As employers experiment with bringing their employees back to the office, leadership must ensure that when they return, workplaces are both productive and safe. McKinsey & Co. recommends that organizations take the following steps to reimagine how work is done and what the future role of the office will be.

  1. Reconstruct how work is done – Identify the most important processes for each major area of your business and re-envision them completely. Reflect on the interactions, practices, and rituals that promote the organization’s values and culture.
  2. Decide ‘people to work’ or ‘work to people’ – As organizations reconstruct how they work, they can make decisions about which roles must be carried out in person, and to what degree.
  3. Redesign the workplace to support organizational priorities – Technology will play a central role in enabling employees to return to office buildings and to work safely.
  4. Resize the footprint creatively – Take a fresh look at how much and where space is required and how it fosters collaboration, productivity, culture, and the work experience.

Reinventing the way an organization works requires transformational thinking. If done well, the end result will be what every good company desires: a safe environment where people can enjoy their work, collaborate with their colleagues, and achieve the objectives of their organization.

 

Reference: McKinsey & Co. (2020, June 8) B. Boland, A. De Smet, R. Palter, and A. Sanghvi: Reimagining the Office and Work Life After COVID-19