Flexibility: what it means today
Without a willingness to be flexible, you will likely lose connection with your workforce and you will struggle with retention, loyalty and productivity.
This is what workplace flexibility looks like today
Today, Flexibility means WAY more than getting to take an early lunch break…
Working where and when we want
If the pandemic showed us anything it is that flexibility is key. Whether your business is considered essential or not, adding flexibility around time, work location and even workstyle to the company culture conversation is a must today. This “new” generation workforce finds itself in a bizarre situation, unlike anything since the close of WWII – and it demands that old-school business leaders cast off old business models to incorporate more employee-centric workflows. Without a willingness to be flexible, you will likely lose connection with your workforce and you will struggle with retention, loyalty and productivity.
In an effort to comply with federal mandates to keep workforces safe and having the technology to make remote working possible, many employers sent employees home to work. Shopping went online. Education went online. Even non-critical medical support became available online. Delivery companies flourished. Older generations struggled while younger generations saw this as a way to identify the work and lifestyles they truly wanted to have. They were saving money with childcare. Saving money on commuting. Reconfiguring their home for both professional and personal spaces. While the Gen Y & Z'ers embraced the shift, Gen X/Boomers adjusted a little more slowly and reluctantly.
Essential workers kept working in smaller groups and armed with new safety protocols. And in some cases, managers and leaders learned to improvise, adapt, and overcome! We're Americans, this is what we do!
Without immediate access to the team, some leaders and managers adopted a “helicopter style” (hovering over every task) while others became invisible. It seems many managers were either micromanaging or not managing at all.
The “old business model”: hours as the metric with the typical workday being 9-to5, quickly started to become a thing of the past for many organizations. Where much of the workforce – if they are required to “bill/log/put in hours” -- were willing to work the required 8 hours per day, but just in their own time spread over more hours with more time off during the day.
Consider this as an average day in the new normal: alarm at 7a.m., finally roll out of bed at 7:30, put the coffee on, log on and spend 30 minutes to an hour checking emails, get a couple of tasks in motion, refresh the coffee, take a shower, get breakfast. Back online around 9:30, attend a couple meetings with webcam on, break for lunch or yoga or a trip to the vet and sprinkle their online time/work throughout the rest of the day in between a workout, picking up kids from daycare/school. Start dinner. Work during afterschool activities. Personal care and professional responsibilities intertwined. Take the laptop or at the very least the smart phone, and type a few emails, proof some documents, review a proposal while waiting for the kids at karate or dance lessons. Back home, time for bed and back to the laptop for another hour or so before going to bed themselves = 8 hours over the previous 14-16, but done!
What if tasks were the metric? With all the talk about gigs and side hustles – how about just pay me for completing the assigned task by the deadline with a bonus for getting it done early? Why force me to log on and just be available if I’m working remotely? This permits the flexibility to possibly work for more than one company, or at the very least for my own LLC, in the margins permitted by the free time I now have because I got my tasks done early.
This is real.
My Gen Z niece moved to NYC in late 2019 to work in her dream career in the fashion industry. COVID hit and she was sent home. Today, she has relocated to DC, new job, new Page 5 2. Feedback apartment, but still sets an alarm for 7, logs on to “look like she’s there” and goes back to sleep for an hour or two. Nobody seems to be the wiser.
Pick my hours, pick my days…now THAT is flexibility.
Look at flexibility as a good thing. It has the opportunity to create remarkable changes in workplace norms. Giving your teams a chance to balance work with worklife and workplay creates healthier and more forward-thinking teams. And forward-thinking employees and contractors don’t usually look to negatively disrupt or leave their organizations.
