Telework | Teleworking is evolving towards the liquid office: “It’s the end of the face-to-face”

If the Polish philosopher Zygmunt Bauman dared to try to “liquefy” everything, even love, it was only a matter of time before his concept of liquid company It has also reached the world of work. In a fluid world where technology makes it possible to connect the two ends of the planet in real time, spend 40 hours a week in the same chair makes less and less sense. The pandemic and successive confinements have accelerated a process of change that has opened the door to new scenarios such as the liquid officea model that goes beyond teleworking.

In this way, in a hybrid model like that of the liquid office, it’s not just about agreeing on a certain number of days per week to work from home or the office, but rather it’s the type of work the employee has to do that dictates at any time where it develops. The worker gains in conciliation and autonomy at the same time as the company softens its dynamics and its resources to adapt to the digital world in the cloud.

“It’s the end of face to face. We can deny it, but the new generations will not always want to work in person and with a fixed schedule & rdquor;, summarizes Gema García, co-founder of the consulting firm Movingin an interview with THE SPAIN NEWSPAPER. “Ideally one day you can work from home if you need to focus or reconcile with your personal life; another that you go to the office for a teamwork or a reflection; and there are even companies that also offer the possibility of going to external workshops of coworking for a mixed model”.

In this way, “warming up the chair” and letting “they see you in the office” working late could start to be expressions of the past, although Gema recognizes that in Spain we are still far from this scenario. “There are bosses those who still love him look your employees in the eye every dayand there are those who continue to consider the office as a status that, in this way, would be blurred, ”explains the consultant.

They are start, which was founded a few months before the coronavirus crisis hit, is dedicated to rethinking how companies allocate space in their offices. What was previously a redesign for save moneynow it is a work oriented to reflect a flexibility who came to stay.

Rotating workstations, employee lockers, laptops… But also more soundproof cabins for making calls, larger meeting rooms to be more pleasant or even multi-purpose spaces for hosting and hosting events.

Everything, in addition, so that employment adapts to the new demands of workers, who are increasingly concerned about conciliation and for the management of time. In this sense, initiatives such as the towns 15 minutes awaydesigned to bring everything from work to leisure to the citizen’s home, are already launching projects to transform cities like Barcelona, ​​Paris or Tokyo.

In Spain, the latest INE datathose for 2021, still influenced by pandemic restrictions, suggest that half of workers who were able to work remotely did soparticularly in the Community of Madrid, where 34.5% of employed workers telework, and in Catalonia, with 23.4%.

Also, and According to a report published by the job portal InfoJobsIn the first four months of 2022, the number of job offers including the telecommuting option doubled compared to those published in the same period of 2021. Compared to those in 2020, the figure was ten times higher.

At operators such as Telefónica, for example, 81.5% of employees who could request remote work in one of its variants did so, while at Vodafone the percentage was 96%. Other companies like Liberty Seguros, however, have decided to go further and for more than a year, 99% of their workforce has been working outside their offices.

“The full day of remote work is a rather minority reality. Currently, the general trend in Spain is hybrid modelbut for this to succeed, companies need to get commitment from their leaders and have the partners specialists who define the processes and put in place the necessary support structures & rdquor ;, points out to this newspaper Álvaro Álvarez, secretary general of ManpowerGroup.

According to a study by its Talent Solutions department, the 91% of companies that have the option to use remote work are evaluating or planning to transition to a hybrid employment model. In this way, according to Álvarez, it is possible to take advantage of the advantages of working face-to-face while mitigating the challenges that working from home entails, such as “managing distractions, feeling of loneliness and the challenges of collaboration and communication” between working groups.

Nine out of ten workers expect flexibility

Now that the pandemic is no longer weighing on companies, teleworking rates in Spain have been lose strength inevitably, but not as much as one might expect. The end of restrictions has only resulted in a 4% decrease in the number of people working, even occasionally, from home and, according to the latest report from Adecco, 2.74 million Spaniards have retained their flexibility.

“Teleworking is already part of daily life of almost all of Spain’s economic fabric, except in those sectors where face-to-face presence is practically inalienable, of course,” he said. THE SPAIN NEWSPAPER Pablo Gómez, director of the Corporate Service of the Adecco Group. “Of course, success lies in balance between the face-to-face model and the remote model, and this taking into account the needs of employees, customers and the company itself”.

One factor, that of flexibility, which is already decisive, because, as confirmed by the two personnel management companies, more and more employees see it as a “basic service” the possibility of integrating telework into your working day. “This is one of the aspects most valued by workers when deciding on a new work project & rdquor;, adds the Adecco representative.

In this sense, the pandemic has changed everything. According to a recent ManpowerGroup study, a 89% of professionals expect their work to be partially remote after the coronavirus crisis.

A reality that even the richest man in the world could not fight, Elon Muskwhich recently tried to force its employees to YOU’RE HERE to get them back to the office.

The bet, threat of dismissal included, turned out so badly that he had to back off almost immediately, because not only did he find the the rejection of his workersbut realized that there was no office space or resources for all.

A situation that other giants like Apple oh Googlebut which also opens the debate among small and medium-sized enterprises.

“We always say it’s not coffee for everyone, but we’re trying to make offices have 40% workstations and 60% multi-purpose spaces. By moving to a flexible model, the same office can accommodate a 20% or even 30% more employees“, says the co-founder of Moving.

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