One thing I have learned working through the Pandemic, is how resilient we are. Being put on lock-down in March 2020 seemed like a cool temporary vacation, but as the weeks and months dragged on it became clear that the Pandemic taught business a valuable lesson and pushed the envelope when it came to #remote and #hybrid work. Zoom, Teams and Google Meet swiftly met the demands for face-to-face meetings and collaboration, but at what cost?

The term “Zoom Fatigue” was coined after several businesses made announcements that they were extending their work from home policy, even though webinars and articles had already surfaced questioning the productiveness of video-meetings, with one claiming it takes 2-3 video-meetings for one single face-to-face. Humans are mostly social creatures by nature, so to many employees having a lack of in-person #collaboration and spontaneous conversations throughout the work week caused some to question what direction the new company culture was headed in and whether they wanted to be a part of it or not.

Some companies doubled-down, however, and announced early-on permanent work from home (WFH) situations for their employees, office consolidations and outright office closures as they reevaluated their work force. I think Steve Jobs was ahead of the Pandemic curve when he was interviewed in 2018 about the importance of face-to-face meetings, saying “there is a temptation in our networked age to think that ideas can be developed by email and iChat. That’s crazy. Creativity comes from spontaneous meetings, with random discussions”.

So what does this mean for the printing industry, when employees are not fully back to work, are #WFH or are hybrid? Is print dead? Absolutely not! Printing on large enterprise networked A3 copiers may slowly become a thing of the past though, as these larger equipment aren’t needed if only half of the employees are occupying an office half of the week, and if they WFH, more cost-effective options are needed for printing, copying, scanning than the money-pits that are the traditional inkjet printer.

In March, The Imaging Channel and BPO Media posted a weekly series called the “End User Snapshot” asking respondents whether print was still important to their job/task, who actually is doing the printing, which verticals are still dependent on printing, and how did the Pandemic affect printing. The results? Two thirds of those who responded showed that printing was still a vital part of their daily work, ticking up or down a bit depending on the level of their management role within their company. The verticals most dependent on printing? Think Education (both K-12 and higher), Healthcare, Financial/Banking, Government and Retail/Wholesale....77-90% of respondents within these verticals said daily printing was important to their work productivity.

Just when CEOs think everyone will return to work, is unfortunately still a moving target. McKinsey published an article in Nov 2020 titled “What’s next for remote work: An analysis of 2,000 tasks, 800 jobs, and nine countries” and in it described some unique tasks, jobs and situations where some work could be performed remotely but would come at a high price. “.....employers have found during the pandemic that although some tasks can be done remotely in a crisis, they are much more effectively done in person. These activities include coaching, counseling, and providing advice and feedback; building customer and colleague relationships; bringing new employees into a company; negotiating and making critical decisions; teaching and training; and work that benefits from collaboration, such as innovation, problem-solving, and creativity.”

Roughly a month ago I posted on LinkedIn about a very interesting article by the #WallStreetJournal, talking about Salesforce giving its employees the option of flex-work (in office some days, the rest WFH), 100% WFH, or 100% back in the office again. I included a poll asking my #LinkedInTribe, “In a post-pandemic world, what would be your ideal work scenario?” It showed 62% of respondents would prefer a flex/hybrid work scenario, with only a third of those that responded preferring to work from home 100%. Companies like WeWork and IWG (own Regus and Spaces) who provide cost-effective rent-able managed work spaces and more of a hybrid work style may become more of the norm, especially when companies like Spotify tell their employees they can work from “anywhere they want”. Don’t need a whole office building or suite? Just rent your offices and conference room spaces a la carte.

Whether breaking up your larger central office into smaller regional offices to allow employees to still be together and collaborate in person with their teams, like R/GA has considered, or going fully remote and helping your employees get setup at home with great internet, ergonomic chair and desk options, and cost effective office printing equipment - office space as we know it is changing. De-urbanization is now becoming more than a trending theory, where WFH employees realize they need more space at home to work AND live and are moving out of congested urban cities in droves.

While we still live in precarious times with lots of unknowns, one thing that is clear is that hybrid work is here to stay and businesses with office space and buildings will need to reimagine how they are going to help their employees achieve a safe, healthy and productive work-life balance.

Join me next week for Part 2 of Work Reimagined where we discuss the possible effects the office, hybrid and WFH will have and how companies can still remain cost effective with the office printing equipment they provide their employees.