Cerner, Kansas City’s largest employer, unveils return to work plans, new office model
Most employees of Cerner Corp. will not be required to return to the office full time, the North Kansas City-based health care IT firm announced Thursday.
Tracy Platt, executive vice president and chief human resources officer, said employees would return to a hybrid working environment in the fall. That means some employees will work in the office as usual, some will work remotely and others will choose a mix of the two.
In a blog post, Platt said a small share of Cerner employees would be designated as on-site or virtual workers. But most will be classified as “dynamic,” meaning they can work at home or in the office “as determined by the activities and work to be completed and their work style preferences.”
“While there is no single recipe for success, we envision many teams will choose to work on-site a few days a week, or a few weeks a month, with the remaining time spent at home or in a remote location,” she wrote.
Cerner’s announcement reflects the wider acceptance of remote work that was forced upon many employers at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic. Many learned how productive workers could be outside the office setting. But, as Platt noted Thursday, remote work has come at a cost: Many employees miss the social connections of the workplace.
A recent survey of the workforce found that 70% of Cerner employees prefer a mix of working at home and in the office.
With more than 14,000 employees across several campuses, Cerner is the single largest private employer in the Kansas City region.
Much of Cerner’s workforce has traditionally traveled across the nation and the globe to sell and support products used by hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities. But the company has also maintained a sizable footprint of real estate at home with big campuses in North Kansas City, south Kansas City and Kansas City, Kansas.
Earlier in the pandemic, many companies had hoped to return to their offices in the spring or summer of 2020. But rising case numbers stifled most of those plans.
In March, H&R Block was among the first of the area’s major employers to set a date for a return to the office and to lay out its vision for a post-pandemic workplace. The tax preparation company plans to bring workers back to its downtown Kansas City tower in September. But workers will only be required to be on site three days a week: Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. They can work wherever they choose on Mondays and Fridays
Cerner has no specific date in the fall for returning workers to the office, but will let individual teams choose their own time frames. Spokeswoman Stephanie Greenwood said the company would use a “slow, phased approach” throughout the remainder of the year.
“The focus will be on providing flexibility for associates based on particular business needs, and starting with no more than 20% capacity in select buildings,” she told The Star. “This will gradually increase through the summer and for the remainder of the year, based on COVID-19 guidelines.”
In her blog post on Thursday, Platt said the hybrid work model would require an environment of mutual trust and empowerment.
“We recognize that Cerner leaders will need to lead differently in this new environment,” she said. “As we transition into our hybrid work environment, we’re providing additional training and development opportunities to help our leaders and our teams collectively succeed in managing and engaging within a hybrid distributed workforce model.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 4:31 PM.
