I’ve had loads of interesting chats and debates about the principles of how organisations work since the start of the pandemic in 2020, based on how quickly office-based teams had to adapt to a crisis.
Since the pandemic began, organisations and commentators have been debating how and when office-based teams will return to work. Will it be hybrid? Who’s going to take flexible working on in the long-term? How will it work? Surely, we’ll go back to five days a week in an office?
Image: Waldemar Brandt, Unsplash
As we head towards the further lifting of restrictions in the UK, organisations are continuing to make declarations of when and how their people are going to go back to work. The bad news is that many of them are not properly engaging their people in these changes – and it’s not going down well. Apple is the latest of these, with employees pushing back on a policy for a return to three days in the office.
Whether it works for organisations for employees to be in the office all or most of the time or whether flexible working is a better option, there are ways to engage people in the change you’re proposing. It seems some leaders are forgetting this in their haste to get back to ‘normal’.
Here are a few principles that could help organisations to minimise a potential reputation hit and productivity impact from not engaging with their people…
Get people involved. If you impose something on people without any consultation or taking their perspective into account, they are more likely to be against it or resist it. This shouldn’t be a surprise. Think about how you would react in that situation.Ask people for their feedback and inputs on decisions where you can. If you can’t consider their inputs, then explain why.
Be clear and communicate why you’re planning an approach before you do it. The less people understand the why of what you’re doing, the less engaged they are likely to be with it
Do not assume anything. Just because you think in a certain way, it doesn’t mean that everyone in your organisation thinks the same way too. If you don’t talk to people or ask them their thoughts before you announce a decision, you won’t get an insight into those differences or have the opportunity to hear those perspectives. There may be a nugget in there that you miss. Read this to avoid any other assumptions.
Shake things up. if you want greater innovation in your organisation, then you may need to shake up the way that you’ve done things before. That may mean asking people how they might want to work differently in future. It doesn’t mean you have to start ‘implementing’ straight away but having that on the horizon means you will start the process of thinking differently. Remember, “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
It’s not difficult to do. Here’s a great example of this in practice from the Nationwide the world's largest building society, based in the UK
People have been impacted in life-changing ways through the pandemic and others have made life-changing decisions. Many are considering different ways of working and living and don’t want to go back to long commutes or living by themselves in a city. Others are determined that they want a mix of working and others hate being away from the office. We’re all different.
So, whatever the decision is that you make about how you want your organisation to work in the future, if you ask your people before you make any decisions or changes you might be pleasantly surprised by the answers you get.
If you’re still working through your return to the office and you need some help in planning the engagement and communication of the change, then get in touch.