[论文解读] Half-Empty Offices in Flexible Work Arrangements: Why are Employees Not Returning?

Darja Šmite, Nils Brede Moe+8 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|Aug 26, 2022

Facilities and Workplace Management被引用 6

一句话总结

本研究探讨了后疫情时代，尽管实行灵活工作安排，两家软件公司知识型员工为何维持较低的办公室出勤率（15–30%）。通过访谈和调查的定性分析，识别出驱动远程工作偏好的行为、实际和环境因素，并提出当全面返岗不可行时，重新规划办公空间的策略。

ABSTRACT

Although the pandemic times of the world-wide forced working from home seem to be in the past, many knowledge workers choose to continue working predominantly from home as a partial or permanent practice. Related studies show that employees of companies from various industries, diverse in size and location, prefer to alter working in the office with working at home, coined as hybrid or flexible working arrangements. As a result, the post-pandemic times are associated with empty offices, confused managers and organizational leaders not knowing what to do with the often-expensive rental contracts. In this paper, we investigate the employee presence in the offices in two software companies and dive deeper into the reasons behind the preferences to work remotely, practices that help to attract employees back into the offices and, in cases when this is not possible, the ways companies can repurpose the office space for the future needs of their employees. The latter are based on the qualitative analysis of interviews and survey responses. Our findings suggest that since the fall 2021 the offices were half-empty and that, on average, the daily office presence varies between 15-30%. The reasons for working remotely include behavioural and practical motivations, as well as factors related to office equipment and facilities, and the nature of the work tasks. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of our findings on the future work arrangements.

研究动机与目标

• 理解后疫情时代灵活工作环境中持续低办公室出勤的原因。
• 识别影响员工偏好远程工作的行为、实际和环境因素。
• 探索当员工全面返岗不可行时，组织可采取的办公室空间再利用策略。

提出的方法

• 对两家软件公司的员工进行了定性访谈和问卷调查。
• 收集了工作模式、远程工作动机以及与办公室相关的挑战数据。
• 使用主题编码分析员工报告的不返回办公室的原因。
• 评估将办公室空间重新规划以满足未来员工需求的可行性。
• 利用混合方法数据推导出对组织领导者的实际启示。
• 通过来自多样化、具有行业代表性的组织的洞察，聚焦于现实适用性。

实验结果

研究问题

• RQ1 在灵活工作安排下，员工为何偏好远程工作而非返回办公室？
• RQ2 办公室的实际与环境因素如何影响员工选择远程工作的决定？
• RQ3 组织可实施哪些策略以吸引员工返回办公室或有效再利用办公室空间？
• RQ4 工作内容的性质在多大程度上影响员工对远程或办公室工作的偏好？
• RQ5 组织如何调整其办公室空间以满足混合工作模式下不断演变的员工需求？

主要发现

• 截至2021年秋季，两家软件公司的办公室出勤率日均在15%至30%之间。
• 员工表示，工作与生活平衡、自主性等行为动机是推动远程工作的重要因素。
• 实际因素，如办公设备不足和设施条件差，显著加剧了远程工作偏好。
• 工作内容的性质——尤其是需要深度专注的任务——是决定远程工作选择的主要因素。
• 组织可通过将办公室空间重新规划为协作区、社交空间及满足特定工作需求的区域，减少对全面返岗的依赖。
• 领导者在管理混合工作模式时面临挑战，主要源于政策不明确和办公室基础设施利用率低下。