Nowadays, everyone is wondering about what the future workplace will look like. The millennial generation is taking over the global workforce, and their preferences are giving birth to new trends. Remote work is becoming more relevant by the day in the business world. People who work remotely have the option of working from home or another place of their choice. However, work from home no longer appeals to everyone.
A team’s success depends on the collaborative mindset of each individual, coupled with the effectiveness of their processes. As companies grow, processes become more complex and intricate, calling for more effective means of collaboration. We know that collaboration is essential for effective business operations and employee productivity, regardless of company size or industry.
Gallup, the analytics and consulting firm, started measuring employee engagement in 2000. They published that employee engagement was at an all-time high of 34% in 2018. Although that is good news, we are far from finished when it comes to creating companies that are exciting and fulfilling places to work at (whether virtual or in-person). Gallup published a separate article exploring the reasons behind why the majority of U.S. employees are not engaged despite the gains.
The latest challenge for organizations of all sizes is thinking about how to build the office of the future. Now that many employees are either considering working remotely or in a hybrid setting permanently, business leaders struggle to envision an office that works for everyone. The office of the future will surely be more expansive than previous models, with technology and processes that set all employees up for success regardless of when and where they are working.
Driving collaboration and instant communication through tools and technology seems unnatural and counter-intuitive. However, the onset of COVID-19 has brought previously unimaginable work scenarios to life - Enterprises with a technology-averse mindset were forced to learn and adapt to collaboration tools overnight. Work-From-Home (WFH), a once dreaded concept, became the savior for multiple businesses - big and small.
Remote work has existed for decades as an alternative to the traditional in-office work environment. When it first became a viable option—people have been working remotely since the dawn of email in 1971 and before via telephone—distributed work was often met with trepidation by companies and employees alike. In recent years, however, working remotely, “working from home,” and other similar terms have become commonplace.
One of the best parts of my job is how diverse my team is. As the Head of Revenue Marketing at Asana, the people I work with are spread across the globe and timezones. Even when everyone returns to the office, I’ll still have a distributed team with team members in the US, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Given the makeup of my team, I had a lot of experience managing a distributed team even before the world suddenly shifted to remote work.
The shift to remote work at the beginning of the pandemic took most of us by surprise. More than a year later, a return to office is finally in sight for many of us, but we know it won’t be as simple as unlocking the doors. For one thing, there will be a lot of doors. With offices in nine countries, the global Asana team will still be distributed even when we return to in-person collaboration.
