The New Normal
The wave of resignations in 2021 forced business leaders to take a long, hard look at how they recruit, manage, and retain talent. Because of positive experiences working from home during the pandemic, people who don’t have to be physically on-site for their jobs now expect greater flexibility in how, when, and where they work.
If your company is understaffed, now is a good time to re-evaluate the types of jobs that must be performed by full-time employees and what types of work could be handled either temporarily or full-time by independent contractors.
Could your company attract more qualified IT, sales, accounting or marketing personnel if you hired people who don’t live within commuting distance of your offices? Could you save money in the long run by hiring independent specialized experts on a contract basis instead of hiring more full-time employees?
Here are a few facts to consider.
Hybrid Work Changes the Culture
Hybrid workplaces enable workers to spend some days each week working remotely and the other days working in the office. Not having all employees working in the office at the same time will affect how employees are recruited, onboarded, trained, managed, and rewarded.
Communicating with team members via video calls and online chat is different than meeting with them face to face. Employees can feel disconnected from the project team when working from home. Some employees wonder if they are missing out on opportunities for mentoring and promotions.
Remote Work is Here to Stay
According to Forrester’s 2022 predictions, companies will fail at “work-from-anywhere,” but it won’t be the fault of the virus.
Roughly 30% of companies surveyed in 2021 expected employees to return to the office for full-time work, and only about 10% of companies will commit to going fully remote. Companies in both of these groups will face challenges to make it work.
The other 60% of companies will attempt to shift to a hybrid model that allows employees to work remotely on some days and come to the office on other days. Designing a hybrid remote/in-office work culture won’t be easy, and Forrester predicts about one-third of the companies that try it will fail during their first attempt.
According to Forrester, “Leaders will claim support for a hybrid model, but still design meetings, job roles, and promotion opportunities around face-to-face experiences. When it’s clear that productivity is suffering, these same execs will blame hybrid work rather than looking in the mirror at the real culprit.”
Leaders, Employees, and Hiring Managers Must Be Retrained
Retraining leaders, employers, and recruiters will be key to the success of a hybrid/remote work business model.
During the Industrial Age, supervisors walked around the factory floor to make sure employees were working safely and following the proper procedures. That same level of oversight was no longer necessary in the Information-Age offices when knowledge workers spent most of their time at their desks.
Nevertheless, many managers feel comfortable “managing by walking around” the office. MBWA is an informal way to better understand each individual’s work and ideas. Managing by walking around is more informal, inclusive, and spontaneous than an “open door” policy that urges employees to stop into the boss’s office to discuss concerns. That style of management doesn’t work with remote work.
To improve the success of remote workers, leaders must learn to trust their people, not micromanage them. Leaders should be clear about their expectations then give the remote workers enough autonomy and the right collaboration technology to execute their assignments every week.
Using technology to measure how long the employee sits at the computer everyday sends a negative message that could prompt employees to quit. Productivity should be measured in terms of strategic goals and outcomes instead of hours worked.
Employees should be given enough time to learn how to effectively use collaboration tools such as Slack, Trello, Teams, and Zoom. Employees who interact with clients should be skilled in using customer-relationship-management tools (CRMs).
Then, employees should demonstrate that they can be trusted to be just as productive working from home than they were in the office.
And while employees can choose to work earlier or later hours to cover family obligations during the day, encourage remote workers to set clear boundaries so they aren’t working more hours than they traditionally did in the office. Burnout occurs when the lines between working hours and personal life are erased.
While daily meetings aren’t necessary to keep everyone on the same page, over-communication is sometimes necessary when team members are working at different times and locations.. Employees should check in regularly so the boss knows they are making progress on the project.
Leaders should be crystal clear in their instructions, listen for signs of employee burnout, and recognize good work
Conducting a “stay” interview with each employee can help you avoid the need for an “exit interview” after the employee has resigned. During the stay interview, ask the employee about what steps you can take to make the job more rewarding and fulfilling.
The hiring process should include an evaluation of how well the candidate can work remotely and the hiring manager should strive to make a good first impression and accurately represent the company’s culture. Employees may never bother interviewing with a company if the initial experience with the hiring manager sends warning signs.
External Workers Are People Too
The “external workforce” includes anyone your company hires to do work who isn’t on your payroll. This includes independent contractors, manufacturer’s reps, print brokers, freelancers, gig workers, consultants, and agencies. Some will be hired for seasonal work; others will complement your sales team or work on special projects.
It’s important to understand the distinctions between categories of external workers.
A Manufacturer’s rep is a sales agent who works solely on commission.
A Print Broker helps clients manage projects that require buying work from multiple vendors with different types of equipment.
Gig worker is a broad term for any independent worker that is hired for a temporary project.
A Contingent Worker is employed by a staffing agency or recruiter. The staffing agency bills the client, pays the contingent workers, processes W-2 forms for each employee, and handles insurance coverage.
A Freelancer is an independent contractor, which means they find clients on their own, bill the client directly, and receive a 1099 tax-reporting form. They negotiate project milestones with the client, then determine their own daily schedules to execute the work. Freelancers are responsible for paying their taxes and insurance costs.
When hiring any type of gig worker, your company must comply with all legal and tax requirements, pay workers in a timely manner, and take measures to protect the company’s sensitive information.
Some of these requirements result in freelancers being treated differently than full-time employees. Yet, freelancers will perform better work if they receive some orientation about the company’s culture and the context of the project they are working on. Just like full-time employees, freelancers like being recognized for good work and feeling like part of the team.
The Future of Work May Be Very Different
Traditionalists predict that many employees will jump back in the workforce after they discover that gig work can be harder than it looks. But that might not be the case. Some utopian futurists believe the Great Resignation signals that traditional corporate employment is becoming an outdated means of organizing economic activity.
I’m not sure I agree with that vision of the future, but it’s important to be aware of some of the different messages younger workers are hearing from various sources.
What I do know is that ambitious people want more autonomy, freedom, and independence. They want to love what they do. What they don’t want are non-compete agreements, micro-management, and traditional employment practices that don’t seem right anymore.
I firmly believe that how you lead and treat your people plays a huge role in your company’s culture and ability to sustainably grow and prosper.
If you are thinking of growing and selling your company in the next few years, it will be important to have the right team in place to achieve success. Call me at 561-543-2323 and I can share my knowledge and experiences with excellence, talent, and remote workers. It is possible to develop a hybrid approach that can work both for you and your people.