Are companies learning the lessons of remote working during COVID-19? Fiona Galea Debono explores the new approaches to ‘going to the office’

Office headquarters are starting to be replaced by “social meeting spaces” but it is not yet a work-from-home revolution post-COVID-19 – some local companies are experiencing the benefits of returning to the office while others are somewhere in between.

Brand consultancy BRD WGN is one example of “remote first”, with its 28 staff teleworking and its post-pandemic office transforming into “a place to call home if we need”.

With a forecasted 25% utilisation of its workspace, the company has closed off one floor, opening the rest to ‘physical’ collaborative meetings a couple of times a week.

Partner Chris Knights has created clear guidelines for four scenarios – from total lockdown to the vaccine phase – and once invoked, employees know exactly what to do.

Going all the way

Internationally, tech companies are leading the charge towards remote working: Twitter’s staff need never come back to the office if they do not want to and half Facebook’s employees could be working remotely in a decade.

Locally, Raketech is also going all the way, but COVID-19 is not the reason for remote work. “It merely confirmed we are ready for the next step and accelerated our transformation,” said HR director Martin Schillig.

But although remote work plays a major role in its future setup, the online affiliate and content marketing company, based in St Julian’s, also understands its 135 employees – “social beings” – need human interaction and connection.

Raketech will, therefore, still have physical workspaces available for them to collaborate, create and socialise.

“The main difference from how we were working pre-COVID-19 is that we will not have an actual HQ anymore, but a social meeting space, where employees want to come to work, rather than have to come.

“Once you step away from the idea of a normal office and start thinking of what you actually want out of the physical space, you realise there are so many better options,” Schillig said.

Once you step away from the idea of a normal office and start thinking of what you actually want out of the physical space, you realise there are so many better options

“Let’s not be naïve,” he also warned. “Working with remote employees scattered around the world brings many challenges, so the basics should be sorted before jumping into something you cannot handle.”

The difficulties of attracting talent to Malta, the high cost of living, increasing labour costs and high turnover rates have been discussed for years in the industry, and a distributed workforce addresses many of these issues, Schillig continued.

Other benefits include access to a bigger pool of talent, allowing for better and faster recruitment, and cost savings from not operating huge HQs.  

‘Satellite’ workstation

In the wake of COVID-19, Deloitte Malta is also considering the reduced use of its head office in Mrieħel and having “satellite workstations” in key localities to facilitate life for staff.

Advisory partner Raphael Alosio has questioned whether all 450 employees need to be there – and the answer is no.

The premises could be sublet or turned into shared facilities – a concept that is gaining momentum overseas and was previously dismissed. Since COVID-19 and with utilisation of meeting and training rooms down to around 25 per cent, the option is also being considered as a quarter of staff returned to head office this week.

It will be a balance between remote and office work for Deloitte, but this will not happen overnight, Aloisio said, looking at around 18 months until the new model is adopted.

Back to work

Another scenario has unfolded at Farsons Group, with most people returning to the office as the crisis receded and the company discussed the way forward.

Some employees have asked to maintain their COVID-19 arrangement until September, while those who already had a work-from-home agreement have retained it.

While employees appreciated remote working during the pandemic, many also missed the office environment; the opportunity to chat and share ideas on both business and personal life, said Group HR manager Antoinette Caruana.

Operations also probably missed out on the synergies of the actual work environment, where people get together, discuss and are aware of developments, she continued.

Parents found it challenging to juggle homeschooling and job responsibilities and are eager for some ‘normality’ by returning to work. 

Most felt it was more difficult to ‘cut off’ from work when at home, while some would appreciate a mix of working from home and the office.

A major change required for successful remote working involves management, Caruana believes. Some may be uncomfortable with their team working from home as they feel they cannot monitor their time properly. But the key is to focus on results and outcomes – not merely hours.

The flexible approach

A ‘remote first’ mentality is also the direction GO is actively moving towards. Its employees will “definitely not” be returning to the office on a full-time basis.

Following the COVID-19 experience, the telecommunications company is adopting a flexible approach, where employees are free to go to the office two to three times a week or work full-time from home. It is also opting for remote meetings and events, which have proven to be more efficient and effective.

The outbreak was the “perfect opportunity” to test more widely remote working that was already part of the GO culture, the company said.

An internal survey gave encouraging results, with many staff members reporting increases in productivity, time saved from not having to commute and the freedom to work in their most productive hours.

Seize the change

Undoubtedly, teleworking works more for some companies than for others, but none should throw away this unique opportunity that has presented itself post-COVID-19 to actually have the conversation, advises HR consultant Mikela Fenech Pace.

What have we learnt from the teleworking experience during the pandemic?

One thing all companies would have learnt is that there is no stopping radical change if circumstances dictate it.

It also showed how effective companies can be when looking at solutions rather than problems. More importantly, it has taught us to take risks and be spontaneous, which is hugely important in today’s business environment. 

How can companies benefit from adopting flexible measures?

It would be interesting to take stock, in a year or two, of companies that have harnessed the opportunity COVID-19 presented them with and those that quickly returned to pre-pandemic work environments. The latter may find it difficult to attract the best talent due to the inability to keep up with a changing workforce.

It would be a great pity if business leaders pass off this opportunity that could be key to the regeneration of their businesses most of which have taken a major hit

Today, expectations and needs at work are very different because the difference has now been experienced and it is always hard to change back.

Shifting a workforce to teleworking, provided the job allows it, is looking at reconstructing the workforce. This will require a shift from hours to projects, which is not a new concept but necessitates a new generation of managerial skills.

Adaptability and openness will be key. Employees are generally averse to changes that may threaten their comfort zones, so this window of opportunity should be maximised as valuable change can really be achieved.

Can Malta’s work culture readily adapt to this?

Malta’s work culture depends on its business leaders, who have, to date, feared this change. The more open the leadership team, the better equipped their businesses will be to take on a post-COVID-19 work environment and workforce.

It would be a great pity if business leaders pass off this opportunity that could be key to the regeneration of their businesses most of which have taken a major hit.

What are the pitfalls? And do you envisage a return to business as usual?

My suspicion is that a good number of companies have already gone back to business as usual without stopping to analyse the implications of the last few months on staff attitudes and engagement.

The greatest pitfall of a stand like this is that leaders run the risk of alienating themselves from the true needs of their employees, which, after all, are really what will make the difference to their businesses and their bottom lines in the coming months.

Back to the future of work

Before the Industrial Revolution, there was no working week, no nine-to-five and no fixed workplace for many. Now, post-COVID-19, could this be to the way things will look as the world emerges from lockdown?

It may seem that the pandemic has revolutionised working life, but in some ways it has simply come full circle, according to The Economist.

What is certain is that it has raised questions about commuting to work every day and the need for expensive office space, although, globally, there has not yet been a rush to sell office real estate, and it looks like this is set to survive the pandemic in some form.

The modern office emerged along with the Industrial Revolution when people migrated to cities to look for work in factories. And 200 years later, despite the rise of the internet, its basic function has persisted.

We’re shifting back to people being paid for their function and not for the time they turn up to work

“We made the leap into seeing that people could communicate via electronic means, using e-mail and shared documents, without realising that it did not mean everyone had to be in the same place,” says The Economist. Following 20 years of the internet, office design is only just starting to reflect the real possibilities of that change.

The “uncomfortable truth” about offices is that they are expensive and inefficient to run, and the way forward may be less of a prison cell and more of a collaborative area.

The proportion of Americans working from home full-time has gone from one in 50 to more than one in three, and the shift towards remote working could have far-reaching consequences, including on the way time is viewed.

“If the office ceases to be the centre of working life, the idea of working set hours would become less meaningful. We’re shifting back to people being paid for their function and not for the time they turn up to work,” The Economist believes.

But the global experiment in remote working has also shown that corporate culture and creativity are hard to foster online and that it is hard to build an esprit de corps in a company for people who have not met.