Making remote work work for you

You can force them to return to the office, but it doesn’t mean they’ll like it

Seismic waves of change have been crashing into businesses and organizations, kind of all at once. The pandemic exposed a lot of weaknesses, and those that have stepped up to strengthen those areas have seen improvements while those that haven’t fell behind.

You might feel like you’ve fallen behind too — it’s a recession year and times are tough across industries.?

It’s not too late to make a change. Luckily, a lot of these changes actually save you money in the short term and improve your organization in the long term.

What’s the right way to do hybrid work? How do we prevent quiet quitting? How do I connect employees working in different locations??

The answers are more related than you might think, and actually simple to adapt.

Hybrid work is the worst of both worlds

Having to be in the office 2-3 days a week means employees still need to live near the office, likely in an expensive metropolitan area, wasting hours a week commuting and paying for meals.

Over 77% of workers prefer the flexibility of remote work, especially among younger Millennial and Gen Z workers. Employees want more remote work. Usually, it’s the C-Suite that wants things to go back to in person, but they are losing the battle and turning to desperation.?

Employers mention concerns about productivity, but switching to a consolidated digital workplace can make a big difference, preventing time wasted switching from software to software or searching for files.

Typically smaller teams function better in a digital work environment. Consider taking a committee-based approach to projects, where each person is the respective expert for that section of the project, with scheduled touchpoints and dedicated communication channels.

The changing face of franchises

Many of our partners are multi-location businesses like franchises. Many are hybrid businesses in the sense that some employees work at the corporate office (which may or may not be remote) and some employees work in the field (like line cooks and cashiers).?

People are working in more locations than ever before. Even in small to medium-sized regional companies, it’s easy for busy franchisees in the field to miss an email when they aren’t glued to their computer.?

Scheduling regular touchpoints between corporate and franchisees in the field keeps communication open for both parties. Using a joint calendar to establish these meetings and sync with your Google Calendar keeps teams working on the same schedule despite their different working schedules.

A pizza party isn’t good enough

When employers enforce in-person work, it leaves employees feeling that there's a lack of trust and confidence in their ability to do their job and be productive when they're unsupervised.

The past few years have seen an upsurge in “quiet quitting” where employees don't get the compensation they need and do the bare minimum until they find work that motivates them. A majority of the global workforce are quiet quitting right now.

You may have also seen the latest trend of “loud quitting” — where 1 in 5 employees globally actively go out of their way to disengage from their employers and sabotage the employer’s reputation to prospective new hires.

Finding ways to reward employees for their hard work, above and beyond can be the encouragement they need. Give employees the rewards they actually want and they feel like they deserve. Implementing a transparent program that reveals how employees can get raises can be very motivating.

There are other creative ways to reward employees. If they take an extra training course, if they are logging extra hours, if they had to go into work an extra day, if they had to deal with something unpleasant. These can all accumulated into points and turned into rewards like an extra day off, gift cards or other prizes.

If you only do one thing

The real work for employers is creating opportunities for employees to give honest feedback and then turning that feedback into a plan that works for your business. The easy part is finding software that makes work simple and efficient for you and your employees.

Start your 30 day free trial and get a customized digital workplace experience, right out of the box. Add and remove modules as needed, no fixed contract.