Leadership skills to manage a hybrid workforce in post-pandemic era
IF THERE’S one godsend from the pandemic, it’s the push towards greater work flexibility for both us and our employees.
For most of us back in 2020, we probably felt cornered into offering hybrid work, simply because there wasn’t any other option to consider.
But after countless research reports and interviews that journalists had with Singaporeans, it could never be clearer that there is no turning back. Companies have to recognise the writing on the wall that spending five full working days in the office is history and widely frowned upon today.
When we took a step back to look at the drivers of the Great Resignation phenomenon, the message was clear: “It’s about me.” With just limited time on this earth, all of us are reconsidering how we want to spend our time. In this context, which company do I want to give my time to that would make me feel fulfilled and happy?
In the Randstad Singapore’s 2022 Workmonitor survey, 42 per cent of respondents said that they wouldn’t accept a job if it didn’t provide remote work flexibility. Some 27 per cent have resigned from a job before because of the lack of flexibility to choose where and when they want to work.
At this point, flexible work options are the biggest currency that an organisation can use for talent attraction and retention.
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Mutual distrust the culprit to poor work flexibility
If the answer for talent attraction is already staring right into our faces, then what exactly is inhibiting business leaders from embracing it wholeheartedly?
When managers can’t see their employees, there is a genuine yet irrational fear that staff are cheating the system. The lack of mutual trust could only manifest the fear that staff are taking things for granted, without any concrete evidence to show at times.
These fears could indeed be applied to a small pool of employees who have already lost interest in their jobs and the company. However, mistrusting an entire workforce because of a minority group highlights a bigger issue of poor leadership more than what it says about the very idea of remote or hybrid work.
Business leaders who don’t trust their employees are likely to create a culture of mistrust within the organisation. Managers are often quick to assume the worst and employees are frustrated at their managers for believing the opposite. Eventually, everyone starts watching their backs more than they should be working.
For a company to find the “utopia” of a highly-engaged and happy hybrid workforce, it will have to start with flushing out poor leadership behaviours and skills that hinder the possibility of flexible work. As I’ve always said to my management team, “the fish rots from its head”.
When leaders are trained and programmed to control based on inputs from the employees, their requisite supervisory skills are to know and own an employee’s time and visibility at work. This management style resides on a lofty assumption that every employee works hard for eight hours straight, five times a week.
The reality is a far cry from that. We are all guilty of the occasional “break”, doom scrolling our social media feed every now and then during work, and this includes me.
Measuring new employee traits and levers
Many of us were not taught how to measure these traits, because our tutelage is mostly autocratic, directive and bureaucratic. Some frameworks such as key performance indicators, measurement structures, compensation tools and supervisory reports haven’t been updated to reflect today’s climate.
We have to start measuring the new and right levers, such as innovation, creativity and problem-solving. While these traits may be difficult to measure, it is completely possible, as long as we take the proactive steps to do so by being participative, collaborative, affiliative and democratic.
We developed these behaviours by interacting with our employees and directing them to experiment and solve problems, all while keeping the focus on their goals and outputs. Leaders that found hybrid work to be successful display these four distinguished ways of managing.
1. Let the data speak for itself
By now, we should all be able to agree that watching your employees’ every movement is a poor measurement. What we see does not equate to what their outcomes are.
Companies use data to serve as information on how employees are creating results remotely. Managers need to learn how to use dashboards to read and analyse data that will inform their decision to make corrective actions or to promote growth.
If the sales person consistently exceeds their goals every month and is able to grow their clients when working remotely, who are we to tell them that they have to come back to the office to be “more productive”? The right step to take here is to recognise their contributions and offer them more opportunities to push the boundaries farther. We could either expand this individual’s team and remit so that more people within the organisation get the opportunity to learn from the best.
Indisputably, data-backed decision-making and governance are based on facts. Every employee has a clear indication of where they are and what they need to do, which would minimise biases and guesswork among the management team.
2. Drive togetherness while making independent work the main feature
A leader’s job is not to worry whether our employees are overpaid for the work they do or hold their hand every step of the way.
Instead, our job is to bring people together and drive social cohesiveness and collaboration within the company through the alignment of shared goals and purpose. We have to create opportunities for employees to work on projects with peers from another team or market so that they can build connections and do great work together.
When employees are back at their desks, they are and should be left to their own devices. Through open feedback and consistent communication with individuals, a manager should be able to make a decision on whether they need to deploy more resources, offer greater support, or simply take a step back and let the employee focus on their work.
While the physical work environment in the office matters in driving productive and meaningful collaborations, it is the people that they work with that influence their satisfaction and work performance. Having a collaborative relationship with your employee guides them towards making independent decisions to create greater outcomes rather than just go through their list of tasks.
3. Understand to accept flexible work
Leaders need to understand that today’s employees, especially those from the younger generations, may use traditional work hours for personal errands, and sometimes choose to spend their evenings working. They get to enjoy a harmonious use of their time for both work and personal life, based on their energy levels, deadlines and responsibilities.
A person defines his or her sense of self and purpose largely through the work they choose to do, and a flexible working style draws out the best employee motivations and behaviours.
When employees are empowered to make their own decisions on how they want to spend their time, they will find meaning and purpose in their work and life. Left on their own, they would still feel motivated to work and produce outcomes no matter where they are or what time they choose to work.
As long as the employee self actualises the purpose that they have been searching for in your firm under your leadership, then you don’t need to hover over them. Just be there to provide continuous support whenever they face challenges or seek growth.
4. Create design-based work for your employees
When work is hybrid, the intention is to offer the best of both worlds, and to do that, you’ll need to bring the best of each.
British organisational theorist Lynda Gratton said that when work is distinguished between group and individual, it can drive collaboration, synergy and social well-being within the organisation. Individual work, on the other hand, is produced better because of uninterrupted time, silent focus and independent performance.
When a leader makes deliberate decisions as to what type of work should be done in a group setting versus what can be accomplished by an individual in their own environment, workers would feel that they have earned the trust and are more likely to engage more purposefully with their peers.
Putting theories into practice
It’s easy to understand the frameworks and how they work. However, it takes guts to put them into practice and to be able to go with the flow. Without giving it a try, it would be impossible to know what type of model would work for your company.
The future of work has already been redesigned and experimented with. Hybrid work is not about where people are or when they are working. It’s about the organisational freedom that can only exist if leaders make it permissible.
The writer is managing director in Malaysia and Singapore at Randstad
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