This article focuses on dealing with “The elephant in the room,” specifically how your company is going to work differently in the aftermath of COVID-19 with the emergence of remote and hybrid work options. The post-pandemic COVID world tells us that the ways in which we did business prior to COVID are changing rapidly, in large part because the power within many organizations has shifted toward those who get the work done, i.e., the employees on the front line.
The last article asked several pointed questions about how work has changed in your company: How has COVID changed the ways in which we work? How do my teams interact today? What can I do to facilitate team performance through better design? Which of the eight approaches described in these last two articles need my immediate attention? Answers to these questions are important because the future of work involves considering “hybrid” environments that may include a combination of remote and “traditional” in-office work that did not exist before.
The New Imperative
According to the latest Gallup 2022 Report on the State of the Global Workplace, “Employee well-being is the new workplace imperative.” Clearly, the stressors involved with the pandemic placed mental health center stage, removing it from its once-hushed taboo status. Several key points from the Report, which you can obtain through the hyperlink below, deserve our attention:
- “Engagement and wellbeing interact with each other in powerful ways.” Our research has shown that “engagement” is an individual decision. How employees choose to engage in their work depends on many factors, but the Gallup report reinforces “How people experience work influences their lives outside of work. Employees who consistently experience high levels of burnout at work say their job makes it difficult to fulfill their family responsibilities.”
- “Overall wellbeing influences life at work.” Employees who are engaged and thriving in their work “experience significantly less stress, anger, and health problems.” However, global data reveals that a majority (57%) of those employed by others are not thriving in their work. Our research has shown that exceptional companies with positive cultures provide “psychologically safe” environments where people at all levels feel empowered and energized to do their best work, which leads to the cultural phenomenon of an “entangled” organization.
The Gallup Report clearly demonstrates that organizational leaders at ALL levels “need to be thinking of the whole person, not just the worker.” Adding well-being measures to executive dashboards is not nearly enough for alerting leaders to critical warning signs of burnout, frustration, or negative attitudes. Company executives need to commit to being better leaders and creating the right cultures through which everyone in the company wants and seeks to be fully engaged.
A Different Perception of Work
The introduction of “hybrid” work post-COVID has raised new opportunities for examining how work gets done with enhancing technologies such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. The data is surprising in some ways and not in others: While 46% of those polled want a partial return to in-office work, 21% favor full return and 16% see returning as optional. For the 31% who favor hybrid work, i.e., a combination of remote and in-office, four out of 10 (39%) seek two to three days per week in office while three in 10 (29%) prefer less than two days per week. How would this play out in manufacturing settings? Obviously, some work cannot be done remotely because of physical and mechanical constraints; however, this does not mean that executive leaders can ignore the reality that workers now control the dialogue about work to a greater extent than before.
That dialogue has got to begin with how we perceive and address those with whom we work. In the last article, I noted, “Truly effective organizational leaders exercise ‘whole-brained leadership’ by balancing and integrating management and leadership throughout their enterprises.” The foundation of whole-brained leadership resides with several core behaviors of great leadership, particularly building relationships, developing people, and leading change (Nelson, 2021). Clearly, these behaviors are simply table stakes in creating the right environment and culture through which your company will survive and thrive in the post-pandemic world.
How we address others reflects core values such as respect and caring, which we examined in previous articles. Trust and caring lead to trust and the willingness of others to listen to what leaders say and to follow their examples. Although this may be obvious to some, it bears repeating because of the level of disengagement that exists in too many companies.
Old-fashioned terms such as “workers” and “employees” fail to reflect the critical role everyone plays in delivering value to both internal and external customers. How we address others reflects the degree to which we succeed in building relationships through which we identify and personalize our mutual connections with others. The most effective leaders feel comfortable using first names in talking with individuals or “Team” when talking to many because they feel personally responsible for the growth, development, and well-being of those they serve.
This article has only creased the surface on the latest challenges in Human Capital Management. The next article will take a deeper dive into redesigning organizational culture to account for new hybrid or remote work settings.
Additional Suggested Reading:
Gallup, Inc. (2022). State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report. Available via https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace-2022-report.aspx
Nelson, B. (2021, Dec 9). Great leaders have these behaviors in common. Available via https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/357983/great-leaders-behaviors-common.aspx
Questions for the Week: How do I address others with whom I work? Do my questions reflect deep concern for their well-being? What am I doing daily to build relationships that matter? How do I engage in dialogue with others? Do I simply focus on the work to be done or do I ask about other aspects of life that matter as much as or more than work?
| About the Author: Dr. Ray Benedetto is co-founder of GuideStar, Inc.® a practice in organizational leadership for performance excellence (www.guidestarinc.com). He is a retired Air Force colonel with a distinguished active-duty military career. He is board certified in Healthcare Management and a Life Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE). Dr. Ray taught leadership for 12 years for the University of Phoenix Chicago campus. He holds degrees from Penn State (BS), the University of Southern California (MSSM), and the University of Phoenix (DM). He is co-author of “It’s My Company TOO! How Entangled Companies Move Beyond Engagement for Remarkable Results” (Greenleaf Book Press Group, 2012) and numerous ezine articles available online. You can reach him at ray@guidestarinc.com. |