Linked: Returning to the office in 2021 will introduce a tricky new power dynamic
I was having a discussion on Twitter about this recently, that there are people who want to go back to the office, and there are those, like me, who worked remotely before the pandemic and have no interest in ever working in an office. Figuring out how to account for all of the possible preferences will be key attracting top talent, in my humble opinion. But, how many places will be successful at doing that? This article asks a similar question:
“But as vaccines become more widely available, and companies begin calling employees back to the office, the threat of an uneven playing field is rearing its head once more. Few managers will be able to justify demanding everyone’s presence back in the office, even when it’s safe to do so. The result will probably be the proliferation of distributed teams: some in the office, some remote. How will we handle those differences?”
Again, the key seems to be having really good management in place, the kind of leaders who can navigate the “hybrid” approach successfully. But, as I have posited elsewhere, how many organizations have that kind of effective management, and how many will simply go back to the easy road, and miss out on all of the talent that is either not local, or not willing to work in an office fulltime? And how much better off will competitors who are able to attract that talent be?
I honestly think 2020 is starting to show us which organizations have good leadership in place, 2021-22 will cement that in place. The ones who have learned how to manage a team that is both local, and remote, and take those lessons forward, will have a huge advantage over the ones who view 2020 as a temporary blip to overcome, before they get to go back to managing the way they always did before. Those kinds of leaders will hold companies back from finding and retaining the best talent. Is that what your company is going to need going forward?
https://qz.com/work/1949542/how-managers-can-prepare-for-a-return-to-the-office/
