Worker Mobility Is A Feature, Not A Bug, Of The Modern Workplace

We know there are benefits of workers moving around when working. Research and practice indicate that changing buildings, workstations, and postures within a single day can enhance physical and mental health, space efficiency, and organizational collaboration. 

Yet worker movement is often portrayed as something to be tolerated – as a sacrifice required to achieve wins such as reduced real estate spending or cross-departmental exposure.

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I think it’s time for a re-framing of worker mobility: It’s a feature, not a bug, of the modern workplace. Mobility is a goal in its own right and not the collateral damage we incur in pursuit of other aims. 

Updating the narrative about mobility will help ensure the translation of empirical evidence into social change. Evidence by itself, unfortunately, doesn’t always win the day. Embracing the benefits of mobility could help weaken the inertia and the active resistance to change perpetuating existing practices. It might even inspire individuals and organizations to identify new opportunities to facilitate mobility.

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In addition, elevating mobility to be its own goal – with significant wellness implications – leads us to think not just about what happens at the workplace but also about workers’ physical well-being and surroundings when they operate remotely.

How do we shift how we think and talk about worker movement? Here are some ideas.

• Don’t go too far, too fast. There are exceptions and nuances to the benefits of mobility. Some individuals may want and need to move less or to move within different constraints. One neurodivergent worker I spoke with wasn’t anti-movement per se but did report a transaction cost in terms of re-focusing each time she changed where she was sitting.
• Reorient your organization’s mindset. The opportunity to move is an employee benefit. Consider adding opportunities for mobility in job descriptions.

• Promote awareness among workers about the nature and benefits of mobility.  Be as broad as you need to be – outcomes include worker effectiveness, growth, and wellness and organizational factors such as recruitment and retention. Goals can be quite specific, such as reducing dementia through more cognitive stimulation.

• Enlist workers to think about how to create opportunities for mobility in the realms of space and workplace interactions and processes.

• Set up clear, shared evaluation metrics for movement and its benefits, and set goals when possible.

• Establish the infrastructure to facilitate movement. That includes providing choice of spaces, designing processes and systems for finding and booking spaces, and putting incentives in place to promote desired behavior.

• Create meaningfully different spaces, including specialized spaces, then spotlight the availability of these resources.

• Have a winning mentality. Know you’re doing good. Invest in the workplace experience and grease the wheels to help achieve the benefits you’ve set your sights on.

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