The Type of Work influences the work efficiency, not the location !

??Remote work when employees need to focus, in the office for interaction, affiliation and development.

When employees come into the office, they want to know that their time is being used meaningfully. Employees were 8 times more likely to want to work in person for affiliation and development compared with doing focus work (such as analysis, emails, and writing reports) and administrative tasks; they often perceive the latter two categories to be more efficient when carried out remotely. Employees are more likely to be dissatisfied when work model policies are decided by company leaders or managers and prescribed hybrid models lead to lower levels of compliance and satisfaction, according to a new interesting research published by 波士顿谘询公司 using data from 1,576 global office-based employees across industries organizations of various sizes.

?Conflating prescribed hybrid models with flexibility is also misguided

Researchers found that employees who work in hybrid models with set office days don't feel like they have flexibility. In fact, only 28% of them feel like they have significant flexibility in where they work, compared with 100% of employees working in less prescribed hybrid models.

?In office for Focus, and in the office for interaction, affiliation and development

Researchers found that employees were 8 times more likely to want to work in person for affiliation and development compared with doing focus work (such as analysis, emails, and writing reports) and administrative tasks; they often perceive the latter two categories to be more efficient when carried out remotely.

Researchers noticed that the amount of time spent varies by role type:

??On average, individual contributors spend a little more than one-third (37%) of their time on work they believe is done most effectively in person (such as training, social events, and collaboration).

?? Managers and executives spend close to half their time (49%) on work they believe is done most effectively in person (such as onboarding new hires and giving feedback).

?? The most effective work models reflect these preferences and behaviors, which can be unique to individual organizations, functions, and teams.

? Majority of employees disagree with their Work Location policy

Researchers found that employees are more likely to be dissatisfied when work model policies are decided by company leaders or managers as 39% reported that their company decides where they work. In these companies, 24% of employees were unhappy with their work location policy. That 24% goes down to 14% if the manager decides and 6% if the team decides.

?? In other words for researchers, the closer to the work the policy gets set, the more satisfied employees are with it.

? Flexibility impact Employee's decision to leave or stay

9 in 10 employees in this research consider flexible work options important when looking for a job. Researchers noticed that many employees are willing to quit if they aren’t happy with their flexible work options.?Employees who were dissatisfied with their work model were more than 2.5 times more likely to consider leaving their organization in the next year compared with those who were satisfied.

?Flexibility is not just a working-mom phenomenon.

Researchers also noticed that roughly 90% of surveyed women, caregivers, LGBTQ+, and people with disabilities consider flexible work options important or very important in staying in or leaving their job. Researchers noticed a particularly wide gap when it comes to gender: female employees are 1.5 times more likely than their male counterparts to prioritize flexibility this way. Notably, they found only a marginal difference (3%) among women when comparing caregivers with non caregivers.

? Recommendations:

?? Finally researchers recommend 5 actions organizations need to do?to start getting flexible work right:

1?? Align as leaders on the company’s needs and priorities (“what are we solving for?”), as well as the degree of freedom that managers and teams will have to decide how to work.

2?? Empower business unit and functional leaders to segment the work that their teams do and identify models suited to the needs of their specific types of work.

3?? Enable all team leaders to work with their teams to further customize work models according to specific tasks, individual preferences, and team requirements. And be flexible with the models themselves—they may need to change from week to week as work (and personal) priorities shift.

4?? Invest in the key enablers to make the models work, namely, manager upskilling, collaboration tools (both physical space and technology), and modeling by senior leaders. Working this way is new for most organizations—it requires rewiring how people work, how leaders lead, and how they all are supported.

5?? Identify the KPIs that reflect what you want to achieve. The focus should be on impact, not inputs; measure quality, innovation, productivity, growth, and engagement, versus monitoring badge swipes to track days in the office or hours online. Review these KPIs often to learn and adapt as you go.

?? This research helps readers to deep understand how people do their best work across all categories of responsibilities and tasks. Regarding flexibility, the right question is not "What is the right work model policy?” but "How do we construct work to optimize both productivity and joy?"

Leaders need to proceed cautiously with Flexibility! Flexible work policies have become to employees an indication of their company’s culture of trust and accountability for results. And low-trust environments have major implications for worker engagement and productivity. And at the highest level, all workers see flexibility as an indicator of a?trusting culture.

Thank you ??? 波士顿谘询公司 ?researchers team for these insightful findings:? Debbie Lovich ? Rosie Sargeant Christoph Schweizer Susan Grimbilas

Dave Ulrich ?George Kemish LLM MCMI MIC MIoL

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