This week while browsing LinkedIn, I spotted a post with the following line:
"I don't run an adult day-care centre" - Brigette Hyacinth.
The theme of the post was that it may be time to treat employees like the adults that they (usually) are and stop worrying about the time people arrive for work, the time they leave and how many days they have off.
The COVID-19 pandemic saw businesses worldwide closing their offices and for those jobs that could be done remotely, a switch to a Working from Home; with it employees have suddenly enjoyed a lot more flexibility over their work schedules while employers have lost ‘visibility’ over their staff. As lockdown has eased, the UK government has attempted to promote returning to offices, in part driven by a concern for businesses in sectors such as hospitality that rely on office workers for a significant proportion of their trade, however instead of announcements of returns to offices, we hear more from businesses extending WFH policies into 2021.
WFH and Flexible Working aren't new concepts, over the last few years there has been a small, but growing revolution in the world of work, highly successful business such as Netflix, Linkedin and EventBrite have led the way, with an increasing numbers following, in allowing staff to work flexibly and/or take 'unlimited' leave days. This of course has been usurped somewhat by the COVID crisis as tech giants, such as Google have offered working from home on a company-wide basis until 2021 at the earliest, while Twitter and Facebook went even further, offering it permanently.
In taking a more flexible approach to office hours, working from home, etc the focus shifts from ticking boxes to measuring achievements, "have financial targets been achieved?" and "have launch deadlines been met?" become the main type of questions at review time instead of "Why are you always late in on Wednesday mornings? or "How many sick days have you had this quarter?"
I often flinch when KPIs are discussed, mainly because some of the Indicators are 'tertiary' at best, with others, little more than a measure of how 'busy' someone is at work and not how successfully they use their time.
One of the realities of the world that we now find ourselves in is that some in leadership posts have suddenly had to adjust to having less visibility of their employees; yes, a manager could 'keep an eye' on his team by seeing what time they respond to emails, or when they are logged into certain software, but how will they know if a team member returns to bed immediately following their 8.00am Zoom meeting? and frankly, if they are delivering on their objectives, does it matter if they do so?
Over the last few months, leaders will have learned a lot about their employees, most will now realise that things get done without having to stand over somebody's shoulder; others will now also have insight into their employees lives and will see how these members of staff managed to work successfully around personal lives/commitments; of course, in some cases there will be a recognition that some members of staff need more structure than others, but above all and perhaps most valuably, there will be a new level of trust.
So perhaps another victim of COVID-19 will be the 'helicopter boss' (you know, a little like a 'helicopter parent', but less concerned about whether you have washed behind your ears), but to get to the stage when businesses will be getting the most from their talent whether they are in the office physically or virtually will take some time and some learning.
We know that it is critical to set achievable objectives for those who work for us, ensuring that employees have the tools at their disposal to succeed and make sure that everyone knows the rewards for achieving and/or exceeding their objectives. This could mean that KPIs need re-imagining, for example shifting the focus from quantitative measures to qualitative, making the focus working ‘smarter’ not ‘harder’, and with it a change to policies to embrace flexibility from all sides.
How do we lead virtually? is a question that we are hearing a lot at the moment, and one at intelliHub we are only too happy to answer.
Comentarios