Optimism for the Future of Work

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2020 saw a dramatic and rapid change in how we work – with over ~40% of employed people shifting to partial or full remoting working and the largest rise in new businesses being set up since 2011 (+12% vs 2019). From our conversations with tech start-ups, scale-ups, and disruptors we are optimistic for the long-term future of work, and excited by the opportunities we see arising from these pandemic-forced shifts.

Whilst the clearest trend resulting from the pandemic has been an acceleration in working from home, the future of work was already a hot topic for many businesses, with previously emergent trends also being rapidly accelerated. The entry of millennials and more recently Gen Z into the workplace brought with it a new set of attitudes and expectations on what the role of the employer is, which has slowly been shifting the packages and benefits employers offer over the last decade. A particular area of shift has been around the importance and priority of employee wellbeing and employees’ view on the extent to which an employer should be viewed as a safety net. With 68% of people pre pandemic stating company wellness schemes as a significant factor in accepting a job offer. The pandemic has shone a spotlight on how employers treat employees, really drawing out those companies who have put employees first, risking their bottom line vs those who have pushed through potentially unsafe and stressful working conditions. Going forward this increased focus on wellbeing offers employers an opportunity to differentiate themselves, and use these changing expectations to attracti, motivate and retain their employees.

Working-from-home though for office workers has by far been the biggest shift and whilst now feels normal for those that can, it came a massive rupture to office work. According to The Economist report, by spring 2020 60% of Americans worked from home, up from 5% before the pandemic. Many of those will return to the office, in some capacity in the coming months, with varying levels of excitement. People at home are working longer hours but report higher levels of happiness and productivity.

The picture is, of course, more complex. Many have continued to work in factories or warehouses. Also, where you are matters. At the time of writing, the UK is experiencing some post-pandemic-normality, but Coronavirus continues to devastate India and other countries.

People’s experience through the pandemic has been deeply individual as well, and so, future design plans must consider the variation in experience: where and how people live and work, the complexity of their role and the network they have built to get the job done. Whilst some will feel valued and trusted by working independently; others may have anxiety and loneliness if office-life was also social-life or they don’t have the informal support network to rely on.

Additionally, for many fast growth scaleups up to 50% of the organisation could have been on-boarded during the pandemic and have not physically met anyone yet. Enabling some form of integration will be a key part of the plan for the next stage and facing into the realities of a globally distributed workforce.

So, now is a good time to take stock of where you are.

As we emerge from the pandemic, we are at a crucial point. Operating model changes that have been forced in the past year must now be intentionally decided upon and we challenge leaders to ask themselves the most important question: Can you use this opportunity to fundamentally improve your organisations design and effectiveness, to deliver strategic and customer outcomes better than ever?

Bold leaders have a real opportunity to lay a foundation for future culture and growth. As well as considering the balance of home and office work, these include attracting previously unreachable talent pools if physical proximity is no longer a prerequisite and border boundaries are blurring.

Whatever the plan, it will need to be supported by the right infrastructure and governance, as well as employee retention and well-being schemes. It’s to that we will turn attention next.

Top Three Tips to approach planning for Future Organisation Design:

Assess what happened. Map out the journey you have been on - what worked and what didn’t - and assess how individuals are feeling now about the organisational design.
Analyse what that means. What do you want to keep? Be ruthless about what appears to work. Remember, you may be trading on stored-up capital around social bonds, for example, and relationships (internal and external) may need to be re-built or built from scratch.
Lay the new path. Put down structures - business units, communications channels, organisation charts. Overlay productivity, innovation, culture, talent, and well-being needs. How would a return to the office impact these dimensions positively and negatively? What is the office set up that you need to deliver this design?

Who are we?

Spring Partners was founded in September 2020 by Nicki Lynch and Joanne Thompson to be a new kind of consultancy purpose-built to work at pace for mission-driven tech start-ups, scaleups and disruptors. Our clients are working on key societal issues like democratising work experience, creating a sustainable fashion revolution or improving the collection rate of payments for small businesses to ease cash-flow tensions.

With backgrounds in consultancy at Bain & Company and experience as CEOs of tech start-ups, our focus is the commercial, operational and strategic challenges that come with success and fast growth.

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