I spoke to 5 global enterprises about remote work last week

Here’s what they told me about their plans for the future

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Office space: All of them have $Billion real estate portfolios

All of them plan to cut it by atleast 50% and as much as 70%

Talent Access: The thing they are most interested in is access to talent

Rather than hiring the best person in a 30-mile radius of the office, they’ll hire the best person on the planet

Efficiency: Their concern about remote work post-pandemic was that productivity would slip

It’s increased. They now know remote work works

Remote Dilemma: A big concern is losing their best people through not giving their teams what they want

Each company plans to let people work from home 60-100% of the time

Time Together: When they do have time together they are focussed on experiences

Designing in person time to maximise value and social connection

Outcome Measurement: Switching from the KPI to judge performance to outcome will be huge

Measuring this is a big problem most are still searching for ways to solve

Avoid Burnout: They are seeing people burnout more frequently

Some will begin ordering time off on a monthly/quarterly basis to combat this

Office Return: None of them have any plans to return to the office at all

The assumption already is that they won’t respond in 2021

Talent Retention: Every company will continue to offer remote work post-Covid

They know they have to if they want to attract the best talent

Talent Decentralizing: People are moving further away from the office

A large proportion no longer live close enough to commute regularly

Collaboration Quality: They aren’t concerned about collaboration quality

Where physical relationships existed prior the quality is unaffected

They see a challenge where people have never met teams

Culture Changes: People who were quieter in the office are having more of an impact

That change in culture has led to more creativity and better communication in several companies

Information Security: This is growing in concern. Less of an issue when it was a reaction to what happens

Big issue as companies lean into remote work more

Injury Risk: Reports of back and neck pain as high at 60% of team members

They need to do something to combat this rapidly

Experience Quality: Companies want to do more to improve this

It’s been a huge focus in recent years while working onsite. Most companies are interested in ways to do this remotely

Leadership Change: Command and control no longer works – a change in leaderships style is needed

Empathetic leaders are thriving. The importance of checking in on your team the most important skill

Written Documentation: Building the organizational muscle of knowledge through documentation is of massive important

This will grow over time rather than leaving when an employee leaves

Increased Flexibility: 9-5 working is dying – companies have seen workers productivity rising when working when they want

The thing they are most interested in exploring are asynchronous ways of working

Childcare: Women are falling out of the workforce rapidly, and companies recognise they need to act to stop this now

They are thinking about ways they can help working parents with childcare

Why do these companies talk to us?

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