Fincredible MacroTalk July 14: The Future of Work Is Hybrid
Comments on the future of work from company executives at ADBE, BK, YEXT, ASAN, GIS, VMW, SCS, BOX, HPQ, CSCO, UPWK.
The pandemic might have changed work in several industries forever. The adoption of remote work during the height of the pandemic forced companies to try new models, with some experiencing great results. The question now is wether companies will try to return to normal, or adopt new working models that support remote work.
The survey below shows that a majority of employees would prefer a hybrid work environment post pandemic, meaning a mix of on-site and remote work. However, it’s unclear if companies are willing to accept a permanent shift towards these strategies.
Over the past few weeks, company executives from different industries have given their thoughts on the future of work. In this post, we’ve highlighted some of the best quotes on the topic.
Companies Adopting Remote Work
“Over the last year, we have been building a blueprint for the future of work at Adobe, which will be hybrid and flexible. In the U.S., we will be piloting a return to our San Jose office, starting with a small group of fully vaccinated employees in July. We are committed to leveraging the best of in-person and digital interactions to harness what makes Adobe special, our creativity, innovation and culture, driven by our most important asset, people.”
Shantanu Narayen, CEO
“Now I also wanted to touch on the future of work and general productivity. The pandemic has driven remarkable levels of innovation and technology adoption and companies have now become accustomed to a new way of working. We've proven our ability to maintain high-quality service for our clients, adopt and deploy new technologies quickly. We've collaborated with one another virtually over this past year. We're going to take the best of what we've learned to continue to innovate and drive enhanced value for our clients and our employees, including assessing what our workforce and workplaces will look like. We intend to embrace hybrid working arrangements. We define future work that continues to position us as an employer of choice in our industry.”
Thomas P. Gibbons, CEO
Companies Returning to Normal
“So I know there's a lot of CEOs out there saying, "Hey, remote work, it's here to stay. It's a permanent thing." But I also wonder if they themselves have a benefit if that is the case because people have to buy that technology. I don't personally -- at Yext, we're going to -- we're in-office kind of culture. And so after Labor Day, we're going to expect people to come back to the office and be there. That doesn't mean we won't have flexible circumstances and extenuate situations, and I think there were people from before that work remotely. I think what we're saying is, "Hey, it's just going to go back." We're going to, at least, at our company, make it go back to what it was. Overall, though, I do think you're going to see a mix of remote first cultures and you're going to see a mix of in-office cultures. I'm personally less convinced that hybrid is going to be a thing. I think it's going to be somewhat of a binary outcome because it's kind of hard -- I'll tell you right now. At Yext, we've opened up our New York headquarters. We have a ton of people going in every day. We require a proof of vaccination to enter the building. Once you're in that building, you don't have to work a mask, you don't have to be socially distant. It's just normal life. And I haven't seen energy like this in 1.5 years. And what is causing is the most powerful force on the planet to bring more people in. And you know what that powerful force is, it's the same force that powers Instagram. It's called FOMO. There is nothing like seeing your peers in an invigorating brain storm or a -- in a session or getting pictures of folks engaged and happy and excited, a speaker and feeling like you're not there to bring -- to make you feel like you want to be there. So I think that's going to be a pretty tough thing to balance for companies that want to pull off the hybrid thing. So clearly, the technology is there, but even you saw Apple, Tim announced last week, expect to be in the office. He said 3 days a week. My guess is that, that's a starting point, and they're going to expect people to come back as they're trying to make another iPhone. And you can't do that over Webex.”
Howard Lerman, CEO
Yext Inc at Bank of America Global Technology Conference
Companies Affected by Remote Work
“So post pandemic, we know that a lot of customers are going to continue to work with having fully remote teams, some that are going to come back into the office. And we're going to see a variety of hybrid versions with the -- that represent the spectrum in between.”
Dustin A. Moskovitz, CEO
“But in our human food business, what I would say is that there are a couple of factors underlying our belief that we'll continue to see demand that's above prepandemic levels. The first is that more people are going to work from home more often than go into the office every day. And we're fairly certain that, that is here to stay. So there will be a new normal in where people work.”
Jeffrey L. Harmening, CEO
“Over the past year, companies have seen the benefits of remote work and want to become truly distributed businesses where their employees can work from anywhere. We recently unveiled VMware Anywhere Workspace, a solution designed to help customers manage multimodal employee experiences, secure the distributed edge and automate their workspace.”
Zane C. Rowe, CFO
“We also see some activity specifically related to the post-COVID workplace, including the emergence of the hybrid work experience, by which I mean employees working from home as well as in the office. We're seeing a new wave of interest by some customers to provide specific home -- specific office furniture applications for their employees to use at home. These are not subsidy programs that employees can use for anything, but rather as the company is actually providing specific ergonomic solutions, which often include a task chair and height-adjustable table.”
James P. Keane, CEO
“First, work is being defined by hybrid work environments. In a recent Gartner study, more than 80% of company leaders surveyed said they plan to allow employees to continue working remotely at least some of the time. Even as offices open back up, traditional physical boundaries will continue to blur, and enterprises will need to empower collaboration, both internally, amongst virtual and distributed teams, and externally with partners, customers and suppliers to get work done from anywhere.”
Aaron Levie, CEO
“The future of work and education will be more hybrid. According to recent survey, more than 60% of employees want flexibility in where and how they work.”
Enrique J. Lores, CEO
“And there is a massive opportunity right now to transform the future of work, and we believe the future of work is going to be hybrid. Sometimes, we're going to do work from home, sometimes we're going to work in the office, sometimes somewhere in the middle. And we have a tremendous opportunity as Cisco to be able to really be a credible provider in that kind of transition for organizations.”
Jeetendra Patel
Cisco Systems Inc and Oppenheimer Holdings Inc to Host a Tech Talk on Cisco’s Collaboration
“COVID has changed work forever, and proven what we have always known to be true throughout our 20-year history as a pioneer in the industry. Old models of work were in need of and capable of change. The remote work experiment that companies undertook during COVID shattered companies' fear of engaging remote talent. When companies and professionals became more familiar with remote work and experienced the numerous benefits it offers, both parties became more receptive to freelancing.”
Hayden Brown, President, CEO & Director at Upwork Inc.
Upwork Inc Investor Day
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