WFH or RTO: Are You Messing it Up?
Sylvia Henderson
LEADERSHIP ARCHITECT: Building, renovating, & fine-tuning organizations & their leadersthip teams for longevity, legacy, & loyalty | Facilitating international executive leadership peer groups.
(If you haven't "heard" of WFH or RTO, you're already late to the party. They stand for "Work From Home" and "Return To Office", respectively. Now, read on!)
Are you one of the leaders calling your workforce physically, rigidly, back to the office more than 3 days/week? If so, you're already messing things up. Why are you doing this? Is it due to the over-used reasoning that "people work and collaborate better when they're together in the office rather than working from home"? Or that "there's lower productivity when people work from home"?
That's such 2022 thinking! It's time to move forward into 2024 and beyond. Face it - the workplace, workspace, and workforce has changed and, I believe, changed permanently. If you want your organization to remain viable, attractive to high-quality workers, and relevant well into the future, get used to thinking "hybrid". Yes, even for occupations like construction, dentistry, retail, hospitality, and other areas you may think of as 100% physically in-person.
Two questions probably come to mind immediately:
First of all, clarity on terminology. I refer to "workspace" as any place someone is "doing work". That can be at a coffee shop, in a co-working space, at home in a space carved-out as an office, on the commuter train, at the beach, or in an urban, downtown office building. "Hybrid" signifies a mix of work styles including physically at a desk alone, online communicating remotely with others, or in person with a group of people all together in one space.
Now let's tackle the first question - how to make hybrid happen (because your situation is unique from all other situations, isn't it?) Well ...
The 1a. to this is, rethink your uniqueness! You're not alone in the C-Suite or on a leadership team working to figure this out. Just do an Internet (or other platform) search and you'll find sources like the following:
The 1b. to this is, do you have smart people in your organization - both on your leadership team and as employees? Bring them together to come up with creative solutions! You may be surprised at the ideas and solutions that arise when different perspectives from a combination of organizational leaders and front-line staff who are in the trenches come together to collaboratively develop solutions. Not all will be viable, yet some may be when you move from, "Yes, but ..." to "Perhaps, and ...".
The second question of leading in a hybrid workspace comes down to encouragement and control. When a supervisor stresses over how to manage an employee they cannot see 5 days a week, what they're usually stressing over is, "How do I know 'they're' really working? Being productive? Not wasting organizational resources? Get evaluated?"
Here's an aside: I knew people in my corporate management days who spent 60 hours/week in the office, looked wonderfully busy, yet barely produced a third of the results that others did who spent 40 hours/week in the office.
Recommended by LinkedIn
I've got several responses to this question, and not enough space in this writing to go deeply into them. My top 5:
2b. Executive-level strategy sessions and coaching.
2c. Results-based job descriptions with milestones, deliverables, and accountability measures built in.
2d. Tools and technology that transcend location yet are not "tracking tools" superficially measuring keystrokes or how long remote employees are actively online (conveying distrust in them).
2e. Organizational assessments such as the Company Climate Inventory to determine what is really going on in your organization and identify ways in which to make "hybrid" work for you.
I can go more deeply into any of these in future articles to bring you practices and perspectives on successfully creating a hybrid organizational culture. Also, I invite you to post questions in the "comment" area that I can tackle to keep you from "messing things up" in and for your organization.
If you want to be an organization for which your existing - and upcoming - workforce wants to contribute and stay long term, get over your past thinking and get with the future of the workplace. Hybrid!
Think about it! Please share this writing with leaders you know and "follow" me to receive regular issues of this Leadertorial. I appreciate you for your attention to reading and sharing my messages.
(Note: This was written by Sylvia Henderson without use of generative A.I. tools.)
Organizational development consulting and training firm solving your people challenges through improved communication, collaboration, and culture.
10moI have so many things to say! 1. It still amazes me that "leaders" insist on employees being in the office, especially when I hear from the employees that everyone is in their solitary cubicles, and there is no collaboration or teamwork. 2. Hybrid rocks! It seems obvious that you require in-person for things like face-to-face engagement with customers or the community; collaborative team/department meetings; perhaps a one-day-a-week where everyone is in the office for that in-person touchy feely need. But every day in the office? No!! 3. You raised a good point that leaders are probably afraid that if they're not standing over employees' shoulders, then they're not working. Dinosaurs! 4. Collaboration - I wonder if organizational leaders really know what that means, what it looks like, or how to create it? 5. The key is to communicate and clarify expectations - on all ends. I just talked to a colleague today who said the CEO of an organization believes HR is important, but he doesn't know what the Director of HR should be doing, and so the Director is floundering.
LEADERSHIP ARCHITECT: Building, renovating, & fine-tuning organizations & their leadersthip teams for longevity, legacy, & loyalty | Facilitating international executive leadership peer groups.
10moTo those of you who may have seen this article twice, you're not seeing double. I unintentionally clicked the "publish" button that made this an individual article and then, when realizing I was trying to publish as the next issue of my LinkedIn newsletter, republished as such. Better twice than none?! 😉
Workforce & Talent Development | Fractional HR Executive | Leadership & Business Adviser
10moSylvia, thank you for your wisdom and perspectives. Great top 5 of actionable items to effectively manage remote workers. Although each industry, company culture, and organization has their unique nuances, every business is asking the same questions and facing similar challenges. There is a time and place for face to face work, but just because you're physically there does not mean you're more productive. Flexibility is good for workers, and companies that offer more hybrid and remote opportunities will attract and retain a wider range of talent. All of this is good for the growth and sustainability of any business.