Ryan Wong is an engineer-turned-CEO of Visier , a people analytics company.
I’ll be the first to admit it: I used to be an old-school leader.
At the start of each year, my company releases a list of workforce trends expected in the new year, and I’ll admit this, too: I used to question whether some of those progressive trends were actually the best way forward.I was a firm believer in things like butts-in-seats, thinking a central location was the best way to build a successful business.
But the last two years have shown that with flexibility, comes opportunity.People still sticking to those “old-school” beliefs have become dinosaurs.Leaders who were willing to open their minds have navigated the pandemic with healthier people and healthier margins .Some companies, like my own, were able to thrive when they saw the writing on the wall and decided to adjust with the trends rather than stubbornly resist.
With 2022 comes more change and a new list of emerging themes in the world of work.
Here are three that should be top of mind for any leader who wants to emerge victorious into a (hopefully pandemic-free) 2023.
Forget The Clock
Employees have been asked to revamp their working styles throughout this whole ordeal.But what strikes me is how much management styles have stayed the same.That needs to change, and fast.
MORE FOR YOU Google Issues Warning For 2 Billion Chrome Users Forget The MacBook Pro, Apple Has Bigger Plans Google Discounts Pixel 6, Nest & Pixel Buds In Limited-Time Sale Event Old ways of measuring productivity, like counting hours punched on the job, required employees to be within sight.
But now, with distributed work becoming the norm, organizations must rethink how they measure productivity.
Research has shown that when employers focus on completing tasks rather than punching the clock, they find their productivity increases — and so does their sanity.Indeed, workers want to be assessed on the quality of their work rather than the quantity.A whopping 86% of employees surveyed (paywall) said they’d prefer to work for a company that cares more about the outcome of their work than how long it took them to do it.
In 2022, if they haven’t already, organizations must shift their management style to value quality over quantity.
Embrace Microlearning
The Great Resignation wave may have boosted the profile of the “stay interview,” but I’ve sat through my share of them over the years.Without a doubt, constant learning crops up again and again as a critical way to keep people around.
Consider this: About 70% of workers in a recent survey said they don’t have the skills they need to do their jobs.
Why would they stick around, stumbling in the dark, from one week to the next? This is where microlearning can be a smart solution.Rather than taking people out of the mix for day-long courses, a bite-sized learning approach helps employees learn in the moment on their computers or phones.
Workers can move at their own pace and don’t have to return from a training session to a pile of neglected work.
For leaders, it’s absolutely shortsighted to let learning play second fiddle to other business outcomes.Consider software developers — they’re too busy in a typical workday to learn the latest and greatest tech.
But giving them the chance to keep up through microlearning can also be the best way of keeping them with your company.
Learning gives employees something else to focus on besides their work, qualifies them for upward movement and motivates them to stay with the organization.
Treat Your Employees Like Customers
In any industry, great customer service is recognized as a key ingredient for business success.Now it’s time to apply the “customer is king” mindset to our employees.
It’s critical that employers treat their employees with the same level of effort and thoughtfulness — or risk losing them.That’s going to require something deeper than the usual biannual employee survey.It’s going to require real-time feedback and a deeper dive into people-oriented data to get a better grasp of how individuals are doing.
Take Microsoft, for example.
The company found that productivity among its developers had increased (paywall).However, on closer examination, it discovered almost half of its employees were working longer hours, and 54% said they felt overworked.
One way of boosting employee experience is extending more flexibility .I know firsthand how valuable it can be when management is willing to forgo business as usual to listen to its workers.I was working as a developer when my father fell ill, and I had to go home to Singapore.
At the time, working remotely was unheard of.Fortunately for me, I had a boss who gave me the opportunity to do my work overseas.It’s difficult to put into words what a relief it was to be there when my family needed me.
I’ve been grateful to extend that flexibility to others and have seen incredible success in embracing this new era of people-powered work.It’s still evolving, even inside our own company.
For example, there’s a developer we’ve always wanted to hire, but he was based in Berlin and unwilling to relocate for years.It never made sense to hire him, until we decided to put him first.
He joined our team recently, and we’ve decided to build a satellite office around him.
For us, he is living proof that the fastest route to achieving your business goals in 2022 is not through clinging to the past, but by putting people at the center of every decision, big or small..
