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Post-pandemic Workplace Culture Research | Nov, 2023

Future of work

What is the "best-fitted" matching work mode for organizations and employees in the workplace future?

Challenge / Goal

"Given an unprecedented work mode shift after the pandemic, how might we reimagine the ideal working mode to reach the mutual value of both organizations and their employees in the future workplace?"

Outcome

An exploratory report reflecting the current work mode  landscape in the US, and a work mode matching model for stakeholders' reference. 

(The research result also lay a foundation of a future B2B SaaS workplace management product design and development.)

Project Brief

This six-month research aims to investigate the evolution of workplace culture resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and forecast future workplace trends. Employing a comprehensive approach, including case studies, surveys, focus group observations, and individual interviews, we have conducted extensive research synthesized through iterative divergent and convergent processes. The study identifies five archetypes, illustrating the diverse factors influencing ideal work modes alignment between individuals and organizations. It also outlines five emerging trends regarding office space utilization, hybrid work culture development, and return-to-office compensation benefits.

 

This project is the foundation of Unity Next, a B2B SaaS application that helps companies build engaging culture in the hybrid work context. 

Project Info

Project Type: Design Research, Exploratory Research, System Dynamics

Project Duration: Sep, 2023 - Feb, 2024

Status: Completed

Project Team

Team of Four:
Aleigha Knight, Crystal Chen, Shannon Robertson, Yuanyuan Li

My Contribution:

Research System Construction, Desk Research, Interview Structure and Implementation, Information Synthesis, Archetype Construction, Insights & Trends Generation, Report & Video Production, Presentation

Research Process Overview

Diverge

Converge

Database Gather

30+

Case

Studies

20+

Literature Review

80+

Observation Reflection

4

Understanding of the current global work situation

Survey & Interview Research Structure

Diverge

Converge

Survey Data Collection

75+

EngagementPosters

6

Focus Group Experiments

3

Individual Interviews

38

Information Synthesis

Test & interation

Archetypes

4

Insights & Observation

5

Future Solutions

5

01   What I Did 

  • Conduct secondary and primary research to understand the current workplace landscape in the US, and stakeholders' demands behind the landscape.

  • Gather and synthesize information from research, identify pain points, turn them into opportunity, and construct logical framework to map out the system. 

  • Visualize and produce aesthetic professional report and video to convey the research result.

02   Secondary Research

We gather 20+ case studies, 30+ databases, and 80+ literature reviews combined with our daily observation to understand the current global work situation. ​

We used Miro board to record the resource, and generate a future survey structure beyond.

We tried to understand:

  • The history and evolving patterns of work;

  • The percentage of different work modes;

  • The adaptivity, pos and cons of hybrid work mode;

  • The general factors that affect people's choice of work mode.

Key Takeaway from Secondary Research

40.8% of full-time employees in the US are operating at home or embracing hybrid work.

While enjoying the flexibility, concerns about loneliness, productivity, and management arose.

Different companies have different work mode policies based on their industry, culture and etc factors.

Different individuals have different work mode preferences based on their job responsibility, life stage, personality, etc factors. 

03   Primary Research

We conduct our primary research by 4 engagement poster activities, 1 digital survey with 75 participants, 38 one-on-one interviews, and 3 focus groups research.

We aim to have a clearer understanding of: 

  • Standpoints on hybrid mode from different job roles' perspectives.

  • Detailed factors that affect organizations' choice of work mode.

  • Detailed factors that affect individual employees' choice of work mode.

  • The relation between organizations and individual employees regarding work mode selection.

  • I created engagement posters to gather people's feelings about hybrid work and their expectations of the future of work. I stuck them in public and facilitated people to join the research.

Participants express "relaxing" work status, and loose management style as their dream work mode.

Participants express concerns of lacking interaction and engagement of hybrid work.

  • I constructed a survey structure based on the secondary research results, and created a digital survey for primary research. We spread the survey on social media and got 75 participants after 2 weeks.​​​

Hybrid work is the trend. 88% of participants suggests hybrid workplace and flexible arrangement as the future of work.

Self-accomplishment, income, and social resources are the top three priorities for employees.

Satisfaction of work mode would affect employee's self-accomplishment of their job.

  • I conducted 11 semi-structured online & offline interviews (38 in total, 4 people's group work) within two weeks in Oct 2023.​​ And utilize Miro board to record information, and extract key words.

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The definition and standards of hybrid work (flexibility) vary differently based on different organizations and employees' demand, and remain undefined.

Industry, position, passion of work, personality, relationship values and various factors are affecting individual choice of work mode.

Companies have different expectation on individuals' work mode based on their position and job responsibility.

Alignment between individuals' preference and company's expectation is crucial in determining the work mode.

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04   Information Synthesis

We synthesized information with Miro board, KUMU, and discussed both online and offline.

 

We wanted to summarize and synthesize:

  • The factors that affect individuals' choice of work mode

I led the logical framework construction and summarized 3 main findings at the end. 

Main Findings

Finding 1

Passion level of work affects individual's choice of working model.

Employees with a higher passion to their work are more likely to step in the office and start interaction with their colleagues and the surrounding world.

Finding 2

Work & position conditions affect individual's choice of working model.

- Employees whose work involves large systematic complexity and high volume of conversation prefer to work in person more.
- Employees whose positions involve strategic decision-making and team management are more willing to have face-to-face interaction.

 

Finding 3

Life & relationship value affects individual's choice of working model.

- Employees who want to establish strong relationship with their colleagues prefer to work in office more.
* People with a higher position (mid-level or above) are more likely to value Team Management instead of Peer Relationship. These two factors share an inver-convertable relationship in between.

 

05 Insights & Opportunity

We constructed the 3 findings into a framework, identified 4 archetypes, and turned them into possible opportunities/actions.

We wanted to conclude:

  • A theoretical matching system that shows individuals' situation and their preferred work mode.

  • Influence of individuals' preferred work mode on company future actions (Relationship between employee's and companies' preference).

Archetype System - Work Mode Matching System

  • I partnered with one of our team members, extracted common factors that affect individuals' choice of work mode from research, and generalized them into 4 archetypes that reflects the relations between individuals' situation and the corresponding preferable work mode.

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  • We structuralized the archetypes and put them in a framework that reflects the corresponding influence on companies, and the actions they should take in  the future of work.

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Problem deriving from each situation

(to set a direction for workplace future strategy)

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  • We concluded and predicted the "Future of Work" trends within the framework.

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06   Future of Work

Our conclusion from the framework reveals 3 trends of "Future of Work" for organizations to refer. They are not solutions, but entry points and foundations for future ideation and product development.

"Future of Work" Trends

For Remote-oriented Organizations

How might we build distinctive and dynamic organizational cultures for both on-site and hybrid/remote teams?

For Remote-oriented Organizations

How might we redesign office space to strengthen collaboration between coworkers and provide flexible environments for other users?

For Onsite-oriented Organizations

How might we create benefits and incentive programs to strengthen and transform working models?

07   Next Step

Moving forward, I teamed up with one of our team members to create a product - Unity Next, that helps company elevate distributed team culture and strengthen collaborations in hybrid work. This responds to one of the trends concluded from the research.

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