When something has been considered the status quo for a long time, it’s often met with resistance to change. Yet in the last few years, we’ve seen a global shift in working practices that has been, by and large, adopted ubiquitously. It’s fair to say when it comes to working, hybrid is here to stay. The pandemic wasn’t the sole cause; it only accelerated what was already possible thanks to advances in digital workspace technology. It has given rise to an entirely new way of organising the workforce – welcome to the world of the virtual floor plan. We’ve covered this in detail as part of a new research study with Vanson Bourne and you can read the report The Virtual Floorplan: New Rules for a New Era of Work here. In the meantime, I’ve summarised some of the key findings here, and how we along with some of our customers have adjusted.
Building a dynamic, global workforce
There are some individuals who, when they speak, we ought to listen to. One of those people is Bill Gates who recently said he believes most of our meetings will happen in a virtual space within two to three years. This may seem far-fetched but, Bill has previous when it comes to accurate predictions and data from Europe today is backing this up.
New research from the CIPD shows employers expect that the proportion of people working from home on a regular basis once the crisis is over will increase to 37% compared to 18% before the pandemic. The Guardian reported in June that Downing Street is ‘considering legislating to make working from home the default option by giving employees the right to request it’. More recently new research released by Savills, ‘UK Flex Office Perspectives’ claims that demand for flexible office space in the UK is recovering fast. The report found that demand for flexible offices is expected to recover to more than 10% of overall UK office demand in 2022, thanks to “increased appetite” for workplace flexibility. Parts of mainland Europe are going even further. Portugal, was the first country in the region to set in motion a temporary legal “regime” for remote working at the start of the pandemic and has again taken the lead on this matter, recently passing legislation that gives workers new entitlements relating to out of hours contact with work and the provision of expenses incurred by home working. In the Middle East, six in ten UAE businesses have brought in flexible hours for workers, according to The National. How, when and where commerce is conducted throughout Europe is at the centre of the region’s future of work policy and, as our report outlines, we’re on the cusp of some major changes.
Time for tribes
The rise of the virtual floorplan is rewriting the rulebook when it comes to what constitutes success for employees, leaders, and teams. According to our research, most respondents (70%) said the transition to remote work has left them feeling more connected to and valued by their colleagues. This has given rise to newly defined ‘tribes,’ or groups of employees who connect and interact during work hours and socially. It is these new tribes that are affecting change within organisations and the difference in impact between high-growth organisations and underperforming ones is stark. When looking at the consequences of this digital tribalism, almost half (45%) of high-growth organisations cited increased collaboration and high growth (43%). This figure drops to 28% and 27% respectively for underperforming organisations.
When it comes to our critical services, this is vital. Indeed, our work with the Antwerp Police Department is a great example of how technology can be used to best connect disparate and remote teams and individuals. It needs to provide pertinent information to police officers on their way to an intervention, in a flexible and efficient way so they are better informed to deal with the incident. To do this, Antwerp Police Department developed a new digital platform and app: FOCUS, which combines the 20 to 40 search sources and databases of various police departments, other city services and emergency services. As a result, response times have improved dramatically. For example, a response to a high-priority incident is now just under three minutes, before it was eight to ten minutes.
Cohesion has never been more critical
The report underlines that remote work is clearly here to stay: 92% of respondents say at least some employees are now working remotely. As a result, the research uncovered that leadership must negotiate a delicate balancing act when it comes to the successful implementation of a virtual floorplan. They must provide employees the freedom to do their work where, when, and how they want while ensuring productivity and security standards are met. But this will not be without a challenge. While onboarding new employees to remote or hybrid positions has gone better than expected, many leaders reported high employee turnover. Indeed, 79% believe their organisations need to adopt new tools and policies to help here. A further 77% think that the current recruitment processes require better screening for collaboration outside the traditional office environment. The combination of a hyper-competitive environment and move to virtual means that efforts to drive integration and cohesion within organisations has never been more critical.
Nowhere is this more aptly demonstrated than with SGB-SMIT Group, the largest manufacturer of power transformers in Europe which has doubled its global footprint in five years. Working with VMware the company’s multi-cloud approach enables individuals and teams across four continents to come together. With seamless access to business-critical apps and tools, SGB-SMIT Group’s culture of collaborative innovation is flourishing.
Advantage in the war for talent
Given the unique security challenges that come with the virtual floorplan, most organisations (84%) have implemented systems on remote devices to monitor for security threats. However, many also say they’ve put systems in place to surveil employee productivity (70%). Indeed, 77% of all respondents agreed their organisation has a right to monitor their productivity but businesses are treading a fine line when it comes to certain policies undermining hybrid work culture. Looking ahead, it will be the leaders who trust their employees to be, and stay, productive that will enjoy a lasting advantage in the increasingly competitive war for talent.
One trend the report uncovered is that no matter the position or organisation, security risks have increased substantially because of remote work. With less direct control over apps, devices, and networks, IT is navigating a world where security is everyone’s responsibility. Despite the immense benefits of embracing the virtual floorplan, 75% believe data sensitivity has made IT more cautious when it comes to embracing remote working long-term while 58% of organisations can’t let employees work in other countries due to concerns around data protection.
When it comes to security, a good example is Asklepios, one of Germany’s largest private hospital operators. Asklepios worked with VMware to overcome silos to improve communication and data exchange for its staff while ensuring robust security measures across its numerous devices, apps and systems. Its staff can now work from anywhere and its 2.6 million patients benefit from excellent standards of personalised treatment and medical research.
Remote revolutionising work, starting at home
Global Workplace Analytics predicts that 70% of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month by 2025 and with the corresponding rise in anywhere working, it means building a strong distributed, global workforce of the future is more relevant than ever before and revolutionising the way we think about work. It’s something that we are dedicated to realising at VMware.
Examples include our Future of Work initiative, which enables us to be able to source the brightest talent throughout the world. This access to new talent will increase the diversity of our employee base and drive innovation and new perspectives. We are also re-imagining our real estate portfolio for the future state by creating regional collaboration and innovation hubs in conjunction with more than 32,000 personal office spaces. We have expanded our fitness reimbursement to provide a much more holistic view of wellbeing, including emotional, physical, financial and community health. Finally, we are committed to sustainable innovation and believe that a distributed workforce, where employees have the flexibility to work remotely, will positively impact the 1.2B metric ton reduction of our carbon footprint we’ve already achieved since 2003.
Looking ahead, the winners in this brave, new world will be those that embrace the power of the virtual floorplan by enabling and encouraging digital connections, while supporting this with visible, transparent leadership to attract and retain talent. Provided this is delivered securely and in a way that works with, rather than against, employee behaviour.
