As the pandemic kicked in, the home office opportunity every employee longed for became a must and oh boy, everything changed. Working from the wardrobe or kitchen for 8ish hours every day is not exactly how we imagined freedom before however, at the end of the day the lockdown provided some priceless experiences and learning points for both employers and employees. So how should we prepare ourselves and our offices for the brave new post-COVID era?

The traditional office is a place for collaboration and team buildings

The main change that the past few months brought is the brand-new role of the traditional office. The lockdown showed us the fact that employees can actually be productive remotely and spending precious hours of our day with commuting might not be the best idea in terms of efficiency.

If the home office option works fine for your team, the physical office is just a nice plan B for the employees that need a quiet place or a refreshing change of environment. It also might be a place for social activities in the long run, yet in our specific case, COVID-19 made us reconsider our IseeQ team buildings and move them outside.

It is easy to see that maintaining a huge office as a plan B is not the most profitable idea if you plan with a long-term home office however, we strongly suggest you level up your working-from-home game before cutting all strings with your beloved office provider.

The home office takes over, but what should it look like?

Don’t forget that “office” is an important part of the home office thus working from home is easier if the employee has the equipment for it.

First, there are obvious essentials – for example, laptops- that you simply must provide for your team, and on the other hand, there are some things that employers usually forget. If you plan to operate from home after the pandemic too it’s time to step out of the emergency firefighting mode and approach the situation with a more reasonable mindset. Just try to imagine working all day from the couch or bed while the kids are fighting around you versus working from a nice corner with a small table, comfortable chair, and noise-canceling headphones. These scenarios have totally different moods and they usually provide totally different outputs at the end of the day.

So, what you should provide? Here at IseeQ, we try to make working from home as comfortable as possible, so we created this small checklist based on the previous needs of our team, but of course, you should customize it to your own team’s needs, since in this case flexibility is key.

• -Laptop
• -Monitor
• -Comfortable chair
• -Upgraded mobile internet data plan
• -Headset to improve call qualities
• -Stationery

The takeaway here is simple: Do not try to cut costs on items that increase your workforce’s productivity, instead, consider these items as an investment.

The importance of keeping a team together increases

The other huge aspect you should consider if you try to maximize team productivity in this less office-dependent new world is the team itself. The exceptional output often needs a great deal of work that only motivated and loyal employees can provide on a day-to-day basis when there is no angry boss checking their screen every ten minutes.  To build this loyalty and motivation both formal and informal communications are crucial, just as team activities. Here at IseeQ, we are using the following methods to keep teamwork possible and team spirit alive:

• -Daily remote stand-ups
• -Monthly evaluation meetings (before we had them at the end of every Q)
• -More frequent calls -saying things can be more personal than writing, but take care, it could be more time-consuming!
• -Occasional online gaming team building
• -Occasional informal calls
• -Teambuilding events outside (picnic, hiking, etc)

The big conclusion

The pandemic, among many other things, showed us that the office is not a must-have part of our day-to-day life, but a nice extension.

If you can level up your home office game and provide the needed equipment and motivation for your team to keep them efficient, you can consider a hybrid working model for the future, when working from home is the standard and the office is the backup option for your teammates who prefer working from a more formal environment.