It is clear that how people prefer to work will not be returning to the pre-COVID-19 era. In the wake of the Great Resignation of 2021, hiring and retaining talent has become challenging. Employees are increasingly selective about whom they work for, where they work and how they work. Team leaders need to step up with strategies and technologies that make work rewarding, fulfilling and exciting.
Main challenges and disruptions in Remote or Hybrid work arrangements
Siloed Work
An increasing risk is individual teams communicating in their own siloed bubble, crafting their own strategies and tactics, and even creating their own micro-culture that obstructs the overall strategy and vision of the company.
Disconnected Workforce
Hybrid work means less face-to-face time, which may create communication barriers. Without the right technology, it will be hard for team leaders to gauge employee sentiment, engagement and work satisfaction.
Reduced Transparency
Lack of communication can lead to isolation and low morale among employees who feel out of the loop. Progressive companies like #stratapp and WordPress are solving this with asynchronous meetings and engagement.
How do we overcome the barriers of new working models?
As remote, hybrid or distributed work becomes a regular workplace arrangement for the future, employees realize that they need to communicate in new ways with other members of the organization to fulfil their roles successfully. In addition, advancements in technology have made it easier to streamline workplace communication and collaboration. Team leaders need to prioritize workplace collaboration by finding ways to replicate spontaneous idea-sharing from employees and cross-team partnerships found in traditional office environments. With this in mind, embracing radical transparency is crucial for the future of remote, hybrid and distributed work models.
- Maintain trust between workers, supervisors and team leaders
- Embrace emerging technology to drive goals, objectives, projects and tasks
- Create and sustain company culture, even among staff working in different time zones
- Adopt workflows that will help increase collaboration that avoids silos between teams
In the age of distributed work, organizations are asking employees to trust their colleagues without getting the chance to meet them in person. That’s a big ask and counter to human nature, where trust is typically built over time with face-to-face interactions. Ray Dalio’s radical transparency encourages open conversation and thoughtful disagreement, the ability to exchange controversial ideas without causing problems. Radical transparency starts with leadership, a conscious paradigm shift to recognize its long-term value to the company. #stratapp makes it easier for you to deliver on remote, hybrid and distributed working, whilst embracing Ray Dalio’s thinking on radical transparency.
How to redefine work in the age of remote, hybrid, and distributed work
While a lot of things are uncertain as we look ahead, your job as a team leader isn’t to predict the future of work — it’s to help shape it. Since hybrid work means everyone is spread across multiple locations, employees should be provided with the right tools to be able to keep working and remain productive. Without the tools they need, it’s harder to collaborate effectively, access the information they need and get the job done on time.
Step 1. Organize the work of your team through Workboards
A lack of time is not the major issue. The real problem is a lack of clarity. Digital workboards are a great way to deliver projects or related tasks. Most people set up the workboard lists as a Kanban, so you can visually see at any instant the progress of tasks as they from left to right, combining this with custom labels on each task card. #stratapp allows you to save org-wide and individual workboard templates, enabling you to launch a project in seconds.
Step 2. Allow your team the flexibility to manage their schedule
When employees are provided with the flexibility to choose their own work schedule, they are often more productive. However, establishing clear expectations and accountability is required to build a high trust environment. Create a culture where your team plans their week. On your Upcoming page inside #stratapp, all of the tasks you own across different workboards are presented for you by due date. This gives you and your team the ability to organize each day in a way that best suits their working style and workload.
Step 3. Stay in context with live meeting notes
Sharing via live meeting notes provides asynchronous access to information and allows all employees to participate equally – either from within or outside of the office. In #stratapp, the live meeting notes includes private notes for your own preparation. You can see the meeting context, agenda, purpose and all meeting actions and conversations are at your fingertips.
Step 4. Redesign onboarding to accommodate hybrid work
With #stratapp, you can reduce the time-to-effectiveness of new team member onboarding down to days, rather than weeks or months. This creates enormous flexibility when someone is sick, away, leaves or gets promoted. When a new person joins your team, they have at their fingertips the history, context of work in progress and immediate access to who is working on what and all of the corresponding resources. These capabilities also allow you the flexibility to build effective distributed and x-border teams.
Step 5. Centralize communication around work
#stratapp enables social collaboration that is naturally organized around work, thereby eliminating the noise, distraction and enormous inefficiency from team or project chat channels. Team members can immediately see what they are looking for, helping everyone on the team stay on track and be more productive. #stratapp allows you to tag social posts into 11 categories (e.g. questions, decisions, requests or approvals), so you can jump straight to what you need to.
Team leaders need next-gen collaboration tech that delivers one connected workspace that will help employees with their day-to-day work, as well as the overall strategic context and its corresponding initiatives.
