To mitigate the impact of work-from-home (WFH) culture during Pandemic, organisations are coming up with innovative ideas to bring employees back to office environment.
Consider the time of pandemic, when employees were asked to adopt to a new culture of WFH. With numerous pros and cons, WFH was trending globally even after 2 years of pandemic. Now, employees are quite accustomed to conduct office work from homely atmosphere. WFH culture was embraced to ensure business continuity as well as protecting employee health. At least 90% of employees prefer WFH culture, as per recent reports.
However, when it's time to operate from office, employees are not feeling comfortable. That gave rise to some unique ideas by companies to attract employees. One method is Office Peacocking.
In this article, we will discuss about this new corporate trend.
Peacocking is a term used to refer something coming up with new outlook. Broadly, Office Peacocking is an approach to transform the workspace so that employees feel comfortable to work there. It involves new office decor, well-stocked kitchens, and embracing relaxing attire.
Companies are moving over from cubicle structure and embracing relaxing sofa, lounge-style setting with some fancy decor.
According to Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, “Major firms have been pushed into taking measures such as 'office peacocking' after they received pushback from employees following the return-to-office (RTO) mandate.”
“We just passed the fourth year anniversary of the pandemic and many employers still haven’t yet given up on trying to return to pre-pandemic policies. Despite our data showing that many employees will make sacrifices to achieve flexibility in where they work, as 62 percent would take a pay cut of 10 percent or more to remain hybrid,” Frank Weishaupt mentioned.
According to a report by Owl Labs, “More than half of hybrid employees (58%) in a survey have embraced this trend.”
Office peacocking has been creating lot of noises since last year. It felt exciting for many employees to work in comfortable settings. However, many employees reported it to be ‘artificial trappings’ by organizations.
Raj Tanwar, HR Head, Advantage Club mentioned: “This trend sought to reshape offices into an environment solely based on desire, not by utility. Break-out spaces meant for hurdles closely resemble swanky hotels and clubs, departing from the conventional corporate setting of cubicles and the clacks of typing. The play is not only happening around infrastructure, rather moves are being made to add newer benefits, flex policies and even relaxing daily productivity norms without losing focus on the results through ROWE (result-oriented work environment).”
The most important thing is to promote and support right spirit. Despite focusing short-term ways to attract employees, the motive should be to frame a long-term sustainable strategy. This gives the chance of making genuine changes like providing privacy, growth-oriented environment, supportive work culture and good relationships among employees. So, the core idea should be improving the core structure rather than investing only on changing the outlook.
While this office peacocking culture may seem like an innovative way to lure employees back to office, organisations must strike the balance between benefits and potential drawbacks to ensure a sustainable work environment for employees.
