RETHINKING FLEXIBILITY AT WORK
95% OF WORKERS WANT TO SET THEIR OWN HOURS FOR A BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE
What’s more important – where you work, or when and how you work?
In 2022 a Wall Street Journal survey found that:
In his WorkLife podcast, organisational psychologist Adam Grant (who has been Wharton's top-rated professor for seven consecutive years) observes that the flexibility conversation has focused heavily on remote work.
“We’re all tired of debating where we should work,” he says.
“What we need is a broader conversation about what flexibility means.”
Ahead of his first-ever Australian tour Adam Grant LIVE in February 2024, we explore what he, and other authors and thought leaders say about flexible work.
Is it time to give employees more autonomy in where, when, and how they work?
What is Workplace Flexibility?
According to Australia’s Fair Work Ombudsman , workplace flexibility comes in many forms and can look like:
Fair Work says that flexibility helps employees maintain a work-life balance. Interestingly, it says that flexibility in the workplace can help employers improve the productivity and efficiency of their business.
Employees crave autonomy
Before we look at what a great workplace looks like, let's explore how giving people autonomy and flexibility benefits an organisation.
Harvard Business Review cites research on the self-determination theory that asserts that one’s autonomous motivation is what leads to success and fulfillment.
“If we think of entrusting employees with greater autonomy as the encouragement of self-determination, we can expect a greater degree of satisfaction, fulfillment, and engagement at work,” HBR says.
“[That’s] because the outcomes are likely to be perceived as the result of their own inherent ability. Similarly, it will serve as an intrinsic motivator to perform better.”
Benefits of better employee experience
The best way to approach conversations around flexibility is to find out what each employee believes enhances their experience of work. It will be different for different people. It might be where they work, it might be when they work, and it could be more centered around whom they work with, and on what.
Salesforce Global Growth Evangelist Tiffani Bova and author of The Experience Mindset says there’s a ripple effect when you pay attention to getting Employee Experience right with some data showing positive Employee Experience factors can drive up revenue by 50% or more, and profits by nearly as much.
The workplace is a Complex Operating System
According to Aaron Dignan , author of Brave New Work, the workplace is a complex operating system that can’t be “fixed”; rather it is managed and managed in a relationship.
In the modern complex workplace, experimenting and questioning is largely what is needed.
Covid was a huge experiment in flexible and remote work, and this ongoing experimentation is what is needed still: Probe (try, experiment) – Sense (Is that what I wanted?) – Respond
Adam Grant says that to give employees the freedom they crave, we need to reimagine what a flexible workplace looks like. Grant is a fan of business leaders thinking more like scientists, always mastering the art of rethinking.
How to make work fit in with our lives
According to Adam Grant, people have long wanted more than freedom to choose where they work. They’ve wanted to choose their purpose, people, and priorities– what they do, who they collaborate with, and when and how much they work. Grant's new book Hidden Potential being released on October 24th will no doubt touch on these factors as being essential to a person's full potential being realised.
As Simon Sinek said in Brene Brown’s What’s Happening at Work podcast with Adam Grant, this could be behind the quiet quitting in good companies with good leaders.
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“I think it’s skewing younger, young people trying to figure out ‘how my work fits into my life’,” he says. ?
During the same episode, Adam Grant indicated that a healthy form of quiet quitting might be more akin to a cry for flexibility and autonomy by otherwise engaged employees: “I can care about my job, but contain it, and I’m not going to be exploited anymore just because I’m engaged.”
Flexible 20% of the time
Flexibility doesn’t have to be time away from work completely. It can also be flexibility in what you spend time on while at work.
Dorie Clark , author of The Long Game, says Google expanded to 20% 3M’s employee initiative of setting 3% of time aside for discretionary, speculative activities. So, one-fifth of a Google employee’s time can be legitimately spent on more creative projects.
As Dorie says, no one can predict the future so by allocating 20% of time to think strategically and creatively, you effectively create back-up plans. They could save the company.
Dorie says hedging your bets makes you more resilient.?How can you carve out up to 20% of your time to work on discretionary or speculative activities?
Flexibility in meetings
Meetings are now a significant part of a worker’s remote and hybrid day. One 2023 Microsoft study found the amount of time workers spend in meetings has more than tripled. (NPR )
In his new book The Song of Significance, Seth Godin explains how surveys show endless meetings are nominated by employees as the worst part of working from home.
He adds that Zoom meetings are often only meetings in the worst sense.
“Attendance is taken, someone lectures and a few people ask questions.”
“…..no-one likes being lectured, and they like it less when it’s in real-time and masquerading as a conversation.”
Seth showcases the experiment of web software company Zapier which suspended all regular meetings for a week (called “Get Stuff Done” week).
More than 80% of the team’s written goals for the week were achieved. Examples of how it worked:
Flexibility and work-life balance
We talked earlier about experiments in flexibility. It seems many business leaders are over the workplace flexibility that defines "COVID-19 times."
A?KPMG 2023 CEO Outlook survey confirms there's a growing consensus among global CEOs that a return to in-office work is on the horizon. 6 in 10 leaders (64%) globally predict a full return to in-office working by 2026.?
However, employees continually express a desire to keep hybrid work, where possible. A?2022 study ?highlighted that?78% of employees?who had the option to work remotely expressed an improvement in their work-life balance.
By cutting out the commute to and from the office, working remotely gives employees more time to spend with their families, exercising or just getting some extra rest.?For employees, this means less stress and anxiety, more time for hobbies and family, and greater overall happiness and productivity.
Balancing productivity and flexibility
As Adam Grant will set out at his live events in Melbourne and Sydney in February 2024 , of pivotal importance to leaders is striking a balance between productivity and flexibility.
While productivity remains a cornerstone of success, flexibility is the glue that holds our work cultures together in the face of rapid change.
A positive and adaptable workplace culture prioritises both aspects, fostering an environment where employees can thrive, innovate, and contribute their best while enjoying the freedom and satisfaction of autonomy.
As business leaders, rethinking flexibility and what it really means for each team member will satisfy all parties, and define the future direction of your workplace.
Ruthless Prioritiser | Chief Growth Officer | Founder & MD
1 年Short answer: YES