Leaders, stop freaking out about remote work. Your team can still be efficient in a mixed format.
Higher-ups must realize their workers may not thrive from a 40-hour, in-person workweek.
In the post-COVID world, remote and hybrid work arrangements are becoming increasingly popular among employees. The traditional 40-hour workweek in the office is unlikely to endure as an organizational norm. Employers across the country are requesting or, in the case of Elon Musk’s recent email to Tesla employees, demanding that employees return to in-person work. At the same time, many similar companies have gone in the opposite direction and made remote work permanent.
The value of remote work is often exaggerated, and many workers value flexible hours just as much as fully remote work. Many workers are as happy to show up to the office at times that work with their schedule as they are never to have to show up to the office. Workers consistently receive job satisfaction gains from non-traditional, flexible work arrangements, and most prefer a hybrid work arrangement.
Managers often worry about employee productivity when working remotely, but this is often untrue. Most remote workers, particularly those who prefer flexible work arrangements, are productive even without maintaining the exact work schedules they would stay in the office. Managers must turn to output-based metrics to gauge performance better connected to firm productivity and profitability instead of input-based metrics.
The main risk of remote work is a lack of connection between employees and the organization. Lack of contact can reduce team effectiveness and increase workers’ likelihood of resigning. At the same time, employer inflexibility around work schedules in this highly digitized economy runs the same risks. Managers must learn to reduce the downsides of remote and hybrid work just as they learned to reduce the downsides of in-person work.
Successful workforce management in the post-COVID world requires new tools and approaches to management. Organizations that respond to workforce changes by embracing new management practices will hold unique competitive advantages over the coming decades. Those like Musk, who resist change, may soon discover the challenges of applying old-world thinking to a new world order. The genie never goes back in the bottle, and learning new ways of managing and coordinating takes time and introduces organizational uncertainty. However, ignoring the realities of the current labor market that necessitate new approaches to management is far riskier.
The article is “Leaders, stop freaking out about remote work. Your team can still be efficient in a mixed format.“