ensure the health and safety of the team.

The team must be able to trust that the workplace is a safe environment to come back to and as productive, supportive, and enjoyable as it was before COVID. They must be able to trust, without a doubt, that all the decisions made and new regulations implemented are done to keep them safe. Failure to do so may lead to negative feelings and experiences and ultimately result in dissatisfaction about the job and the organization.

Strategy Dictates Culture

A major part of workplace strategy revolves around culture. It essentially defines how the organization works and fares in any given favorable or unfavorable situation. The COVID pandemic and recent social movements urge organizations around the world to reflect on their culture. What worked in the past may no longer work for the future. If that is indeed the case, it is time to change.

Cultural shifts may sound daunting. Sometimes, they happen organically with leadership changes or with organizational progression through the business lifecycle. Other times, they happen intentionally with a committee driving efforts to improve the organization and overcome adversity. In response to COVID and other events, it is necessary to push for a change in our way of life and work via a holistic, empathetic, and people-centric approach.

Inclusivity and Understanding

As a society, we must understand that no one is the same. We all have different values, beliefs, backgrounds, ethnicities, and experiences. Nonetheless, this disparity by no means determines the superiority of one person over another. In fact, this diversity encourages us to learn from each other and expand our horizons. The world, as well as the workplace, is a place for everyone, not just for one type of people. Everyone has the same rights and freedoms to enjoy what life has to offer.

Besides looking at the basics of humanity, we must also look at the basics of work. In establishing the workplace strategy, we must think from all possible angles. What makes a workplace inclusive, welcoming, and supportive of everyone? What do the team members want from their workplace? Inclusivity means taking into consideration all work tasks, workstyles, and workflows. These will help identify the workplace strategy that will truly support the people and, ultimately, the organization.

Flexible Work Policies

Out goes the fixed-work era, and in comes the flex-work era. What does flex work really mean? It is not simply saying that we have different types of furniture in the workplace. It is about explicitly explaining and articulating to the team that they have the freedom of choice in time, place, and pace of work as long as the results are there and in high quality

To attain a flex work environment, we must strengthen flexibility in the workplace, compensation packages, benefits and perks, tools, and atmosphere. For instance, there should be different furniture and configurations that allow for different activities as briefly explored in an earlier blog post. Compensation packages should have various options for the employees to customize and personalize the plans that suit their needs, which can be done by companies such as Compt. Tools like cloud storage for all work files and collaborations, single sign-on solutions, project management, and team communication channels like Basecamp, Trello, or Asana could all support flexibility.

Key Takeaway

Workplace strategy is no rocket science. The core of every strategy is the people. Truly understanding the team is the first and very critical step in establishing a suitable strategy. With those insights, everything else will become clearer. But remember, strategy is never stagnant because humans are always improving.