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Written by: Kong Xiangwei
2021-04-21 17:43
Last update date: 2021-04-21 17:47
Many employers and employees have also experienced the benefits of remote work in the past year and hope to continue.
Some surveys and industry players have even warned that if companies do not continue to work at home, they may miss or lose talent.
Although some more traditional companies expect to return to their pre-epidemic state, Jenny Burns, a partner of the British consulting firm Fluxx, reminded: "If you quickly return to the old model, you will lose some employees." Office management software company Envoy mid-last month According to the published report, a February survey of 1,000 American employees over the age of 18 found that nearly half of the interviewed employees said that if the company did not provide a mixed office option after the epidemic, they would resign.
An investigation found that some employees enjoy working at home, and even threatened to resign if the company did not provide flexible work after the epidemic.
(Getty Images)
"Hybrid" (hybrid) is expected to become a way out between the two models, that is, allowing employees to work at home part of the time and work at the company part of the time.
Video conferencing software company Zoom commissioned Boston Consulting Group to conduct a survey in six countries and found that based on the successful application of video conferencing during the epidemic, most companies are considering adopting a flexible remote working model and expect some employees Will continue to work remotely.
In the United States, 39% of companies expect that more than one-third of their employees will work remotely after the epidemic; in India, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan, this number is more than 40%.
Andrew Hewitt, a senior analyst at Forrester, a market research firm, estimates that about 60% of companies implement a mixed office model, 30% will return to the office, and 10% will work completely remotely.
Some forward-looking technology companies are ready to implement mixed office.
Several Microsoft campuses allowed employees to return to the office last month and implemented a mixed office model.
Spotify, a music streaming service provider, announced in February that it would implement a "work anywhere" model, allowing employees to choose to work full-time at home or in the office, or a mixture of the two, and choose their country and region of work.
Some companies have recently opened office rooms for employees to return under the permission of the epidemic, switching from working at home to implementing a mixed office model.
(Microsoft)
Mixed office has recently been favored by different industries.
Citigroup (Citigroup) plans to invite North American employees to return to the office from July, hoping that by September, about half of its employees will work in the office part of the time.
The company divides positions into "resident", "remote" and "mixed", with the latter accounting for the majority.
For example, Lloyds, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ford Motor, BP Petroleum, etc. also allow white-collar employees to choose a mixed office.
Last year, technology companies took the lead in advocating working from home. Brian Kropp, research vice chairman of market research company Gartner, pointed out that even industries other than technology are now implementing mixed offices, indicating that this work model will become the new normal: "When relatively conservative companies are Adopting a mixed office model can be regarded as a wind direction indicator, indicating that this work trend will become more common."
After the baptism of the epidemic last year, many companies and employees agreed that the old working culture has gone forever, whether working from home permanently or working in a mixed office.
(Getty Images)
However, it seems that employers and employees have not yet reached a consensus on how much time is allocated to work at home and how much time to work in the office is most suitable.
Moreover, many companies say that factors such as commuting time, job type, and employee qualifications will influence the decision of employees, so it may not be possible to uniformly stipulate the distribution ratio of work at home and in the office.
Some law firms like Allen & Overy (Allen & Overy) plan to bring about 60% of their employees back to the office, but they do not arrange a weekly schedule.
Tim House, the company's senior partner in the United States, explained: "We hope that employees can manage their working hours by themselves, and 60% of their time in the office within a year."
These details are not important to House.
The important change he sees is that his company has changed from “approval” to work flexibly, but now it is discussing “the most appropriate balance is 60% of the time to return to the office”: “This will be a paradigm shift, and it will be able to continue."
(Excerpt)
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Working at home is like a double-edged sword. Is it time to return to the office?
The above is excerpted from the 261th "Hong Kong 01" Weekly Report (April 19, 2021) "Sino-U.S. Climate Cooperation Map Breaks Through Biden's Overestimation of China". If you want to read the full text, please
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Selected content of the 261 issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly News:
[Cover report] When China can look up to the world, how Hong Kong will face up to the new global order
Hong Kong children lack a "protection net" behind frequent child abuse cases
After the supervision of ``boots landing'', the valuation of ants ``folds up''
From working at home to mixed office in the post-epidemic era
Spring Shanghai Fashion Week for Chinese Independent Designers: The Turning Point of the Trend of Local Fashion
01 Weekly report in-depth report on the new crown pneumonia home office (work from home)
