Winter Summit 2021: The Future of Work
In the first session of the ACG Winter Summit 2021, ACG CEO Tom Bohn asked Insperity's chairman and CEO how business thrived remotely and where they stumbled.
More Americans are working remotely than ever before and businesses are still weighing the advantages and challenges of virtual work. As COVID-19 vaccines are expected to roll out in vast numbers this spring, the main questions facing the middle market are stark: When do businesses get back to normal and what will it look like? For the first session of the ACG Winter Summit 2021, ACG CEO Tom Bohn asked Paul Sarvadi, chairman and CEO of Insperity, how business thrived remotely and where virtual work stumbled. As the leader of a professional employer organization (PEO) that supports more than 100,000 businesses and 2 million employees, Sarvadi weighs in on corporate culture, innovation and leadership. Here is a lightly edited transcript of their talk.
Insperity is an Official Sponsor of Growth with ACG, the association’s highest sponsorship category. Last summer, ACG named Insperity an endorsed partner.
Q. Is remote work here to stay?
Paul Sarvadi, Insperity: I see it as a pendulum swinging out of necessity. We discovered some positives, such as increased productivity, and saving a lot of time traveling if you can roll out of bed and go to work. We have really seen a productive gain.
But the downsides are really starting to come to the surface. First and foremost, a lack of collaboration and a deficit of innovation, and the effect on people with a lack of social interaction, which is thought-provoking and energizing. The reality is we are social beings and this is not good.
Q. Any other concerns?
Work has also invaded the home and home has a separate purpose. I worry about the effect on our people. You can do this for a while, but I think you have to proactively bring people back to work and really sell why the workplace has special opportunities for people.
It will be a challenge for the middle market to find a balance between productivity gain in remote work vs. the innovation and collaboration and social interaction that is necessary to be productive.
Q. What do companies have to do to make the workplace more attractive?
I believe we’re going to have a competition of corporate culture. The companies with the best corporate culture were able to transition to work from home the easiest. They were able to maintain their effectiveness because the culture was ingrained, and people knew what to do.
Middle-market firms are going to have to proactively advance the culture and the values that drive the company and reinforce them. We are going to have to create interactions to drive home the culture. Rather than letting it happen naturally, you’re going to have to create those interactions that describe and reinforce that culture.
Q. What are great leaders doing today?
They demonstrate care and concern for their people. Some leaders have a natural advantage because they think like that, but a lot of leaders don’t understand how valuable their words are, like showing appreciation and letting people know they are on their mind. It’s also important not to take yourself too seriously.
Q. What are you hearing about employees willing to come back to the office?
There is still some fear and trepidation. Looking back, we thought it was going to take three weeks to slow the spread. This happened in an election year and this made the pandemic politicized to a degree, and we have some really unfounded fear and trepidation. If you are in a situation where you are vulnerable for all the reasons we now understand, then certainly an extra level of care is important.
The vaccine has been positioned as the door opening and getting back to work.
And I think that is going to happen fairly soon as you get into February and March.
But I want to encourage business leadership. You are going to have to create a strategy for people coming back to work. We are going to have to encourage folks to come back to work.
Q. What will the workplace look like in the future?
Well, certainly we have learned a lot as employers, employees and consumers. And we have found that there are other ways to get things done.
As I look at work in the future, there is an element of remote work. We reached out to our corporate staff and said, help us figure this out. [Help us] figure out the right mix, the optimal mix of how much time per day where you get the culture and innovation and collaboration – but you also get some of the advantages and conveniences of work from home and family life. How do we find that happy medium?
How do we also develop the tools that we may need to encourage interaction and engagement and the continuity of working from home and the office? There are new tools and new ways to think about leading your team.
So, finding that optimal mix of going to be the quest for the next few years.
Phil Albinus is Middle Market Growth’s managing editor.
