2020 has been a strange year. In many ways, the pandemic has brought us closer together. At the beginning, we stood united. And since the nation was forced into giving home working a try, many of us have been invited into the homes of colleagues, gaining a unique and privileged insight into the personal lives hiding within our professional networks.

But in other ways the crisis has divided the nation. The three different tiers are a rather crass example of that, but there is other ‘othering’ at play, too. While most agree the health of the nation is the prerogative, there are split opinions in terms of what aspect of health to prioritise – physical versus mental, versus economic.

These facets of health are clearly all linked which is why there are many differing ideas about what the UK should do next. Perhaps this division in opinion is why there are as many rule breakers as there are law-abiding citizens, or so the media would have us believe.

We are not just distanced physically but emotionally, too. This is particularly true for the business world. And organisations could be caught up in a matrix of pain if they do not carefully manage their dispersed teams and shifting relationship dynamics.

Five classes of workers could be in conflict. These include furloughed workers who may feel like second-class citizens, urgently trying to catch up on what they missed; workers who have continued to work throughout lockdown and may feel aggrieved; workers who are bearing the extra workload in depleted teams; workers who do not want to work from home; and workers who are unhappy about the prospect of returning to the office in the future.

While we continue to navigate uncertain seas, we must be aware of dissent in the ranks if we’re to mitigate mutiny. Leaders now need to establish a new management framework to marry these changes to workplaces and workforces or else they risk losing control.

A matrix of pain

While the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is set to conclude in March 2021, business leaders can’t expect those who have been on furlough leave for the best part of a year to ‘snap back into it’.

According to a Censuswide survey of 1,000 workers for a security training firm, seven out of 10 furloughed staff have experienced email anxiety while away from work, admitting to checking their work inbox even though doing so could be in breach of the rules.

Research in the public domain suggests there are rising anxiety levels and a considerable number of employees are worried about job security. Such concerns will likely impact everything from people’s sense of self-worth and performance at work to their commitment, loyalty and ability to engage with their employer, not to mention their health and happiness.

Staff returning to work will need to be managed with care after their prolonged absence, and reintegration must be handled sensitively. If business leaders do nothing, two tribes of worker could emerge.

Furloughed staff may feel isolated, undervalued and out of the loop on their return, and employees who have worked throughout the crisis, often overstretched and in unfamiliar roles, may feel resentment toward their returning colleagues.

Working apart impacts team dynamics, the frequency and quality of communications, levels of consensus and conflict, and the amount and quality of social interaction.

Not only does successful virtual working require an understanding of the differences that people experience but, to avoid damage to team and community performance, people need to also respond to the differences and find alternative ways to operate.

Smoother sailing

In March 2020, the Advanced Workplace Institute (AWI), AWA’s professional network and research arm, undertook a study on virtual working, in partnership with the Amsterdam-based Centre for Evidence-Based Management (CEBMa), to build a clearer picture of the factors that impact virtual working and the leadership traits and techniques necessary to manage remote teams.

The study identified six factors that make the most significant difference to the performance of people, teams, and communities that operate in a virtual model: social cohesion, trust, information sharing, perceived supervisory support, vision and goal clarity, and external communication.

Put simply, performance is determined by the strength of team’s social and cognitive states i.e., the degree to which they are socially cohesive, trust one another, operate within a psychologically safe environment, and share skills, experience and knowledge freely.

Social cohesion and trust are vital ingredients to create a productive workforce yet in the coming months there is a cocktail of circumstances that will put both of those under pressure.

With their teams in danger of dividing into different camps, leaders need to make a conscious effort to rebuild the social cohesion possibly damaged by lockdown, the furlough scheme and ongoing business uncertainty.

This involves establishing a new management framework to marry with the changes to workplace and workforce dynamics or else organisations and their teams will lose momentum, motivation and that much-needed fighting spirit.

We will only get through this crisis by working together. We must not become an ‘us and them’ world in the face of adversity. It is a time for re-invention, co-creation and leadership. Return to the past or move forward to a connected cohesive future, the choice is clear.

Andrew Mawson is the leader of global workplace change consultancy Advanced Workplace Associates and co-author of the IFMA-adopted Workplace Management Framework.

From a general management career in the IT industry, his unrelenting curiosity for the transition to new models of work led to the founding of AWA in 1992. Since then, Mawson has worked with some of the world’s leading organisations on their journey to explore and implement new forms of working and workplace.