A recent report from PWC entitled “The Future of Work. The Board’s Role in Rewiring Work” has some interesting insights.

Whilst addressing questions and considerations for Non-Executive Directors (NEDs), I believe that the report should be read by every leader tasked with leading their teams and organisation into the post-pandemic future.

The Now Of Work

“While there may be hesitance among leaders to take bold steps, as they ‘wait for the dust to settle’ on our post-pandemic ‘normal’, NEDs must start pushing organisations forward and leaders must start to experiment and trial new approaches – to leadership.”

Yes – you read that right. Leaders must find new ways to lead.

The report was compiled following four virtual sessions with leading thinkers and NEDs exploring how to create a new reality in the most effective way.

 Last week I explored sessions 1 to 3 and this week I will focus on the fourth and final session - experience

Session 4 – Our experience of work

Echoing my belief that most leaders are not ready to lead hybrid workforce, the report states, “Leaders face the challenge of creating a consistent and compelling employee experience across geographical boundaries and multiple locations and are confronted with the question of what role they should play in facilitating this.”

An often-unconsidered impact of remote working by both employees and employers is the fact that our brains have consistent ‘social cognitive needs’ that must be catered for.

Evidence shows that office life has traditionally brought with it a variety of ‘energy sources’ that feed these needs.

The brain chemicals we need are generated in the following ways:

·      Shared rituals trigger the release of serotonin

·      Public praise brings a burst of dopamine

·      Celebrating success together increases adrenaline

·      Informal chats at the water cooler create connect and a boost of oxytocin.

“These brain chemicals, in turn, can impact our ability to think logically, deliver creative insights, improve focus, support courage and persistence in the face of adversity or challenge and, crucially, show understanding and empathy for others in the workplace. They can also impact our wellbeing in the workplace - at a time when remote work can make it harder to identify who is struggling.”

The challenges will be to meet these cognitive needs in different ways. This could be one of the largest areas of challenge as well as opportunity.

Challenge 1 – The remote gap

As already discussed, the office environment can generate much needed brain chemicals such as serotonin.

When working remotely, many of the subtle but consistent serotonin triggers such as the feeling of ‘belonging’ and ‘comfort’ sitting with your team in a familiar spot, are now missing.

The opportunity is to find ways to address the ‘remote gap’ and keep employee brains working at their best and support their needs in changed environments.

Challenge 2 – The network gap

Whilst it is imperative that there is a focus on employee health in any working environment, there should also be a focus on the health or organisational networks.

Networks are easier to build when in-person as opposed to remote. When working remotely, we only see the people we are directly interacting with. We don’t have sight of the wider networks and relationships that are happening.

This could be an issue as the performance of the organisation relies on the health of its networks.

We have to intentionally help people curate and strengthen their networks regardless of their location.

The Microsoft report “The Next great Disruption Is Hybrid – Are We Ready”  revealed a clear trend which was the shift to remote shrunk our networks.

At the onset of the pandemic, interactions with our close networks at work increased, while interactions with our distant networks diminished.

These shrinking networks will endanger innovation. It is harder to generate new ideas and avoid groupthink.

Without intervention, organisations could become more siloed than they were before the move to hybrid working.

Leaders must look for ways to foster the social capital, cross-team collaboration, and spontaneous idea-sharing that’s been driving workplace innovation for decades.

 Challenge 3 – The empathy gap

An important challenge to be addressed is the ability to detect stress and anxiety in our employees.

We need to determine how best to uncover those who are struggling and know how to offer support.

It is far too late to realise the situation when employees burn-out.

It is often easier to notice changes in a person’s behavior, temperament, language, and demeanour when we are in person as opposed to on a video call 

The subtle clues may go undetected. We have to close the online ‘empathy gap.’

Leaders have to create an environment in which not only can they discover employees who are struggling, but also one in which employees feel safe to reach out for help.

Everyone is different and their experience of hybrid working will vary with their personal circumstances. There is therefore no one-size-fits-all solution.

Leaders need to build trust and create psychological safety so that everyone feels comfortable opening up bout challenges they may be facing.

“Developing capabilities in your leaders to close the empathy gap and build team habits that enable everyone to support each other will also be critical to sustaining your culture and the wellbeing of your people.”

Challenge 4 – The leadership gap

There is no question that leadership development will be the saviour of many organisations.

As mentioned earlier, leaders are not ready to lead the hybrid team. They have not been equipped with the skills and competencies to do so effectively.

We have waited decades for leaders to move from a position of command and control to one of empowerment and trust with little movement happening.

I don’t believe, that in most cases, this is a result of recalcitrant leaders but more a case of lack of enablement.

We need to look at how we develop both our currently leaders and our leaders of the future.

Leaders need to understand the cognitive needs of the employees and the new ways in which they can support and engage them.

Conclusion

Addressing both the challenges and opportunities that the future of work offers us is complex.

Despite its title, it is not something that can wait.

We have to change – not to create a ‘new norm’ – but an ‘inspired different’ that works better for all.