{"id":4232,"date":"2020-06-11T09:37:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-11T16:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=4232"},"modified":"2020-06-11T09:37:23","modified_gmt":"2020-06-11T16:37:23","slug":"back-to-the-office-ready-steady-slow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/back-to-the-office-ready-steady-slow\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Office \u2013 Ready, Steady, Slow!"},"content":{"rendered":"

During a recent webinar<\/span><\/a> featuring Poly experts, Becky Yeutter (HR)<\/a><\/span> and Mike West (TAC) <\/a><\/span>discussed how Poly teams are now working from home, and what planning is underway for a return to the office.<\/p>\n

As an early adopter of remote and distributed working, Poly employees have had the ability to work from home for the past 10 years, which made the transition driven by Covid-19 no sudden rush.\u00a0 Are we alone in this?\u00a0 Apparently not. In a survey that kick-started the webinar, over 50% of participants said that in the move to home, their service levels hadn\u2019t missed a beat.\u00a0 Only a small minority (7%) said they still had some work to do.\u00a0 This is an incredibly good reflection on the call centre industry and our ability to maintain a high level of service across the biggest disruption organisations have seen.<\/p>\n

Keeping Workers Engaged<\/h4>\n

When it comes to managing remote teams, our experts recommend looking at the emotional impact of home working on your teams and ensure they are being looked after. \u00a0First of all, over communicate. This means increasing the type and amount of team meetings (and be sure to have one on ones to ensure people can speak without their co-worker\u2019s present). As a leader, you may need to adjust your management style to reflect a distributed and remote workforce. These actions will ensure you prevent employee burnout or disengagement \u2013 this is essential to ensure those great employees are able to keep delivering the high level of service that keeps your customers loyal.<\/p>\n

Is WFH the New Normal?<\/h4>\n

As the poll at the start revealed, most call centres moved home without skipping a beat\u2026 so, does this mean working from home is the new normal?\u00a0 Whilst it has many benefits, it can\u2019t be the norm for everyone \u2013 many employees do not have an ergonomic space at home, there may be roles that need to be done in the office, and employees may want the social aspect of being around other people.\u00a0 This is reflected in a second poll that showed approximately 33% of attendees were considering returning most of their employees to the office.\u00a0 The most common approach from attendees was planning for the return of approximately half of their employees.\u00a0 The experts at Poly talked through our employee-based approach for a return to the office.\u00a0 Through surveys, we have identified who needs to be in the office, and which offices can support distancing and cleaning.\u00a0 By bringing these together we can prioritise a safe return for employees.<\/p>\n

For many attendees, the return to the office is not something that needs to be rushed.\u00a0 A majority of 66% of employees have a timescale of 0 to 4 months \u2013 a likely timeline for many organisations will coincide with children returning to school.<\/p>\n

The Recommendations from Our Panel<\/strong><\/h4>\n