Since the pandemic, companies have been setting out their expected new working patterns, with a full spectrum of reactions ranging from:
- The new normal being identical to the old normal, set out by the likes of the Goldman Sachs CEO, who has gone on record saying “It’s not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as soon as possible.”; to
- People being able to work from home indefinitely, as in the case of Facebook and other big tech companies.
We, like many other businesses have opted for a hybrid working model, aiming to take the best of both. Remote work delivers benefits that we believe help the overall performance of the business. That said, for collaboration, solving complex problems, mentoring, growing and sharing experiences together, the office is preferable to being on the end of a laptop screen.
Like everyone else on this journey, we’re still learning. But already there are some valuable lessons which have fallen out of this experience which have shown themselves to be the key for success:
Embrace the change
As part of our hybrid working model, we moved from having fixed desks, to hot desks. We upgraded our desks to ensure that the dual screens and working docking stations weren’t just for a select few. In order to ensure effective utilisation of desks, we have an online booking system where people can log on and book a desk and/or meeting room as required. All of this sounds very straightforward. But it’s harder than it seems, because it’s change. And organisational change is always harder than we think it should be.
In the case of our new desk configuration, we have had a few days of people turning up to already occupied desks and the very British reaction of an extremely apologetic desk booker trying to turf out an equally apologetic desk squatter. So far it’s all been very civilised and as far as I’m aware no one has come to blows (yet).
That said, the process has been a stark reminder that change takes time. And if we are really to make a success of all the opportunities that this pandemic has presented to us, we’re going to need to be resilient when it comes to embracing change and the frustration and annoyance that inevitably results in the short term. I’m told it takes 6 weeks to form a habit, so we’ll persevere with our desk booking and within 6 weeks it will either be part of everyone’s normal behaviour, or we’ll throw it out and try something different.
Make hybrid meetings work
As a consequence of our hybrid working model, we now have meetings where 50% of the attendees are working remotely and 50% are working in the same physical space. This configuration has become quite common now, whereas previously it was not unheard of, but rare.
We are already seeing new technology solutions come to market to address this challenge. We’re not quite there yet – we’re using video conference equipment that is good, but not state of the art. Ensuring that both remote and non-remote participants get a comparable meeting experience is not going to be an easy one to crack, but undoubtedly it will come down to exercising well drilled hybrid meeting etiquette (such as: not forgetting those who are remote, ensuring presentations are sharing in a uniform way, and speaking clearly and in the direction of a mic) and investment in decent technology. I expect many business (like us), have still to make such an investment. It’s definitely a matter of when, not if, however.
Treat each other like adults
As far as I’m aware, no one reading this should be employing children, but yet a number of businesses treat their employees in that way. Within our business we ask a lot of people; they need to work hard, we are constantly driving up the standard of what good looks like and as I say to everyone I interview, “You could probably work somewhere else and get paid more for doing less”. That said, we also treat each other like adults. So when my marketing colleague got up and left at 3pm last week, no one batted an eyelid. Why? Because everyone has a different working pattern that works for them.
We have one member of the team who is (literally) in the office at 5am every day. Others don’t rock up until 9.30am. And I don’t really care who comes in when, as long as the work gets done. But in order for this to work effectively, this means we need to treat each other like adults. The nice thing about an adult to adult relationship is that you can have clear conversations from the outset about expectations. In our case, this means that we can be clear about what flexibility looks like from an employee perspective, but that this does not dilute our client focus or our commercial imperatives. Similarly, we can be clear about expected outcomes, but, equally, we don’t hire smart people for us to tell them precisely what to do – the expectation is that they figure it out.
I’m sure we don’t get it right all the time, and, like any adult relationship, it needs work – especially through times of change. I am confident though that with the leaders we have in our business, these candid conversations will continue to ensure we make our hybrid approach work effectively for everyone.
The pandemic has given employees the chance to prove that working from home does not negatively impact their productivity (and in many cases increases it!) so it is crucial that companies take a flexible approach to remote working as businesses emerge from the pandemic. Employers need to show their workers that they trust them as adults to make their own decisions about how they can best bring value to the company, otherwise, with so many companies now embracing the hybrid model, they risk their top talent looking elsewhere.