In last week’s newsletter, I introduced you to my Future of Work Redesigned compass. We explored the “culture” point on the compass.

There are six points on my Future of Work Redesigned compass. These are the six directions in which you must head if you are going to redesign the future of work in your organisation.

Culture – improve the culture in the organisation so the benefits of hybrid working can be realised

Strategy – co-create a hybrid working strategy

Leadership – leadership requires an uplift in skills and competencies to lead high performing hybrid teams

Technology – optimise hybrid working now and into the future by using the best technologies available to you

Empowerment – employees need empowerment and autonomy over where, when, and how they work and there must be trust

Wellbeing – provide every employee with a holistic and contextual platform for mental wellbeing and increased resilience

Future of work redesigned compass

 

In this series of newsletters, I am exploring each of the points on the compass. This week we will look at strategy.

Strategy

Strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve one or more goals. In this context, strategy is the plan for the future of work in your organisation.

The challenge

The challenge is that there is a lack of strategy regarding the future of work in many organisations. There is no clear direction. Many leaders seem hesitant to take bold steps and are waiting for the dust to settle so they can see what a post-pandemic “normal” looks like. The issue is, we are nearly 2 years in from the onset of the pandemic with no clear idea of what a post-pandemic “normal” will look like and that cannot be a reason not to formulate a strategy.

Leaders must push their organisations forward and start to design the future of work. Despite using the term “future of work” this is not something that can be put off. Action is needed now. The use of the term “future of work” may be a contributor to organisational complacency as it infers that action can be deferred when it cannot.

Workforce and workplace planning is an immediate imperative unless you want to become a “small dot in the rear-view mirror” of your competitors. This is not a time to wait and see what other organisations are doing. You need to get on this change curve now.

The lack of direction is causing increasing anxiety and concern for employees. Silence is not golden – it is dangerous. Here’s the problem: Silence causes a vacuum and vacuums need to be filled. When employees know that change is afoot, but the employer says little or nothing, employees will fill the vacuum with conjecture and rumour.

It will not take much time for that conjecture and rumour to become employee reality, which is a dangerous place to go. Their misinformed reality can become a social-media frenzy, resulting in a damaged brand and reputation, employee backlash and talent attrition.

The response

This will not be a small change. It is a complex one with many integrated parts. But that is not a reason to put it in the “too-hard” basket and just hope it will go away. It won’t. Employers and employees must accept that this will be a learning journey and that the strategy / plan we put in place will most likely change over time as we evolve. Adaptation and flexibility are going to be core to the success of organisations.

Communication and collaboration

Adopting a hybrid working model and all that comes with that is a significant change for most organisations. Employees know this. They are also fully aware that the endgame is unknown.

Many organizations are struggling to come to terms with the enormity of the change and are baffled about where to start. They are reticent about sharing this reality. This is a time for honesty and transparency. Leaders must be prepared to be vulnerable and admit that they do not have all the answers. They must have an open conversation with employees about what they know and don’t know about the future. This is not a journey to embark on alone. Everyone must be an integral part of the venture.

Communication and collaboration are imperatives to the creation of a working strategy for the workplace and the workforce.

Plenty has been researched and written about the gap between what employers think employees want from the future of work, and what the employees actually want. That gap cannot be allowed to exist. Employers must engage with the workforce and determine their preferences for the future of the workforce and the workplace including flexible working arrangements. Do employees want to remain fully remote? Do they want to return to an office? Do they want a mixture of both? How many days would they like in the office? What activities do they think warrants the team (of part of) being in an office? What challenges do they currently have with their working arrangements?

This conversation must inform the strategy. There must be an assessment of what is needed to achieve business outcomes. If the preferences of employees enable achievement of these outcomes, then their needs and desires can be met. When there is misalignment, e.g., there are some work practices that are only optimal when employees are co-located and remote working is restricted, make the necessary adjustments to meet as many employee preferences as possible whilst still being able to achieve business outcomes.

Throughout the process there should be regular and consistent communication about progress being made, and actions being taken. Communication channels should be always open so employees can seek out information and ask questions.

This must be a collaborative venture with active involvement and representation from all parts of the organisation. This is the time to stop doing change to people and start doing it with them.

Change the focus

Employers are so distracted about whether the future of work is hybrid or not, they are missing the bigger picture when thinking about workforce and workplace strategy. There should no longer be a debate about whether the future is fully remote, office-bound, or hybrid. Employees have clearly stated that they want to retain flexibility.

It is time to stop procrastinating and accept that the future of work is hybrid. If you don’t, you won’t have a future to worry about. Your employees will have left. Put a line in the sand now and focus on the other things that matter.

A recent study by Atlassian called The State of Teams declared that it is not where you work but how you work that makes teams thrive. The research found that there are eight factors that influence team health.

1.     Trust in leadership

2.     Respect for diverse viewpoints

3.     Transparent decision-making

4.     Skill and personality fit

5.     Well-defined roles

6.     Clear goals and strategies

7.     Coordination in and outside the team

8.     Psychological safety

In addition to a hybrid operating model, these are the outcomes that your strategy should be focused on achieving.

What are you going to put in place to ensure there is trust, respect, transparency, the right learning and development for the right people at the right time, a shared sense of purpose, cross-functional collaboration and psychological safety?

Workforce strategy

The workforce strategy will include the definition of policies and hybrid-operating norms.

The workforce must be prepared for the change so organisational change management activities are paramount – communication, engagement, stakeholder mapping and impact analysis, education and training, reinforcement techniques etc.

Leaders need to be able to lead high performing hybrid teams. Leading a co-located team is a different proposition to leading a hybrid team. New mindsets, styles, and behaviours are needed. Leaders need to be able to measure performance on outcomes and value delivered not hours at a desk. There must not be any proximity bias and there must be empowerment, autonomy, and trust. Leaders must stop focusing on control and prioritise the needs and motivations of their employees. Psychological safety in the workforce is of vital importance. The workforce strategy must contain a leadership development program to uplift leadership capability and competency.

Employee wellbeing must be first and foremost in the hybrid workforce strategy. Maintaining the status quo will not cut it. 

Employers must ensure that they protect the organisation and its employees, particularly those who are working remotely, by meeting legal and compliance obligations. Consideration also must be given to compensation. Will there be differentiation in pay and benefits depending on an employee’s location? Will employees be provided with a stipend to fund their home office?

In addition to leadership development programs, employees must be equipped to work in a hybrid operating model. They need education and development around looking after their mental and physical wellbeing, effective use of collaboration technologies and tools, cross-team and cross-location communication and collaboration techniques,

Recruitment, onboarding, and induction for remote workers needs to be clearly defined.

Continuous improvement is imperative and therefore leaders must intentionally seek out employee feedback on what is working what is not working and act accordingly.

Workplace strategy

Gone is the Monday to Friday 9 to 5 in the office for most knowledge workers. The future of work is not about being in the same physical location but about flexibility and a blend of in-person and remote collaboration. Therefore, the strategy needs to address how the existing office and real-estate will be repurposed for the hybrid workforce. The office is not dead. It will just be different.

The one question you should NOT be asking at this time is, “How much space will we need?”

This is putting the cart in front of the horse.

This question will need to be addressed once you have explored the relationship of the organisation to its purpose, culture and the type of work people are doing. You need to undertake a diagnostic of workforce preferences, work patterns, and work types.

Then you can ask, “How much space do we need?”

Workspaces will need to be repurposed for specific types of work and collaboration. Rather than dictate the days on which employees must attend the office to manage occupancy, the time spent in the office should be determined by a team and then a booking system used to reserve the space needed. A team may decide to have a monthly face-to-face meeting and reserve the space for that purpose. Members of a team (or cross functional teams) may determine that collaboration and innovation would be improved with co-location and reserve space for that purpose.

All employees should be able to book a desk space or workspace as needed.

Video-conferencing facilities will need to be the best they can be. Collaboration experiences should be optimal regardless of where employees are located. The experience from a remote location should be as close to working from the office as possible. Different types of work will need different types of collaboration tools and resources. The diagnostic of work types should inform which employees need to be provisioned with certain collaboration solutions. It does not make financial sense to equip everyone with the top-end technology and tools if they are not going to utilise them.

Workspace usage should be monitored and tracked so that continual improvement and space optimisation can be undertaken.

Digital strategy

A digital technological strategy must ensure that there is consolidation of the myriad of communication and collaboration tools in use across the organisation. Employees need a consistent and streamlined experience.

The strategy should consider Collaborative Work Management (CWM) systems. CWM is a set of tools that provides employees a unified and central platform to easily share business data, documents, and discussions. It is the central hub for all conversations about work, and a place where the work can exist. It allows team members to easily collaborate with each other, even if they are in different locations and using different devices.

There are technologies that will replicate the spontaneous water cooler conversations. These virtual water coolers can select employees based on similar interests (in and outside of work) and connect them for a virtual coffee break.

The digital strategy should also include how the organisation stays ahead of the technology curve and is always aware of the latest developments and trends that will enhance the hybrid experience.

Security considerations will be key to protect the organisation against breaches and attacked including a zero-trust approach.

Summary                                                 

A strategy and plan will provide employees with a sense of direction. It must be accompanied by a conversation that acknowledges that this is uncharted territory and therefore the direction may change overtime. There will be bumps in the road, but these will be embraced by all as learning opportunities as the organisation, in its entirety, embarks on the greatest challenge and opportunity it has ever been presented with.

Next week, we will look at the Leadership point on the compass.