When was the last time you had an in person team event? 30 of your co workers, 2 full days of training, dinner night one and Top Golf night two. We just did, and it was awesome.
Humans are built to interact and in person interactions are … well … just better. Personally I absorb more from speakers when they are in person. I don’t multi task in person like I do on Teams or Zoom (come on, you can admit it too). I build real relationships with people who, even though I’ve spoken with them on camera, I didn’t recognize or really bond with them until it was in person. An HBR article from 2006 or so said “having a best friend at work” was the number one form of retention. Above compensation, above having a good boss and even above having career progression capability. You can’t get a best friend at work if you aren’t in person. Over my career, I’ve had 5. I am very blessed for that and they always made work fun and I was more productive.
Maybe you like work from home. And sure, there are times it can work. But as a new employee to Hitachi Vantara, it’s much harder to get into the culture and feel committed to co-workers until you get to spend time with them. Mentorship is much harder if you aren’t sharing space. As a new college grad coming into the workforce, a WFH culture would be a massive disservice to their career.
At OneEnergy, we did a WFH model. We were a small, experienced team that all knew their roles and had worked for years together prior. That was a unique case and when we told people in 2016 that was what we did, they thought we were insane. They weren’t wrong.
At HV in my first 90 days, I learned more in these last 2 days and felt more connected to my peers and excited about what we can do than any of the 88 days combined. That should cause pause amongst bosses who aren’t at least considering a hybrid WFH model.
I could throw data and studies and facts in, and there would be all the studies I needed to support whatever case I wanted to make about this topic but the proof is in the pudding. 90 days, the top 2 for engagement were in person amd the next 9 were from when I was traveling and face to face with customers.
My prediction? Those companies that were work from work before, were that for a reason and like the “new age open office concept”, for many WFH will be the thing that holds companies back in 2022.
What do you think?
#hottakeoftheday