The future of how we work, where we work, how that work is measured, and even how we get to work has always held a prominent place in the tech community, but never more so since the onset of the pandemic and the outbreaks. entire industries recalibrated to the reality of remote collaboration.

At the GeekWire summit last week, former Washington Governor Christine Gregoire joined Archana Singh from Expedia and Dan Spaulding from Zillow (both HR directors at their respective companies) to talk about the changes they are making. observed in the workplace and likely changes to come. to come.

Spaulding said every company has asked employees to change a lot of things in the way they work. And some of those changes are here to stay.

“Certainly, the thing at Zillow that we believe will last after the pandemic is simply the need for employees to have maximum flexibility in how they use their time on a daily basis,” he said.

The concept of flexible work won’t be a few days a week, Spaulding said. “It’s going to be everyday.

Singh added that the pandemic has imposed adaptation challenges on everyone.

“It’s about learning and testing ways,” she said. “There is definitely a great deal of attention to what sustainable human performance is. What’s here to stay is an inordinate attention to human performance and adaptive approaches to problem solving.

She added that companies are starting to understand when work should be done as a team, when work should be done in offices and when it should be done individually.

Grégoire, now CEO of the Seattle Challenge Employer Alliance, noted that one of the changes she anticipates isn’t inside the workplace – anywhere – but also outside. . People who go downtown now, she said, won’t find the same place they left 20 months ago.

“These restaurants, these (businesses) that provided services downtown are going to suffer,” she said. “Even if employees come to downtown Seattle, are they going to find the same options and opportunities they had during lunch, or after or before work? I do not think so.

Regarding wages set based on job type or geography, Spaulding said Zillow does not cut people’s wages when they move. “We have changed our whole approach to compensation,” he said. “Instead of looking at compensation at the city level, we are looking at compensation at the national level.”

Singh told Expedia, “Compensation is a market issue.”

“We operate in 58 countries. Obviously compensation in Gurgaon, India is different from Singapore, [which is] is different from China, Seattle or Chicago, ”she said. “We compare compensation across all of these markets. When we move people from Singapore to Seattle, they go into Seattle compensation. “

When it comes to productivity in a remote working environment, Gregoire said early expectations turned out to be wrong.

“When the pandemic first started, the question that arose was the fear of all businesses that productivity would collapse. Six months later, that was absolutely not true, ”she said. “In fact, the experience was just the opposite. Productivity has actually increased.

She added, however, that mental health issues arose with the move to working from home.