An S&P 500 company’s average lifetime in the 1950s was about 60 years. It’s been approximately 15 years and is still going downhill. Lean start-ups are reshaping markets with purpose, speed, and agility. On the other hand, the biggest businesses are deeply layered, bureaucratic, and suffocated by intricate webs of reporting lines that suffocate leadership and suffocate talent.
We think that to succeed in this environment; organizational structures must adapt to unlock the potential of businesses and unleash the latent power of networked teams, and focus on employee retention and encouragement. Predictable efficiency gives way to quick flexibility in this new approach. Smaller is indeed better.
Steps to make an organization more flexible
1. Managers should be trained
The key to success is to start at the top. If you want your remote workforce to be as productive as possible, you’ll need to teach your managers to adjust to the changes. The attributes of a competent remote team manager are as follows:
Employees should be trusted: While employees may be more prone to distractions at home, managers must realize that their staff will finish their tasks. Employees will have greater freedom if the constraints are loosened.
- Effective communication – Managers must communicate with their staff regularly, and this contact should not be restricted to work-related topics. You’ll be a more empathetic leader if you know what your people do outside of work.
- Positive temperament – Lead by example and create a positive work atmosphere for your workers. Instead of negative reinforcement, focus on positive affirmation.
- Focused on results – Keep in mind that the bottom line is what matters. It’s fine if your employee produces greater results at home even though he is working quicker.
2. Set goals and objectives
One of the reasons remote workers are prone to burnout is that they frequently overwork themselves to demonstrate their worth to their bosses. When staff is dispersed, it’s far more difficult for supervisors to acknowledge successes. Employees’ default method of demonstrating their worth is to work longer hours and take on additional responsibilities.
3. Work-life harmony should be encouraged
In the same spirit, it’s critical to draw a clear line between work and personal life for employees. Working remotely frequently intrudes into private time due to a lack of defined borders. Remote employees, for example, may labor nights and weekends to get ahead just because they can, sprinkling in work whenever they can. However, this is precisely the attitude that leads to remote worker burnout.
Encourage workers to use vacation time, create a daily routine, and establish clear work-life limits.
4. Use the appropriate communication tools
When COVID-19 struck, most companies panicked and purchased remote work technology like google workspace, including separate messaging, video conferencing, and phone apps. Employees become distracted and frustrated when they are continuously switching between numerous apps. Sixty-nine percent of workers spend an hour every day moving between apps.
Your communications equipment should bridge the gap between the workplace and home to enable optimum productivity from flexible work. RingCentral’s unified communications software combines team messaging, video conferencing, and cloud phone into one platform, allowing employees to move from one mode to the next seamlessly.
5. Reconsider the eight-hour workday
Working from home allows you to rethink the typical 8-hour workday. Employees who like flexible schedules generally do not thrive on them, preferring to work when they are most productive. It shouldn’t matter when employees clock their 8 hours a day as long as they perform and drive outcomes. Additionally, businesses that want to implement more flexible processes should consider the value of meetings and how they cut into that productivity window. Meetings account for 35% of the time spent by middle managers. Worse, 67 percent of meetings are deemed a failure by CEOs.
Flexible working hours may be useful to your staff, particularly if they are dealing with many external pressures. It promotes a good work-life balance, which is essential for keeping your staff motivated, productive, and happy!
Author – Alysa Maleske is an online marketing strategist and freelance copywriter. A true tech evangelist, Alysa worked at a google workspace partnership company where she assisted others in realizing their full potential and developed her writing talents in the same industry. She offers customers SEO consultation and SEO coaching.
