THE FUTURE OF WORK: BUILDING A LEADERSHIP STRATEGY

Wondering what the future of work holds, and which new workforce trends and innovations will define tomorrow’s workplace? The latest installment in our series of articles summarizing our recent market research helps break it down.

Topic: Creating a More Flexible Approach to Work: Redesigning Employee Schedules

Scenario: Enterprises are used to having people do 40-hour workweeks on-site – now they have to redesign their working strategies to account for social distancing, variable hours (noting that it may no longer be profitable to operate certain days/times), staggering shifts, etc.

Takeaway: Do you need to compress your work schedule into fewer days so hours are maintained and less days on site are required? Break workers into teams and stagger their shifts so fewer people are on-site and exposed to hazards at any given time? There are lots of ways to plan a work schedule beyond simply cutting hours.

Topic: How to Get Employees to Learn, Grow, and Accept More Responsibility

Scenario: Organizational leaders have limited time, and can’t manage everything themselves, but employees may commonly interrupt them to ask for help and assistance. They need to find ways to encourage and support staffers to take step up and take on more responsibility.

Insights: There are simple strategies and solutions that you can use to empower employees and help them get better at becoming more self-sufficient. Sometimes, asking pointed questions, providing neutral forums where they can speak up and turn to colleagues for help, or making quick introductions to folks who are better equipped to assist them is all it takes to offload many distractions.

Topic: Brain Drain: How to Avoid Loss of Knowledge and Insight

Scenario: In the wake of COVID-19, many employees are unfortunately being laid off, becoming more hesitant to work, or may be retiring or going part-time soon – but enterprises need a way to capture their experience, insight, and know-how.

Takeaway: There are many ways to retain key learning in an organization by introducing all sorts of simple strategies from shared work assignments, staff/task redundancy, and staggered tours of duty in different positions, etc. to online forums, virtual events and get-togethers that can help information from departing when workers go.