One of the burning topics to have come out of the pandemic is the opportunity of hybrid, or blended working, and how this can ensure a connected wellbeing strategy.
At PCP, we’re big fans of removing complexity and challenges and, instead, finding a way to focus on success and win-win for both the employer and individual outcomes.
So, we think there’s a simpler way to consider what our working lives look like in the future, with a focus on purposeful working days. It shouldn’t matter whether you are a Tuesday-to-Thursday advocate or you love a work-from-home-Wednesday. What really matters – and ultimately drives the success of both careers and profitability, is that we have a purpose when we work and we deliver something meaningful at the end of each day.
What does a purposeful workday look like?
There are a few things that seem to continually surface for employers and employees in this debate. They are productivity, a sense of belonging/team, and accountability.
Let’s handle each one individually.
Productivity was seen to increase during lockdown and it’s certainly not an urban myth that most home workers are driven to work harder and longer. However, this often means boundaries are blurred and can result in other issues. A purposeful workday would be one where boundaries, outputs and working practices were clearly stated and agreed. For the employer, it’s important that their employee is able to work in an effective and efficient way (ie without undue distraction or interruption) when they aren’t in the office. For the employee, it’s important that they feel expectations are reasonable and achievable and that there isn’t a culture (real or perceived) of quantity over quality.
Having a sense of belonging is so important to us all. It gives us a sense of purpose if we feel we have a role to play as part of a team in delivering for our employer. Equally, for leaders, it is important to feel the team is aligned and united. Culture is one of the unknowns of our recent experience. Can it still form when workers are remote? How do we nurture it and still create a sense of ‘team’ if everyone has different working patterns?
Zapier are a great example of a business that’s never been anything other than remote. They tackle the issue of culture head on as part of the recruitment page on their website and have written a blog with ideas on how to build culture in a remote team. Essentially, it involves deciding what outcomes you want or need, investigating what tools are available to help you achieve them and using them to communicate clearly, consistently, and frequently to keep people on the same page.
Accountability is incredibly important when it comes to having a sense of purpose. We may enjoy working remotely and having flexibility in our week but we also all respond well to some structure and routine. Accountability can provide that by setting out goals and expectations and then following up to measure and assess performance. Providing this is done in a positive, collaborative way, it is a motivational experience which will create enthusiasm and energy which in turn drives effort and achievement.
Taking all this into consideration, there’s a common thread. Perhaps not surprisingly it’s communication. Being clear about what is needed or expected does mean the conversation about delivery is easier and a lack of performance is less likely to be an issue. But, in line with the concept of ‘purposeful workdays’ this expectation must be driven by quality and not quantity. To get this right, leadership teams need to be honest with themselves about the performance and behaviours that are truly business-critical and work out how they translate into guidance for their distributed workforce.