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Return to the mutant office

2021-09-05T02:50:57.824Z


We will return to the office, but nothing will be the same. The pandemic has given a boost to a cultural change at work in front of a screen. How much will you stay from telecommuting in the long run? Experts, companies and workers debate the pros and cons, while hybrid formulas are gaining ground and office spaces mutate


When Pilar Solares wakes up and from her bed she sees the mountains that surround the Tiétar valley (Ávila), she still can't believe it. He is taking possession of a two-story chalet for which he pays less than half the rent of the apartment he has left in Madrid. She is still stunned to be able to work three days a week in Piedralaves, a town of stone houses with 2,000 neighbors, an hour and a quarter from her office. "It's like starting over, a beginning with great enthusiasm and the biggest change I have experienced in the company," says the computer science of 60 years, three decades at Suntory Beverage & Food (which makes Schweppes and La Casera), with 1,000 employees in Spain. A completely unexpected life move — this was his plan for retirement.similar to the one that is being cooked to different degrees and with varied maturations in the business fabric. Because while Pilar unpacks the monitor and calculates how many beds will fit to host weekend visits - those of her two sons, who have just become independent, and her friends - Suntory opens smaller offices in an emblematic sustainable building from the Field of Nations. With fewer conventional places to work, but with meeting rooms, libraries to concentrate and corners where you can chat on a sofa with your colleagues. Pilar goes there two consecutive days - "I stay to sleep at my parents' house and so I keep an eye on them", she says - after reserving a place with an application. And you become familiar with flexible check-in and check-out times and meetings no longer than 50 minutes, between 9.30am and 4.30pm,when they all match. You will not receive emails or

wasaps

between 8:00

p.m.

and 8:00

a.m.

Interior of the Adevinta offices in Barcelona Caterina Barjau

The stumble.

The return to the office is not that of other September. And not only because of the masks, the stickers or the limited capacity in the midst of that permanent unknown of the future of the pandemic. The health crisis, which sent three million employees home in March 2020 with a laptop, a lot of uncertainty and a hasty search for digital tools, was the unexpected experiment that fuels a cultural shift that was already underway before but would have needed several years to set. From telemarketers to bank managers, experts estimate that between 30% and 35% of work in Spain could be done remotely, occupations that do not require in-person interaction to perform tasks. Mireia Las Heras, professor of People Management in Organizations at IESE, offers a very graphic image:“It's like when you stumble down the street and that makes you jump forward, that's the way it has happened with covid. Nobody tells me 'this is impossible' or 'this can only happen in a technology company ”. The setback has led to a new life for Pilar and her company, an example of a hybrid model that combines days at home and days at the office. Which is praised by many specialists because it combines the best of both worlds. Stanford University economics professor Nicholas Bloom, who researches work models, sums it up this way: “It provides enough occasions in the office to innovate and network, saving time on commutes on days when working from home on homework. that require concentration ”. That's what companies aspire to.More than 65% intend to implement by 2025 a formula that allows teleworking for two or three days, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group, which recently interviewed managers and employees of a score of large Spanish corporations. Another Adecco work indicates that the preferred option for entrepreneurs is two days away (44%) or one (29%).

Helena Peñas enters by videoconference from the office of Norvento, a renewable energy company in Lugo where she works. Caterina Barjau

The examples multiply. The giant Telefónica, which now receives half of its employees in alternate weeks at the office, will allow 10,000 workers to telework two days a week and will make performance more flexible for another 5,000 when the health emergency passes. IBM is headquartered at 30% maximum capacity and speaks of a "path of no return" towards a hybrid culture through its director of human resources, Felipe Alves. Bayer has turned its offices around - it now has two thirds dedicated to more collaborative spaces and one to conventional workstations - and allowed its staff to choose between three types of contract. "We expected there to be more preference for a face-to-face formula with one telework day a week," says CFO Rodolphe Spina, "but less than 1% chose it." The vast majority,Almost 80% chose to combine office and remote in equal parts and the remaining 20% ​​go to the headquarters in Barcelona for just one day.

Álvaro Peláez, from ING, on a work video call from home Caterina Barjau

Science fiction.

Another vital move is that of Sergio, a 39-year-old computer engineer who recently debuted paternity. He has returned to his homeland, León, "with the boy's grandparents two blocks away," and he has forgotten the hour and a half a day by subway to go to and from the office. The company has authorized him to telework permanently. Your colleagues will be able to do it three days a week when they rejoin in October. "We have been claiming it for a long time, it has cost us a lot," he acknowledges, "and we already had clients outside of Madrid with whom we connected remotely through private networks." As in other companies, teleworking has not reduced productivity. "We are billing the same or more," he says. Precisely in León, before the pandemic, María, another 28-year-old engineer, lived and went to the office every day.He has moved to his parents' house in Astorga. "I have paid for the car and I have saved what is not written," he assures. When you return to the company headquarters in January, you will only have to travel the 50 kilometers that separate the two towns once a week. Her boyfriend has found work in the Maragata capital. They are looking for a flat.

A corner of the Bayer offices Caterina Barjau

In 2019 these stories sounded like science fiction. In Spain 4.8% of employees usually teleworked, below the EU average (5%) and 10 points less than European countries such as the Netherlands (14%) or Finland (13.3%), according to INE data. 3.5% occasionally did so. However, Spanish companies were more prepared for mobility than the European average, 71% provided laptops, something that helped in the sudden emigration to homes in March 2020. The onslaught of the coronavirus caused that last year one of each four workers (25.2%) will work remotely. This year it has dropped to 1 in 10 (9.9%), plus 7.4% who combine remote work with the office, according to an extensive survey in May carried out by the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Workers' Commissions.

Where will we go? The dean of the Faculty of Labor Relations and Human Resources at the University of Granada, Francisco Díaz Bretones, believes that "although it is still too early to know precisely, various studies suggest that much telework will remain in a hybrid format." In the United States, 80% of firms have announced this type of formula, according to research by Professor Bloom. Eva Rimbau, professor at the UOC and specialist in teleworking, is convinced that there will be no black or white, we are going to place ourselves in gray. But think: "We will not go back to the pre-pandemic times, but neither will we work remotely as much as we could." And in that he believes that the decree law of telework, which obliges companies to defray expenses when they work remotely for more than 30% of the working day —at least two days—,it is going to distort the evolution: "The companies are going to make a conditional decision." Carlos Gutiérrez, secretary of Youth and New Realities of CC OO, however, trusts the ability of workers to organize and negotiate. These aspects of the law have already been included in important sectoral agreements, that of savings banks and banks, for example. They recognize the right to digital disconnection, to pay for work material at home and to a monthly compensation.that of savings banks and banks, for example. They recognize the right to digital disconnection, to pay for work material at home and to a monthly compensation.that of savings banks and banks, for example. They recognize the right to digital disconnection, to pay for work material at home and to a monthly compensation.

One year of trial.

David Gea, Head of Payments at ING, comes to the office whenever he wants or when he agrees to meet with his team. The bank implemented 100% flexible work in mid-2020, after experimenting with several more formulas (one fixed day per week remotely, two days to choose from), but this was favored by the 1,300 employees, who opened offices with 200 meeting rooms. meetings, rooms where to concentrate or small amphitheaters for brainstorming. One of the floors of the two buildings has been rented as a shared work space, a way in which many companies that opt ​​for hybrid formulas are making profitable their surplus spaces. “For me this is a 10,” says Gea, 45, “flexibility makes it easier for you to work-life balance and, above all, it gives you time. And in Madrid it is very difficult to have it. I would not go back to work as before ”.Those hours earned are for daily walks and stretches, taking her daughter to play soccer or going to eat with her mother. Internal polls corroborate Gea's opinion. Experts gloss precisely this model, in which teams and employees decide how to organize themselves. "It's that you make policies for the people you trust," says ING Human Resources director Isaac Vitini. They have had surprises: "I thought that the youngest would want to stay at home, but they don't, they come to the office to be with people." Problems? “There has been digital overload. At a distance, there is only one way to interact, through the screen, that is why we strongly insist that the meetings also be held by phone ”. But the most revealing thing has been that the reductions in working hours have fallen by 50%."We had a working model that was hurting women."

"Hot" table at Bayer offices in Barcelona, ​​where there are no assigned seats.Caterina Barjau

As before?

Carlos, 28, is a senior official in a state body who now goes to the office one day.

"But the intention is that we return in person, there is a lot of consensus on the part of the bosses and dissent from those below," he laments.

"I think there is a relationship of mistrust."

His partner María, 36 years old, mother of a girl of two, is also upset: "With what has been achieved remotely, it seems to me a huge lack of respect, everyone has responded and we have been very flexible."

Sources from the Secretary of State for Public Function assure that it is intended to implement during this month "a greater volume of presence", after negotiating with the unions.

There is a gap between what workers demand - less than 10% want to return to a 100% face-to-face job, according to several surveys (including one from IESE), and two out of three want a hybrid model - and what the companies want. companies: although 45% are clear that they will continue teleworking, according to a study by Infojobs, 17% do not even consider it and the rest are still considering which model to implement.

A lonely worker in his office Caterina Barjau

In a scenario that is heading towards hybrid work, Wall Street champions on the contrary, the presence. This is the case of Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs. They maintain that the office is the scene of innovation where the corporate culture is transmitted and those who join the workforce are trained, so that learning is diminished if it is done remotely. In Spain, companies like Mapfre, for example, are committed to returning to the mostly face-to-face model, although for now they maintain a hybrid formula in which 90% of its 11,000 employees come to the office in alternate weekly shifts. "Insurance is an activity very close to the client and this model allows us to fulfill our commitments to them", insists Elena Sanz, director of People and Organization of the company.

Teleworking has its drawbacks, pointed out by studies and experts: loneliness, isolation, lack of ergonomics, disconnection from the organization and loss of informal relationships that occur in the office.

And its advantages: it saves time and money in commuting to work (and the stress that it implies), it facilitates conciliation and concentration.

Also productivity (19%) and quality of work (18%), according to research by Professor Las Heras.

That highlights the engineer Helena Peñas, mother of three children.

He lives in Ferrol but works in Lugo, in the renewable energy company Norvento.

“I save two hours in the car every day of the two that I don't go.

For me it is the ideal model, because I can also bond with colleagues at the office ”.

A collaborative workspace in Barcelona Caterina Barjau

Job wanted, 100% remote.

In 2019, Infojobs registered 20,000 job searches a week with the word “telecommuting”. At the end of April this year the peak of 700,000 was reached. They had multiplied by 35. Offers have also skyrocketed, but to a lesser extent. The year before the pandemic, 34,000 ads were published advertising remote work. A drop in an ocean of almost three million offers. But in the first half of this year there were 225,000, mostly telemarketers, followed by real estate agents and developers. “We are in a paradigm shift,” says Mónica Pérez, Infojobs spokesperson and head of studies. Adevinta, the company of which he is a part, with 1,100 employees, is also mutating. “We will go to a hybrid formula with a large remote component,but we are clear that we want to have a face-to-face part for creation and collaboration ”.

Exterior of the offices of the City of Justice, in Barcelona.

All the workers have been incorporated in person CATERINA BARJAU

Juan Roldán, from Spring Professional, recruits the best talents in the legal environment and attests to the transformation in a sector with a tradition of face-to-faceism: “The candidate's taboo to request remote work has been lost.

We have dropped applicants because the companies did not offer it, and although they are very reluctant, they have noticed and are rectifying ”.

Nacho Rodríguez, director of Repeople, a

coworking

and

coliving company

(buildings equipped with spaces for common activities with neighbors) in the Canary Islands and a member of the World Telework Association, believes that remote formulas are having “a spectacular demand. There is a structural change and there will be no going back. A more radical segment of companies is going to do without their office, although to avoid the socialization deficit they will organize meetings to work and connect. The workers demand that flexibility that they have already tried, and if they are good they will go to work in a place that allows it ”.

Precisely retaining and attracting talent drove the cybersecurity company Tarlogic, which already has a four-day workday without a pay cut, to add to its many social benefits that its 100 employees preferably work remotely since July. They retain their headquarters in Santiago and Madrid, explains Koldo Muñoz, their chief of operations, but they will be mainly representation centers to meet with clients and for meetings between workers. Consultant Jennifer Torres, 25, is one of them. He had always dreamed of going in there. And she got an additional surprise: "The company takes care of you so much that I feel more accompanied than when I worked in person in another place". And you save the daily trip to the office and eat healthier. "Both physically and psychologically I am much better."

The office, that place.

The architect Guzmán de Yarza helps companies and institutions to implement new ways of working on behalf of the real estate consultancy JLL. “We are busier than ever”, he says, “now there is not a single company that does not question its organization, they are debating what their model is going to be. Nobody has the crystal ball, but there is a great social demand for flexibility ”. He believes that the office is more important than ever, but turning it around, it will not be worth the aseptic and uncomfortable atmospheres, but a concept of "destination office" that attracts employees, in high quality buildings, something more like a club of partners where to connect with clients and colleagues to create what he calls “designed serendipity”, that which replaces spontaneous chatter around the machine.

Terrace-bar in the offices of Adevinta, company to which Infojobs belongs Caterina Barjau

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-09-05

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