The Threat From Continuing the Model of “Home Office”

Let’s face it - a home or partial home office was very efficient in the past decade. Just the right push many executives needed to enhance the performance of their employees. However, despite the numerous benefits, a “sleeping” threat could appear on the horizon.

Working from home gave us a higher capability to care for ourselves and our loved ones. But it removed a critical perspective – the sensation of community belonging in the workplace. Years of strategies, internal campaigning, and nurturing employer branding were removed overnight. Which poses a massive threat to the following:

• People will become self-centered and require more from themselves than their workplace community.

• Engaging employees in real community behavior and true allegiance to the company’s core values will be difficult. Therefore the retainer will increase, and retaining employees based on company values and community benefits will become challenging.

• The “in-office Tuesday” and “holiday office party” will be perceived as a cringe way to indulge and commit employees to a real community based on friendship and mutual values, ergo the additional drive every company needs besides salary and social benefits package to keep them motivated. However, it is no longer enough as a vast digital barrier was erected during COVID-19, and people won’t get to know each other and work genuinely as a team in a shared community. As a result, there is a considerable threat to the established teams and the new talent.

• Gen Z talent will find it very difficult (if not at all) to determine if the company community is right for them and will keep struggling to fit in--if the proper measures are not taken.

Rather than simply providing team building, sports cards, or discount cards to employees, companies have to allocate resources to a variety of mutual social experiences. Organizing a variety of experiences weekly for their teams, where they can meet, engage in exciting activities, and always have a designated “company ambassador” on the team to promote the company and listen to his/her co-workers’ opinions.

Because only the flexible (in practice, not on ESG or CSR reports) will be the big winners in the ongoing battle for regaining community interest and behavior towards themselves.