Your day, your way

From the kitchen table, part 2

The past 18 months have challenged us at Impact to completely re-think how we work together as a global organisation. During the pandemic, all of us have worked from home and connected virtually on a regular basis. As an international company, we have purposely drawn together to support each other globally by working more collaboratively on research, design, and delivering client solutions. Because of the huge diversity of time zones we operate in, from New Zealand, through Asia, the West and East coast of America, and across Europe, virtual meetings have often required us to work outside of the usual 9-5 office hours. As a result of this experience, we are now advocating a new form of flexible working.?

At the heart of Impact is our practice,?the solutions?we?sell, design, and?deliver?for our international clients. Originally these solutions?consisted of short but intensive periods of time away from home for our facilitators, usually working 24/7 until the programme was completed. In the early 1980s, these programmes could be?fourteen days long but were more usually around five.?The delivery team would then enjoy a short period of rest and recovery during more normal office hours before setting out on the road again.

Whilst the length of programmes may have shortened?over time, the intensity and pressure have not.?Our mantra at Impact is that everyone in the business works in support of whoever is client-facing. Our culture and most of our operating procedures have evolved from this way of working. But now,?as we continue to pioneer?virtual?experiential learning and blend this with face-to-face work, it is the right time to consider our working practices for the future.

Working from home can be very efficient. Personally, I find it much easier to focus on what I am doing with minimum interference. I am far more productive because I am working alone.?However, the significant downside is that I miss the company of others and it is far too easy to become isolated and to miss out on collaborative thinking.?Innovation often comes from overhearing something a colleague is deliberating over, or a chance conversation over a brew.

Whilst regular catch-ups on zoom or teams work well, it’s also important to build a sense of community around a physical space.

Mental health is another conscious consideration. Some people enjoy working from home whilst for others, it is a lonely and stressful experience. We need to be aware of other people’s boundaries, as well as our own.

I don’t have a blueprint for the perfect working day, but here are some thoughts I shared with our global?colleagues?last week.

“As some of us prepare to return to the office, I’d like us to consider how we can work more?flexibly?to achieve what we need to achieve without feeling that we always must sit in the same place in the office for hours on end. I now subscribe to:

Your Day – Your Way !

• We should trust each other to get done what needs to be done whether that is from home or in the office
• We are better served looking at the outcomes we have achieved rather than worrying about where we were located when we achieved them
• We can create the best of both worlds - flexibility to work the hours that suit us from home or in the office, whilst benefitting from face-to-face time to build authentic relationships
• We can plan where we work and who we work with,?we can pick the space and the place that is best suited to the job we are doing at the time?- meeting room, desk,?café, park bench,?soundproof pod, home,?etc.
• We can flex around personal appointments, global meetings, picking up the kids, etc.
• We can start each day with a plan to be in the right space for the work we will do that day.
• We can create our own preferred boundaries for when we are not working.
• We shouldn’t expect to take root at “my” desk, we should choose the environment that best suits the job we are about to do

My own working week is dramatically different from how it was prior to Covid.

I have?regular?meetings each?week to coincide with global colleagues?that?ensure I stay connected to our teams across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. I then weave ad hoc meets and personal working time in amongst this.

To make this work for me, I sometimes take a couple of hours off in the day to walk the dog, do my shopping, clean the house and do my washing. This level of flexibility works for me, and I can discipline myself so as not to spend all my time working. I’m sure my colleagues will have their own preferences.?

I’m looking forward to returning to the office where, catching up with people, having spontaneous conversations, brainstorming, and chatting are all vital for my wellbeing and engagement, but I will still probably continue to do some of my meetings from home when that helps with time zones.?

Here are a few myths around flexible working that need busting (Fast Company):?

1. Employees will contribute less

Some managers think they can’t trust employees if they can’t see what they’re doing, says Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs, manufacturers of AI-powered video conferencing technology. “I’m hiring people to do a job,” he says. “I’m not hiring someone to watch them work. It takes a mentality shift.”

Research from Gartner ?found that performance improves when employees are given flexibility over where, when, and how much they work. “Among knowledge workers, high levels of enterprise contribution are most common among those who are fully remote,” says Alexia Cambon, research director in the Gartner HR practice measuring productivity requires staying connected, says Weishaupt. “We’ve had a long time to perfect this over the last 16 months,” he says. “If you have a culture of accountability, that leads to productivity whether employees are in the office or not.”

You need to trust your team, adds Rob Kjar, senior managing consultant at Vaya Group, a national talent management consultancy. “If you hired people and trusted them not to steal from the cash register, so to speak, then now is an opportunity to demonstrate your trust in them,” he says. “They will look for it in your communications and they will either feel more empowered to act, or less. Use the chance to show your trust and your top performers will repay you. They never needed someone sitting over their shoulder to do their best work anyway.”

2. Collaboration will suffer

If teams keep regular, open lines of communication, collaboration will not be lost, says Kjar. “Teams who are forming up for the first time will benefit from face-to-face interaction in the early stages and can more easily transition to working remotely,” he says. “Where this isn’t an option, teams should be encouraged to take extra time at the start to discuss roles and goals together before getting to the project plan. This will help them learn how to collaborate remotely in more productive ways.”

The Gartner?2021 Hybrid Work Employee Survey ?found that hybrid employees show higher levels of agility, psychological safety, team equity, and intentionality than onsite employees, which are all significantly essential components of collaboration.

“Seventy-one percent of hybrid knowledge workers agree their team provides opportunities to contribute ideas outside of meetings, compared to only 56% of onsite knowledge workers,” says Cambon.

3. You can’t build a strong company culture

Even though your entire staff won’t be in the office simultaneously, it’s possible to maintain company culture, says Tia Graham, chief happiness officer and founder of Arrive At Happy, leadership consultants. “Leaders need to be clear on what the company’s mission is and identify how the internal culture will support this,” she says.

Technology will play a significant role in engaging employees. Graham suggests leveraging video conferencing platforms to schedule team-building exercises, like happy hours or lunch-and-learns with educational speakers, so everyone can participate whether they’re in the office or not. “The biggest mistake is leaving virtual workers out of activities like this,” says Graham.

Gartner’s research ?reveals about one-third of newly remote or hybrid employees report their organization’s culture has changed since starting to work remotely—and most of them say it’s a change for the better.

“This is critical since satisfaction with workplace culture plays a role in key talent outcomes,” says Cambon. “For example, employees who report that culture has improved since starting to work remotely are 2.4 times more likely to report high employee engagement and 2.7 times more likely to report high discretionary effort and intent to stay.”

4. We’ll eventually need to return to business as it once was

Pre-pandemic best practices may no longer fit the new normal, and employers should constantly be evaluating and overhauling to ensure their strategies are still relevant, says Susan Crowder, manager, Strategic HR Advisory Services at G&A Partners, a national professional employer organization.

“What may have worked in the past may no longer be as effective,” she says. “Employees may need flexibility to move from the workplace to working remotely from one day to the next which requires the right technology and tools to allow for mobility.”

According to?research from Gartner , forcing employees to return entirely on site could result in employers losing a good percentage of their workforce.

“It is especially a risk to diversity, equity, and inclusion because underrepresented groups of talent have seen vast improvements in how they work since being allowed more flexibility,” says Cambon.

Companies need to remove barriers and obstacles that may be hindering optimal performance, says Crowder. “This will require leaders to be adaptable in their way of thinking, as well as help[ing to] promote adaptability across their teams,” she says. “Employees and employers can both greatly benefit from employees being able to work where they most feel comfortable and productive at any moment in time.”

Like I said earlier, I don’t have all the answers, but I’m happy we are embedding flexible working into our future?and trusting each other to decide when and where we work.?Bring it on.

?