COVID Infections Counts Are Declining – Is It Time to Start Formal Work?

After a year of uncertainty, COVID numbers have finally begun to show signs of slowing down. The death rate, as well as the number of new cases per day is falling while the recovery rate is climbing. The trend has made many offices begin to question whether it may be time to reopen their office spaces and shift away from remote work. On one hand, we’re yearning to go back to the way things were and on the other, work from home may still be the safer option.

Advantages of Getting Back To Work from Office

• Easier Collaboration
• Balanced Home-Work Life
• Stronger Company Culture

Though there’s a lot that can be achieved by working from home, there’s a case to be made for getting back to the office as we once knew it. Let’s consider the 3 key factors in favor of restarting formal work.

Easier Collaboration

Work from home for individual tasks is great but when it comes to collaborative tasks or processes where individuals play different roles at various stages of the process, working remotely can be challenging. Even with emails and video calls, communication is stilted and processes can get slowed down. The quicker a company can get back to working from a common space post COVID, the smoother these processes can become.

Balanced Home-Work Life

Whether you look at it from the employee’s or the employer’s perspective neither is satisfied with the home-work balance when working from home. As an employer, until your team is at a place where their work can be monitored, managers will continue to feel that employees are using office time to complete day to day home tasks. On the other hand, employees feel that they are being forced to take on more tasks that eat into their family time.

Moving back to work from office mode will help redefine boundaries between home and office work. This helps satisfy employees and managers and improves the work-life balance.

Stronger Company Culture

Every organization wants loyal employees. Offering higher salaries alone may not be enough to achieve this. Organizations need to offer employees the right working experience. The ideal office culture is warm, friendly and helpful.

Building these bonds through a video or phone call is difficult. When new employees join the team, they need face-to-face meetings to build relationships. And, for this, you need a common office space.

Advantages of Waiting Just A Little While Longer

• Prioritized Employee Safety
• Maintained Productivity with Minimal Lags
• Minimized Operational Costs

Patience is a virtue not just for individuals but also for organizations. When you’ve waited for long, waiting a few more months may be a better idea than hurrying to reopen office spaces. The three key reasons for this are:

Prioritized Employee Safety

As mentioned above, companies need to work hard to retain their employee’s loyalty. In addition to interpersonal relationships, they also need to show compassion and understanding for the employee’s health and safety.

In the current scenario, commuting to and from the office can put individuals as well as their families at risk. A single sick person at the office can infect many others. Thus, it may be prudent to let employees continue with remote work for another 6 months until the situation improves.

Maintained Productivity with Minimal Lags

It’s taken a while but employees have been able to find ways to be productive. We’ve overcome many of the challenges in our way and there’s a certain workflow that has been put into place. Shifting back to working from the office again will disrupt these procedures. Thus, productivity may slow down for a while.

Also Read: Should Companies Mandate Their Employees to Take COVID-19 Vaccine?

You also need to understand that with people commuting to work daily, there’s a risk they may fall ill and spread the infection to others. If this were to happen, tasks could come to a standstill and harm the company’s bottom line.

Minimized Operational Costs

One of the biggest advantages of working remotely is the reduced operational costs. With offices shut, utility costs such as electricity, heating, etc. are dramatically lowered. Getting people back to work is not as simple as just opening the doors.

Sanitization procedures at all entrances need to be implemented to protect employees. This is an added cost. In addition, utility costs such as electricity and air conditioning will once again jump high.

Within a year, hopefully, everyone will be vaccinated against COVID and the post COVID world will be much safer. The need for additional sanitization may be reduced and hence, businesses may be better positioned to optimize operational costs while ensuring employee safety.

Finding a Middle Ground

Everyone has their own opinions of whether to get back to working from their offices or not. At the moment there’s no clear winner. What is known is that we need to adapt once again and find a middle ground.

Some offices are bringing their employees back in phases with office days restricted to twice or thrice a week while others are only calling back those people who are essential. Another alternative would be to move away from traditional centralized offices to a network of managed offices spread across the city.

Managed offices are flexible, easy to scale and can be customized to match your company branding and vision. If you’re looking for such a managed office in Delhi, Noida or Gurgaon, contact The Office Pass (TOP) at 8999 828282.

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