The WFH (Work from Home) Paradigm Shift

  Posted on 29/05/2020

In March 2020, office life for the majority would change significantly and abruptly due to COVID19.

With many organisations inherently hesitant to walk the steps of change towards remote working, there always existed a fear relating to employee productivity, altered workflows and procedures and of course physical interaction between employees and teams. Then, employees and employers were forced to take the plunge, just like a nervous first dive from the high dive board.

Technology was quickly procured and implemented, staff briefed on changes to procedures and protocol and almost overnight a paradigm shift occurred with the vast majority of office working around the world taking place from the kitchen tables, the spare bedrooms and swathes of temporary home office solutions.

Interestingly, commentary suggests, alongside a recent report by Valoir that only 2% have felt a dip in productivity due to remote working and many felt that they were working longer hours from home.

Is this shift here to stay?

In the short term, when office workers are encouraged to return to the office, it won’t be at a gallop, it will be a phased reintroduction of personnel centred on distancing and spacial awareness, whereby office ergonomics will undertake radical change, and whereby home working for a large proportion will still be in existence. In the longer term, the changes could be permanent.  Businessman Martin Sorrell said he would rather invest the £35m he does on property, on people, and the boss of Barclays said that putting 7000 people in an office might be a thing of the past. It is certainly true that the ‘zoom boom’ and related new avenues of conducting our day to day work, might see a significant reduction in a corporations need to spend on real estate, it may also be that after this enforced plunge into remote working, we all feel a little bit more comfortable about the prospect of working from home and leaving behind the daily commute. These next 6-12 months are going to be really interesting to see if this unprecedented period of our lives goes onto change working environments forever.