Chief Executive Officer at Safeguard Global.
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I love talking to people and collaborating face-to-face. So it’s no surprise that as the leader of a global company, I enjoy visiting our teams in their offices around the world. I can understand leaders’ desire for their employees to commit to a return to the office.
Years ago, when I was visiting employees in the U.K., I met a member of our team who told me he had not physically set foot in the office in two years. This person was known for doing excellent work, but the thought of him doing it remotely made me feel a bit unsettled at the time. The office was the epicenter of everything I love about work. It's where company culture originates, great ideas are shared and teams come together to pursue a common goal. At the time, when someone mentioned remote work to me, I thought: what a waste.
But today, with an entirely new workplace dynamic that has emerged, I think: what an opportunity. You see, when people are not forced to spend their time and energy on things that do not add value—for example, commuting—they spend more time on the things that make them happier and more fulfilled. It shows in their work.
As employers, we've had to rethink everything during the great upheaval of the past three years. We’ve had to question many of our own assumptions and redesign policies to suit a workforce that increasingly wants to better integrate their work and home lives. When I see happy, productive people who have the freedom to do their jobs in ways that best suit them and their teams, I know I was right to embrace change.
Changing Expectations
The pandemic and its after-effects forced many company leaders to consider employee needs beyond simply what could be provided within an office space. Many workers, forced to merge their personal and professional responsibilities, asked for more flexibility regarding when, where and how they get their work done. While employers have accommodated, many are now trying to get their employees back to the office for the standard 9-to-5.
Confronted with the same circumstances as these other CEOs, I changed my tune. My team has made work increasingly flexible because we listened to what our employees told us. Companies with rigid, location-based policies that affect all employees across the board, in the same manner, are often asking far more of their people than they realize.
For example, my company, Safeguard Global, has a team in India, where traffic and crowded roadways complicate commuting. As a solution, I offered our employees in India free taxi rides to and from the office. However, even with free rides, these workers were spending as much as four hours per day trying to get to and from work. Some of our U.S.-based team in Austin, Texas, also faced fearsome traffic and would stay in the office for hours after their teammates had left just to avoid the gridlock.
Difficult commutes add stressful hours to a person’s workday and take them away from family, friends and personal lives. It’s also an example of employees increasingly rejecting this kind of experience. Letting these workers do their jobs remotely gives back hours of their time every day. It was one simple change, supported by technology, that I can’t believe I didn’t implement years ago. I had no idea what our location-based model had been asking of these employees. Seeing how happy and productive employees are today, it’s a joy not to ask it of them anymore.
But the real joy comes from letting employees not just work where it best suits them, but in any way that suits them.
Creating A New Dynamic
Getting away from location-based work not only makes for happier, more productive employees, but it also frees up a company to find the best talent anywhere in the world.
Hire the best talent, period. Post your job advertisements as remote opportunities—it can give you a distinct edge. Don’t expect people to move to take a job, and let them work remotely if it’s best for their work-life integration.
Go beyond location and offer flexibility when it comes to how and when people work. Continually explore new people-centric policies aimed at helping employees integrate their work with their personal lives, whatever their specific circumstances are.
As CEO, I have seen the return on investment from giving workers more flexibility and fewer restrictions on how to do their jobs. Employers who want to cling to location-based work and hiring—and company policies that do not reflect concern for the well-being of their people—will be left scrambling as the best talent goes to work elsewhere.
If you are a company that understands the new dynamic and wants to give employees all they need to be productive, consider the following guidelines in getting started:
• Set qualitative, not quantitative, goals for employees in a newly remote setting.
• Listen to your remote workforce so your policies reflect their needs and values.
• Develop cross-department relationships using asynchronous communication tools to increase connection and visibility.
• Connect with your workforce often, communicate regularly and find ways to come together.
In my earlier days, I was hesitant about remote work, because I loved the in-person collaboration and team building that takes place in offices. But now collaboration and team building happen every day and teams are distributed around the world.
I believe we lose nothing when we say goodbye to in-office work requirements. We gain employees who can give us their best because they don’t have to spend time and energy just to be at work—and the result is more engaged and happier employees.
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