The COVID Conundrum Series, Part 1: Flex or Flight: How Leaders Must Adapt Post-COVID to Attract and Retain Good People
In Part 1 of the COVID Conundrum series, as the new workforce redefines flexibility, leaders are charged with evaluating their own policies and culture around flexibility, and how it translates into their ability to achieve the results they seek.
If there’s anything 2021 has taught us already, it’s that its predecessor was not quite ready to let us off the hook. Company executives continue to face many of the same challenges, with the advantage of experience under their belts. As leaders assess internal conversations around working from home, and their business outcomes, many are realizing that a new calendar year marks less of a reset button, and more of a reinvent button.
After months of glitchy virtual calls, we’ve established a new normal - mostly. We have found a way to make it work, and many of us have adjusted to this new way of working. We’ve learned new tools to host authentic conversations, worked through global time conflicts and focused on getting our jobs done efficiently. All of this has been accomplished while balancing the unceasing demands of home life. We’ve got this.
This evolution has caused a wave of priority shifting in workforces across industries, and many leaders are discovering that employees are quite happy driving their own lifestyle destinies and have no intention of returning to pre-COVID life. They will increasingly demand flexibility, or they will find another company that will meet them where they are.
In this COVID conundrum, keeping the talent you care about – and attracting the talent you want – point to three considerations: flexibility; commitment to purpose and social concerns; and balancing life with work. We address the first of these three below.
Flexibility
Many leaders are now considering what the next phase looks like and how to design a flexible “return to work” plan. One client is allowing personal choice around a three-day a week in the office plan. Another is deciding which workforces can remain permanently remote and which can work within “guardrails” that are being determined based on business need and beliefs around the requirements for face-to-face collaboration.
Flexibility as a standardized practice means something different to each employee. A mother of three may need flex time in the mornings to get her children set for e-learning. A man in his 20s may need the option of working in an office space to escape his 3 roommates who are also working from home. A senior executive may need the option of hosting the team meeting in the morning, so she can care for her older parent in the afternoon.
The point is, there is no one-size-fits-all. Flexibility only has value if it is relevant and useful to each employee. Much like customer service 101 – meeting your customer where they are, uncovering expectations and meeting those expectations – employee service 101 involves listening and understanding where the employee is in their need for flexibility.
After nearly a year of employees working from home, good leaders are distinguishing the difference between time, activities, and outcomes. They are focusing on the results, not the amount of time it takes to get there. After setting some parameters around their employees’ journeys, key leaders recognize that delivering outcomes is the priority. It’s not necessarily how their teams work, but the real impact – where it counts – is on what the team produces.
If nothing else, the last year has redefined the 9a - 5p, Monday - Friday work week. A pattern was created early on, and a new normal has been established. People are balancing more in their lives during their workday, and they are acknowledging and accepting their responsibilities well past the close of the business day. Some have moved physically away from their office location, embracing this new virtual working mandate. Returning to an office full-time may require going back to a former lifestyle, which may not be a consideration for employees, and they may move to other companies that are offering the flexibility to which they have grown accustomed. This could mean a loss of great talent.
The bonus to providing more flexibility, in addition to attaining goals, is the renewed sense of affinity and engagement from employees. If a leader is worried they will be behind the competition if their employees do not return to an office, consider this: a recent Mercer survey1 reported that even with employees working remotely, 94% of employers said productivity was the same as or higher than it was before the pandemic. With no commute time, higher flexibility, and a greater capacity to focus, there’s been a 20-30% lift in high-potential productivity2. People are churning out more than before, and of a higher quality.
Now is the time for micromanagers to take a back seat, and for servant leadership to shine, with its support of accountability and responsibility without in-person manager oversight. In this new environment, servant leaders will succeed by setting guidelines and objectives, and excite and motivate their people to do the work needed to achieve better outcomes. That work will be geared toward a purpose that people can align to. Good leaders will provide direction, information, and the tools for employees to develop and enhance their skills. Above all, good leaders will operate on a stronger foundation of trust.
One large telecommunications company, when reevaluating its approach to returning to the office, decided they will not be requiring employees to return to the office full-time. Rather, they will set the expectation that employees can work from home, with the understanding there will be times when they will need to be in person at the office. How they get to the office from their remote location, and how often they come in beyond those required meetings, will be the responsibility of the employee.
This approach is aligned with recent research, including a study by Gartner2 which found nearly half (47%) of employers intend to allow employees to work remotely full time going forward, and 43% will grant employees flex days. Employees see the value as well: LinkedIn’s Workforce Confidence Index3 shows roughly half (47%) of U.S. professionals believe their companies will allow them to be — at least partially — remote after the coronavirus pandemic wanes.
The key to flexibility is to set guiderails, and empower employees to make decisions. This approach encourages both self-accountability, and an employee’s sense of responsibility and ownership for the company’s success. Working from home has propelled the need for increased flexibility. Both new and existing talent see flexibility as no longer a perk, but a mainstay, and leaders will need to accommodate this expectation to attract and retain top talent.
In the next post in this series, we’ll share examples of companies that are instilling a new sense of commitment and purpose for their employees, and reports on how that translates into employee and talent engagement.
SOURCES:
3https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/24-big-ideas-change-our-world-2021-scott-olster/