Future of work: What will make employees want to work for a company?

JOHN F Kennedy, former president of the United States, famously said that "those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future". He made these remarks back in 1963 while referring to change being the law of life.

While those words ring true every single day, there are moments in time when their significance becomes even greater. We are standing at the cusp of one of those moments in history.

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of this year triggered a change in the way we work at a speed and scale that no one had anticipated. Within a matter of days, billions of people across the world had to move into a remote working arrangement, and businesses had to run their operations with entire teams working remotely in many cases.

However as vaccines get approved and start to be administered globally, companies including those in Singapore, are starting to think about the future of work in a post-pandemic world. While most companies may not require employees to continue working from home, it will be unlikely that they go back entirely to traditional ways of working involving physical presence in the office. Instead, we will increasingly experience hybrid ways of working that will have a long-lasting impact on companies' ability to attract and retain talent.

There are a few key things that companies need to keep in mind.

EMPOWERMENT AND EMPATHY

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Despite the initial challenges, employees have got accustomed to working remotely. In fact, they have turned it into a success. We recently carried out a survey of more than 14,000 people across the Asia-Pacific to better understand employee perceptions about remote working this year and their expectations from the organisation in 2021.

The results were telling. Across the region, 70 per cent of respondents said they worked well as a dispersed team and 68 per cent experienced faster decision making. More importantly though, 88 per cent want the flexibility to choose whether to work from home or office and manage their hours, even when offices open.

Businesses will need to keep this in mind as they plan their strategies around people management in the years ahead. Not only will they need to offer more flexible working arrangements but also empower their employees with the right technology and tools to enable them to perform their jobs effectively irrespective of physical location.

This will require new ways of leading with trust and empathy while taking steps to mitigate conscious bias as people embrace new ways of working.

ENGAGEMENT

A key aspect in the times ahead will be to have an increased focus on employee engagement. With companies enabling employees to work from anywhere, physical interaction between teams are likely to decrease. In such scenarios, engagement will be driven more by a shared sense of purpose and excellence, confidence that teammates have each other's back and that they can play to their strengths in a high performing culture.

This in turn will be enhanced when teams check in regularly with their leaders to align on priorities, share their loves and loathes on the job and the support needed to be successful. Such rituals can enhance the richness of conversations and transcend physical location of teams.

Companies will also need to reimagine inclusion, whether with work rituals or celebrations and ensure employees maintain a healthy work-life balance in the new working model.

People leaders will need to consistently check in with entire teams as well on key elements of work that impact engagement and about their feelings about overall strategy and direction of the business, camaraderie between and across teams, their own job and whether they feel recognised. The latter will become increasingly important as more employees choose to work remotely more often.

Leaders and teams that regularly focus on elevating these aspects of work will see improved engagement and as result, better performance. Technology can be a great enabler of all this, and businesses should leverage it fully.

CONSCIOUS CULTURE

None of the above will be possible without the foundation of a great culture. There is no one way to define a great culture, but companies that have one have a few things in common.

First among those is creating an environment of dignity, respect, fairness, and equity.

Such an environment motivates employees to give their best. It encourages them to connect with others, share their learnings and keep an open mind to ideas from anywhere.

This is how the best teams in the world operate and deliver tangible impact to businesses. In short, companies need to provide a consistent experience of Conscious Culture irrespective of where work is done.

Finally, employees increasingly want to work for companies that have a broader purpose and a deep impact on the wider community while making our planet a better place for everyone.

This is not about having a feel-good CSR programme, but driving meaningful impact in a range of areas - from healthcare to education, environment to disaster recovery and response - so we can build a more inclusive future for all.

It is often said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. In the Future of Work, it will eat its lunch and dinner too, if businesses don't pay attention.