{"id":22147,"date":"2020-06-02T15:06:55","date_gmt":"2020-06-02T11:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/?p=22147"},"modified":"2020-06-02T15:06:55","modified_gmt":"2020-06-02T11:06:55","slug":"herman-miller-reveals-key-learnings-on-work-from-home-experience-and-factors-to-consider-as-people-return-to-the-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/herman-miller-reveals-key-learnings-on-work-from-home-experience-and-factors-to-consider-as-people-return-to-the-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"Herman Miller Reveals Key Learnings On Work From Home Experience And Factors To Consider As People Return To The Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"

From understanding the needs and challenges of people as they work from home to looking to future demands as people return to the workplace, what we\u2019re discovering now is the Good for Me, Challenging for We.\u00a0<\/strong>The \u2018we\u2019 parts of employee roles\u2014creativity, spontaneous interactions, and learning\u2014appear to be the activities that respondents are struggling with most under these new home working conditions. On the other hand, focused \u2018me\u2019 activities are faring much better. Arguably, this will come as no surprise.<\/p>\n

Success Defies Stereotypes where <\/strong>the digitally native Millennial demographic appears to be the one most challenged by COVID-19 work-from-home measures. We suspect that the majority of this group is struggling to find a dedicated workspace at home. Stacy Stewart \u2013 MEA Regional Director at Herman Miller said<\/em><\/strong>, \u201cBased on our global database, we know that employees under the age of 35 already attach a greater importance to things like learning from others and informal social interaction. Supporting these activities remotely is clearly more challenging as it\u2019s difficult to work in isolation if your team is highly collaborative. Additionally, many people working from home right now are relying on close personal bonds they already have with colleagues. For people who are newer to an organization, those bonds may not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking Beyond Working From Home (WFH)<\/strong>from an enterprise perspective, the vast majority of companies we speak with say that this work-from-home period has gone better than expected. Moving forward, the challenges on everyone\u2019s mind are, how will we reopen our physical workplaces while keeping people healthy and maintaining productivity? Safe, efficient return-to-workplace strategies are possible, if we focus both on smart near-term tactics and holistic, long-term solutions. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution\u2014Here are some factors to consider as people return to the workplace:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prioritize Holistic Community Measures: <\/strong>While it will be helpful to increase the physical space between workers, the reality is that workplaces are very fluid. We can separate desks by six feet or two meters, but we can\u2019t stop people from walking to a restroom or getting a coffee in a break room. For this reason, holistic policies like staggering work schedules and limiting the number of employees in a location are likely to be the most effective.<\/p>\n

Physical Controls <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 Reduce in-person interaction.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Limit or stop desk sharing.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Implement a rigorous reservation or desk cleaning regimen.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Make it mandatory for people to wear cloth face coverings.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Allow people to work from home as much as possible.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Require people to wash hands.
\n\u2013 Require people to stay home when sick.<\/p>\n

Design and Environmental Controls <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 Reduce density.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Consider physical barriers where necessary<\/p>\n

\u2013 Increase ventilation rates and percentage of circulating outdoor air.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Clean\/sanitize regularly.<\/p>\n

Administrative Controls <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2013 Redistribute responsibilities to reduce contact between individuals.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Use technology to facilitate communication.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Implement flexible work hours and meeting options.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Close facilities in accordance with government guidelines.<\/p>\n

Go with the Flow: <\/strong>Redesigning how people flow throughout a space can impact both the likely distance between people and the amount of time they spend in certain places, thereby improving safety. We believe this thinking could be helpful to a wider range of spaces during COVID-19, from manufacturing plants to hospitals and even offices.<\/p>\n

Use Data to Decide Who Goes Back First: <\/strong>Based on what we have learned from studying distributed teams and early COVID-19 data, you can determine which teams require the most in- person interaction, are least enabled from a technology perspective, and have the most at-home-work challenges. Prioritize helping these teams return to the workplace first.<\/p>\n

Embrace Safety and Serendipity <\/strong><\/p>\n

Rather than focusing on dividers, successful future workplaces will better weave in safety features that don\u2019t compromise workplace comfort and connectivity. Examples include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Improved air quality and ventilation <\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Increased surface and material cleanability through simplified design <\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Minimize the number of high-touch actions through gesture and voice control technologies, dynamic scheduling, and service on demand <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Design Physical Spaces Around Virtual Work<\/strong>: With the result of fewer in- person meetings and more video calls. With the advent of 1:1 virtual meeting technology, the dedicated video conferencing rooms many of us currently have will not always be required. Hence, its vital to design physical spaces around virtual work.<\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    From understanding the needs and challenges of people as they work from home to looking to future demands as people return to the workplace, what we\u2019re discovering now is the Good for Me, Challenging for We.\u00a0The \u2018we\u2019 parts of employee roles\u2014creativity, spontaneous interactions, and learning\u2014appear to be the activities that respondents are struggling with most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22148,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22149,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22147\/revisions\/22149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}