However, with the momentum of vaccine rollout in Australia and as the economy continues to rebound, research tells us the labour market will get tighter. For this reason, this situation will result in the war for talent becoming more likely to happen.

Hybrid work arrangements and work from anywhere policies are now the norms in most organisations. Then, to win this talent war, it’s now mission-critical:

• to have your dispersed team highly engaged 
• led by outstanding remote managers 
• supported by a strong organisational culture. 

Productivity

Markedly, more than 70% of employees state they are more productive working from home. And businesses report 47% productivity increases during COVID. 

Most business leaders agree that increasing employee engagement increases productivity significantly and improves bottom-line profit. 

The fact is, it’s never been more important to focus on the productivity of your remote teams for the long term. And equally, ensure your managers feel equipped with the skills and tools they need to meet and exceed company goals.

Managers hold the key

If you have been fortunate to work for a great manager, I’d like to invite you to reflect for a moment on what was great about them and how you remember them?

Certainly, the fact is that managers can make or break a team.   

The Oxford English dictionary defines a manager as –

“a person responsible for controlling or administering an organisation or group of staff”. 

This is one definition; rather, my personal definition of a manager in 2021 and beyond is –

“a person that leads, supports, and develops a team of people to deliver the organisational goals”.  

By and large, the way we work has shifted forever. Being a manager has always been a tough gig, but in the hybrid environment, it sucks!

So how can you ensure your managers are ready for the hybrid normal?

Future-ready culture with a coaching culture

A culture of coaching is an approach in which leaders, managers and staff members work together to:

– increase individual, team and company organisational performance.

The future hybrid workplace with a strong culture will be one where workers feel empowered to work towards their own goals independently. Managers who foster this type of working environment will positively impact employee engagement and organisational productivity. 

Gallup research has shown that managers are a massive influence on engagement rates. It was found managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units. And with high engagement rates comes better company results.

So how can you transform your managers into coaches to create a culture of coaching in your workplace?

Teach coaching skills

The first steps are knowing:

• who you are as a leader, and 
• whom you have on your team. 

Its commonly accepted that not everyone has the required traits to work remotely long term. And business WHS responsibility for their employees does not change just because they are not working at the office. The solution we recommend is using established science to predict how your managers and team members will perform in a long term remote/hybrid environment.

I’ve used many people assessment tools over my 20+ years as a coach and a people leader. With this in mind, I find the bespoke next-gen people assessment tools from Great People Inside are easy to use and their predictive capability and insights are second to none for this exercise. They are outstanding, too, when you’re hiring a new remote employee as they truly de-risk the recruitment process and increase your success rate by 300%!

Not all managers have a coaching mindset, but all great managers do. Certainly prioritising coaching in your workplace training is the best way to create a coaching culture. This type of training is essential for employees transitioning into leadership roles or those coming to grips with managing people remotely.

Rank employee engagement as a top priority

Tying together talent and employee engagement to achieve important business objectives is what coaching is all about. 

To nurture employees’ professional development to keep them engaged, a good step is discussing with each employee their professional goals from their point of view. Then communicating clearly and precisely how the organisation can support them to achieve their goals.

In this way, the employee owns their own development and their careers. 

A coaching culture fosters an environment of trust.

Trust influences everything. A work environment in which managers coach and trust their employees and employees trust their managers is one where productivity can thrive. Creating trust is challenging. Again this is where a coaching mindset can play a huge role.

Professor Ralph Stacey, a renowned organisational theorist and Professor of Management at University of Hertfordshire, in the UK., says it best –

“the quality of the system is determined by the quality of the relationships which is determined by the quality of the conversation.” 

When individuals have accountability over their work, they are more likely to achieve important business outcomes independently. Autonomous workers also understand how their everyday work contributes to the overall success of the company. Having this connection to the purpose helps to empower individuals to reach their highest potential.

Contact us today to find out more about incorporating a coaching mindset for your leaders and our Great People Inside assessment tools.

The post A Coaching Culture – how does this Protect Productivity and Profit? appeared first on Directions Unlimited.

Twitter was one of the first companies to go to a work from home model. In fact, they have stated publicly that they “don’t anticipate being one of the first to return to offices” but instead “if (their) employees are in a role and situation that enables them to work from home and they wish to continue to do so forever, (they) will make that happen”.

We can all agree that we are in the middle of an age of great technological advancement and we are also facing fundamental changes in the way we live and work. If we zoom out, the spotlight is on how businesses will adapt to a world where it is increasingly difficult to travel overseas and trade relationships between nations are changing. How will we adapt to this disruption to globalisation? Can technology save us in the long term? Businesses like Zoom, Skype and Slack are a few of the many online solutions to our current levels of separation which allow us to communicate as teams, but questions still remain around how this will play out in the long term.

What does it mean for your business?

Much has been written on how remote working will mean a reduction in office real estate and significant cost savings. Many employers are also finding themselves already offering the flexibility of remote work as a benefit to existing and new employees. Millennials who currently represent around 50% of the workforce, and are expected to represent 75% by 2025, place great importance on this type of flexibility when deciding whether they remain with or join a new employer. The fact is that technology and the latest tools make people working remotely effective and means that the need for physical proximity has been greatly reduced. This shift is a test for all businesses robustness, agility and ability to make decisions quickly. “People are our most important asset” is a well-worn cliché, but now more than ever people are front and centre in these key deliberations.

It’s our belief that gradually, organisations will likely transition to a type of hybrid working model, with some employees working from the office and others working from home, or a mixture of the two. This sounds relatively straight forward but as we know us humans are complex beings. Many employees today, conscious of the fragility of their employment in the current environment will go with the flow to ensure job retention. The fact is that not everyone can or is suited to a remote environment.

The real challenge facing employers of all sizes is how will they support their people and keep their team cohesive. Once you are sure that the home environment is safe and appropriate for your potential remote workers, how do you:

• Objectively identify those existing employees, managers and teams that possess the required attributes to productively work long term in a hybrid model?
• Identify and support those who may struggle?
• Recognise potential new hires who can successfully deliver long term in a hybrid environment?
• Help the “command and control” manager move from industrial age work practices?
• Ensure the effectiveness of remote teams in the long term?

Robust information will be key to your success

As an assessment business, Great People Inside are experts at creating tools for the development of existing people and teams as well as recruitment. We provide the objective data you need to make informed decisions for practically every people situation you are dealing with now and in the future.
Given that organisations can no longer rely on things they very recently took for granted, the psychologists at Great People Inside have recently developed a series of new assessments around working remotely. These assessments are, informed by extensive independent research, into the characteristics required for people to work productively from home. With our partners, we also offer individualised online development, provided by subject matter experts, to help you support your people whilst they transition to this new way of working.

Don’t let this shift, shift you. We can help you support your people to adjust.

For more information
Contact: David Leahy
E: australia@greatpeopleinside.com
Or call on 04-05691845

The post How to navigate the new working normal appeared first on Directions Unlimited.