Business leaders that listen to workers who want more flexible work arrangements are poised to reap a productivity bonanza, says a leading US thinker on the future of work.
And boosting historic low productivity performance could be as simple as changing when and how people work, says Sheela Subramanian, vice-president of Future Forum, a consortium focused on the future of work backed by Digital HQ provider, Slack and Boston Consulting Group, which polled 10,646 people on work attitudes. It found that Australian knowledge workers, in particular, were more anxious, more likely to change jobs, and desired more control over how, where and — most importantly — when they worked.
Pointing to Covid-inspired changes, Subramanian says Australian businesses must reimagine work.
“They lifted traditional office practices and shifted them into people’s living rooms [but] flexibility ranks second only to compensation when determining job satisfaction,” says Subramanian.
“Eighty per cent of employees wanted flexibility of location but a whopping 94 per cent wanted flexibility in their schedules — people want more choice in how they work.”
Reinventing work — on the same page while far away
Subramanian urges business leaders who value innovation and creativity to put their employees at the centre of workplace discussions.
“Innovation and creativity is not spurred by location; diversity of voices has a higher impact,” she says.
Leaders can start by ditching 9-to-5 expectations and instead focus on ‘asynchronous’ modes of work facilitated by collaboration technology to turbo-charge policy and cultural changes, she says. For instance, Slack uses ‘Brain Writing’ to elicit a wide spectrum of ideas while streamlining decision-making.
“Innovation and creativity is not spurred by location; diversity of voices has a higher impact.” - Sheela Subramanian
“A leader puts a prompt at the top of a Google Doc or a virtual whiteboard and then team members input their ideas. The leader consolidates them and calls a meeting to discuss how to move forward. Creativity and innovation is … spurred by … figuring out how to make sure that all voices are heard.”
Slack employees also gather in virtual ‘huddles’, and record short video ‘clips’ to explain their decisions and ideas — even to the whole company.
“If a meeting is for discussion, debating, making a decision or developing your employee — keep the meeting. If it's a status update or a brainstorm, use digital channels like Slack. Every Monday, my team submits our top three priorities in our Slack channel.
“Rather than a 30-minute meeting to make a simple decision, we use a Slack Huddle — a five-minute conversation rather than a long, drawn out debate.
“We've built a lot of ways to collaborate, communicate and work together asynchronously so people have more choice in how they work.”
Experimentation, discomfort and transparency keys to success
Subramanian’s top three suggestions for creating a modern workplace culture are:
- Listen to your employees — Two-thirds of executives don’t include employees in their decision-making.
- Failure is OK — What worked a year ago may not work next year and what works for one organisation may not work for yours.
- Be transparent — It’s OK not to have all the answers, so ask your teams because employees who have a voice are four-times more likely to stay.
“Redesigning work involves moving from being office-first to digital-first, and Slack integrates your tools in a single place. But we also give an opportunity for people to communicate how they see fit,” Subramanian says.
“It's no longer relying on being physically located together to get work done, but actually collaborate and communicate with one another through your Digital HQ to move your team forward.”
WANT MORE? Listen to Sheela Subramanian discuss the Future of Work with Slack on the iTnews podcast. And read the implications for your workplace in the Summer 2022 Future Forum Pulse report at https://futureforum.com/pulse-survey/
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