This past year employees were able to maintain and, in some cases, increase productivity while working remotely by being flexible and being willing to adapt to the change.
Related: Why You Should Offer Flexible Solutions To Help Your Clients’ Evolving Workforce
Entrepreneur published an article encouraging leaders and hiring managers to continue many of these trends to find the best working models for their teams.
Start by talking to your teams
There is no perfect solution to adapting to the future of work and managers and leaders will need to figure out what the needs and preferences of their workers are. Talk to your teams about how they feel about their current situation, specifically what they like and don’t like about it. This will provide insight on how work gets done across the organization and what will be the best model to use for future operations.
The Enterpreneur article detailed ClickUp, a company that surveyed their team to see how and where they all wanted to work. Some teams preferred to spend a couple days in the office for the collaboration, while others preferred to stay remote. The feedback helped them put a flexible work model in place.
Be flexible in your decisions (and your model)
Use the information you have gathered to put in place a flexible work model that accommodates to your teams needs. But make sure to also provide the same flexibility in the ways your team works and collaborates. Try to move towards consolidating all the work into one flexible platform as it will allow the team to work how they want while also staying connected.
Use communication (and tech) to break down barriers
Be sure to communicate with your teams throughout the transition so they have a better understanding of the process. Share information on why certain decisions are made and clarify how operations will evolve based on what is learned as this will make both you and your team more comfortable.
When implementing new models, enabling easy communication amongst teams will be key. Many businesses struggle with this because they are using too many different communication tools across too many different teams. Find ways to make it easier for teams to connect so they know what is being worked on regardless of their location.
Iterate and remove friction
After seeing what works and what does not, make the necessary changes to optimize your new workplace model. Look at what employees in each team are spending the most time on and what types of projects add the most value. Also look at what is having a negative effect on resources and morale.
Embrace a workplace platform that breaks down barriers on communication and information and you will get transparency in all of these areas. This will also lead to you being able to iterate in real-time and stop many issues from arising will boosting productivity and creating a supportive work culture.
The workforce showed its adaptability during the pandemic and if employers support them in the areas they need then the whole organization will adapt tremendously to the future of work.
