Where’s a will there’s a way… sometimes a will to beat the system designed to monitor if the person is sitting in front on the computer, not necessarily working. So what we can do about it? Improve it? Add new restrictions? Or maybe there’s an alternative?
This correspondent with our experience when implementing our Flexi-Change solution for the organisations. Often, managers want to know where are their employees, what are they doing and now also with whom. We understand that the request to monitor their employees is driven by the responsibility they’re caring and often the only way that gives them a sense of control. At the same time, the employees don’t want to be watched at every step and want to protect their privacy.
However, there is another way of empowering people to work better, not through monitoring but by giving the teams the right tools and by implementing the cultural shift.
Workspace is not a place, it’s a space where the work happens. The pandemic only accelerated what was inevitable. As leaders, ist’s essential to adapt to the new reality and empower the people to work in a way that is the most effective for them, their teams and the organisations.
It’s enabled by:
EVOLVING Technologies
When working from different locations we need the technology supporting collaboration and communication, re-thinking office layouts enabling collaboration between people who come to meet others and new attitudes which are key elements to make it a success:
- Build trust and responsibility – like any other relationship trust must be built and nurtured through ensuring reliability, knowing that we can trust that the agreed work will be done, consistency and responsiveness.
- Focus on the results – instead of tracking the time, measure the progress. Clearly defining what needs to be delivered, to agree on the timeframe and set the checkpoints. Respect agreed on meetings and deadlines.
- Communicate clearly and openly, especially about potential delays and obstacles but about things that went well. Be transparent about the progress made and what needs to be improved.
- Give space – trust your people and give them space to work and deliverer agreed outcomes. If they can’t work in isolation and require a lot of inputs from other members of the team look into various collaboration tools which allow to pose the questions to be quickly answered in writing. That will reduce numbers of calls and allow people to reply in the time suitable for them without unnecessary interruptions.
Leaders need to learn to lead in the new reality and focus on the results and trust and employees need to maintain their reliability and productivity. This article focuses mostly on the relationship manager-employee. However, the change is required across the entire organisation: HR policies, upskilling workforce and measuring the results. One of Holistica’s solutions Flexi-Change focuses on the change management enabling flexible working.
To learn more, contact us directly or register to one of your sessions where we are discussing the future of the workspace with C-Level executives and workspace experts.