Re-Entry: Weighing What’s Best for Your People and Business?

Tri Nguyen Photography Design: Uneebo Office Design

Prior to 2020, the global workforce was amidst a work revolution–one where the traditional office was becoming decentralized and employees worked and lived in different time zones. This transition was accelerated by the pandemic, forcing employees across the world to leave the office to work from home indefinitely.

Now, after a year of creating new workflows, communication channels, team-building tools and culture initiatives based on working remotely…we are starting to see the pros and cons of a fully remote office and team. So, now what?

As vaccines have become available and Covid rules relaxed, founders and operators are beginning to contemplate the “new normal”. This is why fellow leadership coaches Micah Baldwin, Janine Davis and I hosted a Clubhouse chat with Kat Cole, Angel Investor and former COO of Focus Brands, Lindsey Kampmeier, VP of Culture and People at Ordermark, Dave Fano, Founder and CEO of Teal, and Kelly Battelle, Chief People Officer at GumGum to discuss the future of work and the hurdles and opportunities of re-entry. Below are some highlights from our conversation combined with insights and suggestions based on the work FounderForward is doing with our clients around this topic.

In line with a handful of surveys recently published, our panel leaned toward Hybrid being the route that most employees want and most companies choose. We noted, however, that companies in the tech ecosystem, like software companies, are the most likely candidates to adopt a fully distributed workforce — if they haven’t already.

For companies thinking about remaining fully remote, our panelists surfaced the following pros and cons:

As noted, data shows a Hybrid model is desirable to most workers, as it provides the best of both worlds while reduces the cons listed above. Our panel noted that this will be the trickiest to implement in the short-term, as infrastructures to support in-office and remote work need to be coordinated and streamlined. Dave Fano, formerly Chief Growth Officer at WeWork, shared his view that co-working spaces will make a comeback and be stronger than ever as companies won’t need the same square footage for rotating in-office days. This jibes with what we are hearing from clients who are beginning to think about the amount of space they would need to rotate employee workdays, hold large meetings and host events to keep the team bonded and culture strong. In addition to renting space at co-working facilities, we also have a number of clients speaking with other startups about sharing rent and splitting in-office days.

As you are weighing what the next 12 months and beyond look like for your workforce and workplace, here are some important questions to ponder:

1. How will we ensure our team has solid support in terms of connection to their managers/company leaders?
2. What up-leveling does our management team need in terms of skills and tools?
3. If Hybrid, will management think/feel differently about people they see in-person vs. those they do not?
4. How fixed versus flexible should our work schedules be?
5. Which of our policies and procedures need permanent revision for our new normal?
6. How do we sustain/evolve our company culture for our new normal?
7. What changes do we need to make to our overall Communication Architecture?
8. How do we handle employees that don’t want to come back into an office, including those that moved away?
9. What are the new benefits we need to offer employees in this new environment? (Ex. co-working memberships, home office allowance, mental health/overall well-being, childcare, etc.)
10. What DEI issues exist that may be exacerbated by this choice? What DEI issues might arise with this choice?
11. Do we have the right tools across all areas to support remote or Hybrid work? (Our panel recommended Loom for asynchronous communication and Miro and Mural for online visualization and white-boarding tools)

Of course, all the above should be weighed in the context of how this past year has actually been for your employees and the company overall. As our HR experts from OrderMark and GumGum shared, they have run a number of surveys and are in constant discussion, particularly via 1-on-1’s, with regards to how employees are doing and what their needs are. Below is a handful of suggested questions for an anonymous employee survey aimed at helping leadership with decision-making, as well as surfacing areas for improvement in transitioning into the new normal.

As Kat Cole highlighted in our Clubhouse conversation, companies need to think about (re) designing continuous feedback loops and be prepared to iterate, iterate, iterate. One specific suggestion she gave is something that is commonplace in the food retail industry: MMDD. As outlined in this great article, asking your employees to note “What Made My Day Difficult?” provides a list of pain points and areas of friction that often are easily solved by leadership, but that the team doesn’t necessarily have the ability to fix themselves or address at scale.

Every company and culture is unique. There is no one right answer for how to move forward. Coming to what is the best option for your company will require getting curious and honest with yourself and your team. We are still in the early innings of a new work paradigm and change is the only true guarantee right now. As any expert in change management will tell you, over-communicate with your team and ask them to do the same with you. Through change and challenge comes growth and opportunity.

Suggested, related reading:
Like It Or Not, Re-entry is Here — by Janine Davis
In-Person vs. Onscreen — by Fred Wilson