How to Successfully Work from Home : 3 Things you must get right as a Business Leader

Nowadays, preparing your work environment for the future is a trending topic. Regardless of their size, companies worldwide are continually striving to devise workable solutions to adapt to the ever-evolving New Normal. Additionally, they have to identify what the future might look like beforehand.

To create a future version of your organization, I think it is essential to pay attention to the three pillars/areas I will discuss in this blog. Don't consider them a "Set in Store" solution to your confusion but mere aspects you must incorporate in your business model. 

The three pillars are Talent, Transformation, and Trust.

Talent - Your People

Richard Branson rightly said that:

To transition from a 'presence work culture' to results-oriented work culture,' you must ensure providing your workforce with:

1. Flexible working hours. 

The Work-Life balance is an outdated approach. Now, you as an employer must encourage a "working life balance." That's true and actually quite simple! It's not about whether people want to work during the day, or through the night or when ever, but about how you can support them in the new lifestyle which they choose.

2. Remote/Flexible offices. 

At the moment, people aren't allowed to work overseas given the many restrictions on foreign travel worldwide. Consider it an opportunity to hire better talent from a little further away. Let's suppose you live in the London suburbs. So, it won't be practical enough to find work on the city's outskirts as such a long commute would be troublesome daily. However, the scenario will change dramatically if you only need to be there once or twice a week. Do you see the point now?

3. Set up for Success. 

Do you want to set up your team for success? Many companies allow their staff freedom to work from anywhere simply by giving them laptops. As per my experience, this isn't how you can support a productive setup. In the New World, every work location fulfills a specific task. So, are you supporting your team to create a productive work-from-home setup? Are you ensuring your team has access to reliable communication platforms so that they could choose where to work from? Do you define and differentiate where to be "creative and interact," and where to "create culture" with your team, or you communicate enough to "get work done?" Different work environments fulfill different purposes.

Transformation

It's a common perception that to digitize an organization the first step is to understand the process and then proceed with the digitization. That's how things worked in older times. In the new normal, digitization starts with the employee. So, the key to digitization is empowering your employee. Focus on enhancing their creativity and personality at an individual level rather than improving the process they will follow. 

In this regard, we need to encourage transformation at two levels:

IT- This is where we put people in the center and create an ecosystem where human resource and intellect are leveraged via IT. And not the other way around.

Mindset: We have to change the mindset of how management and leadership work. We, as managers, can influence the team's work environment. Therefore, to ensure productivity, we must be clear about the context our messaging will be consumed from our teams. I suggest you get inspiration from social media platforms. Create engaging communication content for your organization, which your team will consume in the context (environment) of their choice.

Trust

To make a successful switch from a presence to results-oriented work culture, earning Trust is the key. Trust is more important now than ever. But, don't consider it a checklist item because you may need to prove it every day. On the one hand, trust should be maintained in the physical space so that your team feels safe. And, on the other hand, it revolves around the way you handle sensitive issues like privacy.

What you need to understand is that it is a culture question. You have to show your understanding and the will to handle such issues and prove to your team that you care almost daily. 

So, where and how do I start transitioning to the new work world? 

I suggest you start with Yourself first and then proceed to your team and finally with your processes. Firstly, identify and determine the ideal communication platform you will use. Look for a platform with the highest user experience and adoption rate. Also, increase the way you communicate. I am not referring to the volume of communication but intentional interactions. Identify when to communicate and when to interact. Start leveraging communication tools to empower your team to do more and help them get more done via technology.

Consider communication as an adhesive that holds these pillars together in the new normal and the pillars as the gateway for your organization to move forward.