At our recent Future of Work Forums we heard conflicting accounts of employee attitudes to working from home vs returning to the office.

Some FMCG company leaders reported employees pleading for a return to the office. Some found their workforce had no inclination to return any time soon - a recent poll in one suggested 86% of the workforce wanted to work from home indefinitely.

Whilst some leaders have implemented a full return for all, making offices socially distanced and secure, others have started successful rota systems where each employee attends certain set ‘office’ days.

Others still had opened offices on a completely flexible ‘come-as-you-wish-basis’, in some instances only to sit in them all alone as workers stay away.

The remainder are adopting a wait-and-see-what-the-New-Year-brings approach and are delaying any firm decisions until we get through Winter.

However, now that we’ve been told by the scientific community that even with a vaccine coronavirus will likely always be with us, and “we need to learn to live with it”, is it time for leaders to actively implement a Future of Work strategy?

Is it time to personalise working contracts and conditions to the individual’s preference?
Will part WFH form the basis of every employee contract?
How will companies protect their ‘company culture’ in this new world?
Is work an activity, irrelevant of the place and is it up to the employee to make it so and decide where that activity takes place?

If you are the leader in an organisation, and would like to take part in our next Future of Work Forum in November, to share thoughts and experiences with your peers of what can currently be a lonely job at the top, come join us to gain insight into how others are managing this strange and revolutionary time.

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