Many employees have expressed that they have been productive working from home, have enjoyed it, and hope to continue to work remotely. Eliminating the commute to work has also made scheduling much easier, especially around childcare. For others, personal disadvantages may cause challenges in maintaining work-life balance. While many benefits of working remotely are good for the individual, many benefits of working from the office are good for the organization.
Culture
The culture of an organization has an impact on business performance, productivity, employee innovation, creativity and employee retention. This is because having a winning organizational culture attracts better talent and, more importantly, retains that talent. Company culture is comprised of the values, ideals, attitudes, and goals that characterize the organization
Culture impacts people’s wellbeing at work and when people feel like they belong to an organization, they are more engaged and passionate about their roles. When a company has a winning culture, employees are motivated to form strong connections with their teammates, enhancing work experience and results. Not every employee will click with the company culture; that is why it is important to create a culture that is firmly aligned with the organization’s core values and mission to keep employees engaged. Examples of core values can be seen in our Pegasus DNA on our career page.
Collaboration
In-person collaboration resolves problems quickly and helps bring out more effective discussions. Real conversations don’t happen over email. When an employee is looking a colleague in the eyes and proposing an idea, they do not have to guess what the colleague is thinking or really saying, they can see it.
Collaboration builds trust, shows how a person engages, and their reliability and preparation. Meeting in person gives teammates more information about their coworkers and what they will deliver. When a team gathers together in a conference room there are far fewer external distractions, such as children, pets, or Wi-Fi issues. Employees can have a deeper focus when they are face-to-face, engaged, and presenting ideas, as opposed to working remotely.
Maintain Healthy Work-Life Balance
The clear separation between the office and home has been broken since the global pandemic accelerated the trend of remote work. Having a clear ‘place of work’, where an employee can physically leave it and draw a line under that part of the day is important to an employee’s work-life balance. For many, the line between work and personal life can get blurred when working from the comfort of home, and it can be difficult to create boundaries.
Work-life balance has been exponentially harder for employees to achieve due to pandemic-driven changes. Having work visibly invading an employee’s physical space can make it harder for individuals to turn off that part of the brain after work hours. Some employees feel pressured to be constantly available, interfering with a person’s ability to disconnect from work and decompress.