Grappling with re-entry: What exactly will be normal about the new normal?

Corporate leaders everywhere are evaluating post-pandemic workplace models and considering what will work best for their businesses. Across the spectrum of options, we are seeing a wide range of opinions. Some companies have already decided that their future work model is going fully remote (aka "remote first") while others are hoping to get back right to where they were before the pandemic (return to normal). In between those two is the rainbow of models being referred to as "hybrid" options. Within this "hybrid category," we hear terms like "optional" or "partial" being used to describe the formats. Check out this list of companies going remote permanently and how they are doing that from Build Remote. 

Views on post-COVID remote working are slowly dividing the corporate world. While Unilever says that workers will never return to desks full-time, Goldman Sachs is looking at their current remote work situation as strictly temporary, an aberration that they will correct as soon as possible, according to their CEO, David Solomon. Then, per The Guardian, lending giant HSBC recently revealed it was taking advantage of the booming popularity of home working by cutting its office space by 40%, while rival Lloyds announced it would slash its own office footprint by a fifth. 

While each company weighs the pros and cons of each variation of future work models, 89% of firms expect hybrid working — with staff split between home and office — to become permanent after the pandemic, according to a recent poll by recruiter Robert Half. Exactly how that looks and works, what it means for each employee and exactly how the office and employee experience changes is what is being contemplated. Also, a plan has to include the date when the office re-opens or at least partially re-opens, and many are sitting in a "wait and see" pose for the moment. Others are looking further out and have identified September as a safer target, as vaccines will be further along and schools will be starting back up.

Besides considering what makes sense from a business and cost perspective, the other thing being taken into account is what employees want. In the UK, new data shared by HR Grapevine reveals that 75% of office workers said they don't want to return to the office full-time once "normality" returns. A recent SHRM survey shared similar data, with more than half of American workers preferring to continue working remotely at least three days a week, while 68% of employers said they want employees in the office at least three days a week.  And Bloomberg just shared that U.S. job listings that tout working remotely as a perk have more than doubled in the past year, signaling that top companies will keep using the benefit to woo employees even as the pandemic winds down, according to job-search site Indeed.

Lastly, this New York Times article provides many different perspectives and examples of the many approaches being taken by different companies.  If you are looking to better understand the options and are considering what to do, it is worth the read. Salesforce was mentioned in the article as a company that has earned praise for its "flex" approach, which allows people to come to the office one to three days a week. The article also notes that "there are big regional differences. In large cities in Texas, more than a third of workers are back, while the New York, San Francisco and Chicago areas remain below 20 percent. Some of these regional differences might be explained by how people get to work." (drive vs. public transportation)

When it comes to the impact on global mobility programs, many are expecting that whatever work model is ultimately selected by their company will have a trickle-down impact on how the organization utilizes relocations and assignments. Some are anticipating an increase in commuter arrangements that allow people to come in as needed or on a prescribed manner, like a week per quarter or three days per month. Strategic companies are working with mobility leaders to explore new solutions for the new normal. Expect this to be a time of "out-of-the-box" innovative thinking when it comes to work models and global mobility programming, with solutions that will continue to evolve to balance the desires of employee needs with company needs.