In 2022, the world began to transition back to a pre-pandemic reality. However, this "new normal" is vastly different from what we knew before. One significant change is the emergence of virtual work as a viable and desirable alternative to office work. Unfortunately, strong proponents of returning to the office (RTO) have taken an inflexible stance, leading to contentious discussions. It doesn't need to be this way.

This experiment with virtual work, born out of necessity, has opened up a conversation about new options for the workplace. Terms like “in-person work”, “hybrid work”, “remote work” and “teleworking” are being thrown around, but there is confusion about what each means and why they all matter. The truth is that we lack concrete data on the effects of virtual work on efficiency, effectiveness, organizational culture, employee health and engagement.

The lack of understanding is not surprising when we consider the historical context. In the Fast Company article, Lydia Dishman points out that the modern open office and cubicle have their origins in ancient Rome and 18th-century London. Over the past century, significant efforts have been made to define office spaces and optimize them for culture, productivity and creativity that supposedly arise from chance encounters, the famous serendipity effect. In other words, we have centuries of tradition of in-person work in shared locations, with more than 100 years of refining office spaces to improve efficiency, effectiveness and user experience.

Comparatively, we have had serious discussions about virtual work for only three years. It is understandable that there is resistance to fully embrace this new mode of work, as humans we tend to be resistant to change.

However, during the pandemic, we swiftly transitioned to virtual work in a matter of weeks, sometimes days, and our effectiveness and efficiency did not suffer. In fact, in many cases, both performance and user experience improved.

Results have been positive, and people like it.

When the pandemic hit, I was leading a 10,000 employee services organization at Amazon in Costa Rica, Colombia, Mexico and Brazil. Within 10 days of deciding to work from home, all but 100 employees were working virtually. Within a month, we had established the necessary processes and mechanisms to fully support the team. By the beginning of 2023, when restrictions were relaxed, our organization had doubled in size to over 20,000 employees. Remarkably, we did not experience any negative impact on culture, efficiency or effectiveness.

Throughout this period, I regularly communicated with associates and leadership at all levels. Once they settled into the new modality of virtual work, consistently less than 10% of them expressed interest in returning to the office. Even within that 10%, most felt that a regularity of one or two times a month at the office would be sufficient.

Based on my experience, virtual work not only improved the employee experience but also had a positive impact on performance and culture.

Based on my learnings, here are five things I recommend as we move forward with this new reality.

1. Embrace Virtual Work as an Independent Modality

Given these and other benefits of virtual work, such as reduced costs for both companies and employees and improved talent availability, among others, why is the RTO conversation so difficult?

I believe we need to approach virtual work independently and be open-minded in our experimentation. This requires leaders to move beyond what worked in the past and acknowledge their personal preferences that may bias their judgment.

To be clear, virtual work should be seen as completely independent from a physical office. When we talk about remote work, we imply that it is remote from something. The same goes for teleworking, and even more so for hybrid work.

When my team and I were supporting our virtual work teams, we established a clear guideline: think virtual first, and what works there will work in the office. Adapting physical models to the virtual reality does not always yield the same results. To make virtual work effective and positive for both companies and employees, we must design it with a fresh perspective, free from the limitations of the office space.

We need to use imagination, and creativity, and experiment with this new reality. We must cut the umbilical cord and view virtual work as an independent modality, rather than an extension of the office.

2. Build for the space

There are plenty of third-party tools that enable remote teams to work efficiently and maintain cohesion, including communication platforms (Slack, Microsoft Teams), project management software (Trello, Asana, Jira), video conferencing solutions (Zoom, Microsoft Teams), collaboration suites (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365), time tracking software (Toggl, Clockify), file sharing and storage (Dropbox, Google Drive), virtual whiteboards (Miro, Microsoft Whiteboard), task automation (Zapier, Make) and HR and employee management systems (BambooHR, Gusto). However, the right choice of tools depends on the team's specific needs and workflows.

The approach I used at Amazon was to inspect and inventory the elements we had developed in the physical space to support our associate experience, and design for the same experience in the virtual world.

A good example of this is the employee benefits program. Amazon provided on-premises medical support and regular campaigns such as vaccinations and eye exams. We needed to build this benefit for the virtual world through suppliers, understanding that simple differences, such as virtual associates not having badges, could have an impact.

One key success driver was to plan intentionally for the VOE (voice of the employee). In physical premises, it’s a given to connect in the cafeteria, in the hallway or in other informal settings. Building for the virtual experience is key (virtual water cooler sessions, roundtables, fireside chats), and has a virtuous cycle to share VOE and build culture virtually.

Whether we use the extensive and ever-increasing arsenal of third-party tools or develop our own, our choices must follow a clear, associate-centric strategy.

3. Structure the conversation around customers and employees

Inclusiveness is essential. One of the findings of the McKinsey Institute article What employees are saying about the future of remote work is the impact on culture and productivity from effective communication: “Even high-level communication about post-COVID-19 working arrangements boosts employee well-being and productivity. However, organizations that convey more detailed, remote-relevant policies and approaches see greater increases. Employees who feel included in more detailed communication are nearly five times more likely to report increased productivity.”

How do we engage in this conversation? In a HBR article Lynda Gratton suggests approaching this process as a conversation that acknowledges the uniqueness of each company, the absence of a one-size-fits-all solution, and the need for a lengthy and challenging process. She proposes asking four crucial questions:

1. What are our overarching values and principles?
2. What is special about the people we employ, the jobs we do, and the customers we serve?
3. What isn't working, and what problems are we trying to solve?
4. What experiments have we tried that we can share with others, and what can we learn from other companies?

4. Enable our people

The conditions to support virtual work have also improved substantially. According to another McKinsey Institute study, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the transition to remote work, with over 20% of the global workforce now able to effectively work away from the office. This shift is driven not only by the crisis but also by advances in automation and digitization.

Companies must now determine the role of the office and adapt their workforce to the requirements of technology. And reskilling current staff is crucial, as it is more cost-effective and fosters loyalty and positive brand perception. Workforce development should be a priority, with a focus on identifying needed skills, offering tailored learning opportunities and fostering a culture of lifelong learning.

Include your leaders. I believe that, even in physical settings, we regularly fail to provide new leaders with the training and tools to properly support their teams. In the virtual world, we will need to be aware of these gaps and include what we have learned from our virtual experience, to help our leaders develop the skill set and style to be effective in this space.

This goes from simple things, such as developing a great presence on camera, how to use tone and language, and maintaining eye contact, to how to engage and motivate teams in this space.

Give your team your undivided attention. Do not multitask when you’re on a call. If you are typing, make sure they know why. It may seem obvious in a physical setting, not as much in the virtual world.

Again, experimenting, iterating, and capturing learnings are essential, as will be using them to develop processes, mechanisms and coaching.

5. Experiment

I cannot overemphasize the role of experimentation at this stage. One of the things I loved during my tenure at Amazon was the ability to experiment, learn and improve, which is an integral part of its culture. According to Jeff Bezos, “Our success at Amazon is a function of how many experiments we do per year, per month, per week, per day.” In order to build this new productive space, we will need to do the same with virtual work.

The thing is, failure is part of experimenting. So we will need to accept failure in this process and use it as a means to improve rather than feed the detractor narrative. As we continue to do this and share both our wins and learnings, the faster virtual work will catch up with hundreds of years of on-site work legacy.

In summary, the ongoing debate about the future of work, whether virtual or in-person, is an opportunity for us to shape a more flexible, adaptable and inclusive workplace. The key lies in embracing virtual work as a unique modality and daring to experiment, gather data and design it to meet the evolving needs of employees and organizations.

The path forward may be challenging, but it holds the promise of a more efficient, effective and employee-friendly work environment for the future.