Insights

The pandemic has had a profound effect on mental health and wellbeing. What steps can organizations take to prioritize employee mental health in the new workplace?

Working from the office is no longer an expectation—it is a choice. As many of us prepare for re-entry to the workplace, this new perspective on choice presents us with an important question. Assuming our offices have been made safe enough for our return, the question will each be facing is no longer “should we go into the office to work” – but rather “will the office help us do our best work?”

It is sometimes easy to forget that our shared work experience is exactly that – a shared experience. One that is shaped, for better or worse, by our daily interactions with the people we serve, and the people we work along-side. For a growing number of workers, we have become isolated and alone, and quite possibly to dire effect

Presence is still an incredibly important part of our work experience. Our proximity to others is one way in which we influence behavior, shared beliefs, and team culture. It is critical to the way we learn, and the relationships we build. But it is not an end into itself, and it should never be without intention.

As I interview executive leaders about their plans to capitalize on the momentum given to them by the global pandemic, most reflect that their greatest aspiration is that their organizational processes, programs, places, and policies would better support the needs of their people rather than simply the tasks they perform.

As a result of evolving the role of the workplace, workplace designers and planners find themselves interacting increasingly with people who are planning the organization’s cultural priorities and the employee experience. As I bring together workplace designers and culture creators, I find the best starting point is shaping a shared vocabulary of the basics of culture design.

As more mass-vaccination sites open daily, signaling hope of a normal tomorrow, it seems most organizations are still on a journey of constant starts and stops as they try to feel their way through the post-pandemic working world. With digital transformation efforts accelerating, we can imagine what the working world might look like three to five years from now

Management teams everywhere are grappling with the same question: Does the office still matter? While remote work is an alternative for many, some companies are rethinking the role of the office. Redefining the workplace as an experience opens the door to new and interesting possibilities for how we operate. But where do you start?