Resurgent pandemic upends NC businesses' plans to bring workers back to office

Brooks Raiford, president and chief executive of the North Carolina Technology Association, said many companies had just solidified return-to-office plans before the virus' Delta variant through them a curveball.

"Remote work, hybrid work, how they would use their space, how they would determine who needs to be in the office when and how often," Raiford said of the planning that has been upended.

The association has been routinely polling company leaders to get a pulse on local businesses, and there are positives in the most recent survey:

But Raiford said he feels the future of what work will look like will depend a lot on whether you’re vaccinated or not. While several companies are requiring workers to be vaccinated, others will likely require weekly testing for unvaccinated employees if they come to the office.

"If you don’t have it, you can still come in the office if we feel you need to come in the office, but you’ll need to show evidence of regular testing," he predicts.

Virus testing will become "much more normal as part of your life if you’re unvaccinated," he said.

Vaccines aside, Raiford said the way companies conduct business is likely changed forever.

"This welcoming of the notion of hybrid across your workforce is here to stay," he said. "I don’t think it’s one of those things that you take back."

Companies will move away from having all staff in the office on the same day, allowing employees the flexibility of working from home while also offering employers the benefit of in-person collaboration and team building.

"They might do a Monday, Wednesday, Friday for some of the staff and Tuesday, Thursday for others," he said.

The association’s poll showed 85 percent of companies are considering a hybrid work strategy moving forward. Others are going even further, with a third saying at least half of their workforce will have the opportunity to work remotely on a permanent basis.

Companies that become too rigid with return-to-office policies may find it hard to keep and recruit new talent, Raiford said.

"Offering employees the flexibility and the quality of life to manage their lives in concert with work, that’s hard to take that away once it’s been out there," he said.