June 6, 2022 BY WorkSocial Press and Editorial
As human beings, we tend to have short-term memories and forget our past. Therefore the adage, “Those who cannot remember their history are condemned to repeat it,” is taught to all of us as schoolchildren. This advice is just as applicable to the corporate world as it highlights the importance of understanding the evolution of processes, systems, and overall work culture philosophies. Most young people today cannot believe that as recently as twenty years ago, most companies kept physical records of all their documents and often had huge rooms dedicated to this need alone. Similarly, individuals of a younger age have trouble believing that until the advent of computers, the vast majority of jobs in the world involved blue-collar work, meaning that physical labor was the most critical aspect of one’s job. Think about one of the most common blue-collar jobs you can imagine: working on an assembly line in a factory. In this sort of scenario, a worker was literally a resource that was only of value when they were physically present and performing their duties on the line. The concept of work-from-home had no meaning because any and all work could only be performed on the factory floor. However, even with the advent of the computer age, when jobs started to become less physical-labor-intensive, the idea of working from the comfort of your home was far from a reality. Being physically present at your workplace was not only expected, but attendance was mandatory. The human resources division would quickly pull you up if you missed more than a few days. The pandemic changed all of this; as individuals were forced to work from home, the entire world realized that maybe there was a more innovative and better way to work.
The pandemic led to many unforeseen situations, and the corporate world had to adapt quickly. However, several unique changes took place that will undoubtedly leave an indelible mark on the future of global work culture. As employees started to return to their workplaces, employers saw the benefit of creating hybrid work models, where individuals could come into the office on some days and continue to work from home on other days. The result was a win-win situation for everyone…employers saw that there was a visible increase in productivity, creativity, drive, employee satisfaction, and so on; employees realized that they could create a much healthier work-life balance and, in so doing, find a much deeper sense of purpose, and a much higher degree of mental health. In essence, the human resources department shifted its philosophy from being ‘resource oriented’ to being ‘relations oriented.’ Expressed in simple words, this means that HR departments across the world saw a marked shift from thinking about how to get the most out of a given employee resource and instead focusing on other things such as employee wellness and satisfaction. By doing this, it was observed that the outcomes were better for the employees and the company. It is simple, if you think about it, right? Happier employees make for better workers, and better workers produce better quality work at a better efficiency, which only leads to better outcomes and profits for the company.
Another significant consequence of the ascendance of the hybrid working model has been that companies do not have to invest huge sums of money into physical locations any more. Since employees only need a physical location to work out of on selective times and dates, the eco-system of co-working spaces has grown by leaps and bounds in order to meet this need. In times past, when a company said that they were shutting down their physical office space, it was something that spelled doom, and usually implied that the company was about to go out of business, or had in fact, already gone out of business. Today, when a company shuts its physical office, it is usually a sign that they are moving from a human resources model to a human relations model, where they value their employees work-life balance and mental well-being. Co-working spaces like Worksocial have been at the forefront of this trend, and are always looking to help organisations transition into the new age of corporate work, with the hybrid work model being of utmost importance.
If you are running your own business, or if you work for the HR department of a company, you will surely have noticed the trends that we have discussed in the article today. As is always the case in history, those who see change coming, and embrace it, rather than try to run away from it, are the ones who are most successful in the long run. So if you have not already transitioned your company’s physical location to one of the co-working spaces available in your area, consider doing so sooner rather than later, and make sure that you are on the right side of the history of corporate evolution.
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