Pinnacle was launched in the wake of research at the Stanford Graduate School of Business into the future of work. As Covid-19 transitions from pandemic to endemic, we consider what changes in ways of working are here to stay, where work will get done in the future, and what are the most high-impact interventions to prepare for the workplace of the future. The executive summary is below - find the full white paper here.
Key Findings
The majority of tech companies will end up hybrid.
Employees will demand the flexibility or resign. The office will become an “activity-driven” cultural space focused on building social connections, enabling learning, and fostering collaboration. Companies will require agile tools to coordinate in-person schedules and new infrastructure to enable an equitable employee experience.
Employee disconnection is at an all-time high.
Spontaneous connection from the water cooler, shared snack breaks, and after work beers has been lost, and virtual events have not compensated. This has major implications: interpersonal conflicts are rising, employer loyalty is falling, and workers are leaving
Collaboration has suffered and alignment is decaying.
Employees are meeting more but hearing less, overwhelmed by fragmented communication and drowning in information. Functional silos have become individual silos. New communication mechanisms and norms (tools, channels, formats) will b needed. There is no longer space for non-explicit norms around ways of working.
Career and personal development have taken new importance.
Work has become more transactional, and growth opportunities are what will keep employees at your company. Junior employees have a harder time in a remote or hybrid world – traditional learning models of apprenticeship or osmosis are no longer available, and internal networking is much more difficult.
In this setting, good management is the decisive success factor.
Managers have become the main face of the company to employees who no longer experience the physical space of a shared office. Hybrid management requires a new skillset that managers haven’t been trained for. They need to navigate back-to-office decisions, break organizational silos, cross-pollinate ideas, drive greater alignment, increase their communication, manage new interpersonal dynamics, support their employees’ wellbeing, spend more time onboarding new hires, create growth opportunities, and help their direct reports network internally, all while feeling the same burdens themselves and delivering on their own workload.
This research comes at a pivotal time: whether you call it the Great Resignation, Reshuffle, or Realignment, it’s no news to anyone that the talent landscape is particularly frothy right now. It’s the result of low unemployment within tech (1.7%, compared to roughly 4% in the general economy) and heavy competition for experienced talent. In the words of one long-time Chief Human Resource Officer “it’s crazier than the dot com era.”
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