Where would you like to work? (5 mins)
We asked. You answered.
We ran a mini poll recently on Instagram and LinkedIn to ask your opinion of where you would most like to work?
The results speak for themselves.
While these results are a small sample set, they are consistent with reports across the internet from other businesses and conversations about what people want most. This Gallup report gives more insight “Remote Work Persisting and Trending Permanent.”
In our poll we wanted to differentiate between “remote working at home” and “remote working from any location you choose” to see if there were differences in those selections. Some individuals are struggling to work from home after such a long stretch, either as they are alone, or their home is too noisy with too many people there, and the lack of a dedicated work environment is causing frustration. However there are murmurs of these individuals not wanting to return to the office either, but rather being able to choose a location they want instead. So is there a big difference? Not really. There was a slight difference of 10%, yet not as much as we expected.
What is clear, individuals want flexibility to choose their own patterns and rhythms, they do not want to be told by their business. They also want the flexibility to choose based on the day or week. That’s a fine line, a business needs people to align with what it is there to do, so managing a constantly changing workforce location can be tricky - not impossible, but it requires new ways of managing and strategizing.
No matter what, the business needs to engage with employees and find ways to empower them, as well as making them accountable for their choices. When you empower individuals their commitment, loyalty, decision making, and performance will all increase. Many businesses struggle to empower employees though, fear creeps in and there can be a cultural feel of distrusting employees, giving them too much leeway. Learning how to empower your organization needs to be high on the agenda going forward. This report “Trust the Process: 13 Tips to Empower and Encourage Your Staff“ starts getting into ways to create more empowerment.
Forced Office Work
There are organizations that are forcing employees back into the office, or specifying when employees will be in the office. They then wonder why employees aren’t happy and why they are seeing resignations.
Of course, there are millions of businesses that can’t operate without individuals being in the office. Take education, manufacturing, retail brick and mortars, restaurants, bars and more. The choice of working in these industries means there are challenges to overcome when it comes to being physically present in the office. Finding other ways to support the well-being of those individuals needs to be looked at, increasing other well-being efforts and expanding the cultural focus of well-being can create balance and not only encourage employees to being back in the office, they also look forward to it.
In Matthew Kelly’s book “The Dream Manager” he talks about the simple act of helping individuals reach their dreams and in one case the simple act of a paid-for shuttle bus to help employees travel to and from work made an extraordinary difference to their well-being. That’s not the solution for all, but it speaks to the need to take extra time to explore with employees what their needs are. That’s not through an employee engagement survey either.
Our Head of Well-being Dr. Melissa E. Milanak speaks of how the highest engaged employees are often the ones that will burn out the fastest. Highly engaged does not equal high well-being.
Do you work in the manufacturing, retail, eduction or restaurant industries?
What has your business been doing to help support you?
Have they asked you what you need? Do you know what you need?
Have you experienced any creative ways that has made a difference to you even though you need to be in the office?
For a business, assessing roles and responsibilities for individuals and what they are doing is important, and it’s a new exercise to be completed in a post pandemic existence. What needs to be done? Can individuals that no longer want to be in the office change roles? Is there a way to reshape the business which will lead to greater business success?
What benefit is there for an organization to force employees to be in the office when all those individuals stay at their desks and dial into meetings? What does that do for the well-being of those employees? What is the point?
As Dan Price recently shared, as a CEO he doesn’t care where his employees work, as long as they get the work completed.
Taking a more thoughtful approach to the working environment has rewards, yes for some industries like financial services there are regulatory and privacy concerns that have to be seriously accounted for, yet there is no need to broad brush everyone with the same model.
If the last couple of years have taught us anything, it is clear that a one size model absolutely does not fit all.
Steps to develop your “where to work” strategy
If you are assessing your office return to work plan, or developing the future of working strategy, here are 10 considerations:
Have you asked our employees what they actually want? Individually, not in an employee engagement survey?
Do you know how to help your employees identify their needs?
What roles and characteristics of those roles fall into each bucket; hybrid, at home, remote - anywhere, and office?
What regulatory responsibilities does your business have?
What privacy responsibilities does your business have?
What financial obligations does your business have?
What does each model (office, home, remote - anywhere, hybrid) look like that genuinely supports your employees and their needs and emotions?
Once you have the above, begin mapping it out, the dots and patterns will start to emerge. Then look to assess your current working situation and see where there is a disconnect. This gives you the next activity to begin planning how to move from where you to where you need to get to.
Resist the urge to turn this into an 18-24 month initiative. You will lose out if you do. Remember the lessons learned from the early days of the pandemic - within a matter of days and weeks organizations were up and running remotely. Leverage that learning, let go of fear, and what if.
Not sure what the needs and emotions of your employees are? Then talk to us about an Emotional Culture Workshop, we can help you!
Let us know how your thoughts. Are your responsible for developing the strategy and struggling to identify what it should like? Are you working for an organization that has come up with an incredible offering? What do you love about it? Leave a comment below.
Be well, live intentionally
Birch Cove is not a medical or therapy based business, we do not offer guarantees of any kind. We are not responsible for the well-being of businesses or individuals that read, watch, or hear our content, or take part in sessions, or use our services or the services we highlight. Individuals are responsible and accountable for their own well-being. Birch Cove and our Collective members are not responsible for the physical and mental health and well-being of individuals we interact with directly or indirectly. We work to share best practices that inspire healthy living and revitalize a quality of life.