Working from Home — what you need to know and what your employees want to tell you.

We’ve come to the end of The Great Work from Home Experiment. We’ve asked our WFHers to document their journey from week 1 of lockdown until now and we’ve asked them everything from — what motivates them, the challenges they see, to what support companies can give them.

So here are 10 things you need to know to support a happy, motivated and productive workforce, straight from the mouths of our WFHers:

Communicate often.

Not just about work stuff either. Ask people how they really are. We’re in the middle of a pandemic — people need more support than normal. Make sure the water cooler conversations still happen digitally and help your team stay connected. Need more help? We put together some golden rules on communicating in a crisis.

Be crystal clear.

Be transparent with your people, customers, and stakeholders; in times of uncertainty when we’re all craving for direction and leadership, it’s okay to not have all the answers. But, it is important to be honest. Check out what leaders said about this at our latest Fluxx Exchange event.

Purpose-driven activities.

Lots of our old office rituals might be less applicable in the new online working world. Avoid death by zoom by being clear about the point of activities, and the value derived. It goes hand in hand with clear and constant communication. Don’t just continue to ‘do it, because you always have.’

Innies & Outies.

The best teams are cognitively diverse, bringing different perspectives to your business challenges. Diverse teams also require different leadership or management approaches. Members of your staff that you assume are ‘doing okay’, might just be really good at hiding it. It’s everyone’s responsibility to look out for each other, making space to ask the tough questions. We can’t assume someone else will pick it up.

The ‘F’ word

As we begin to think about the return to work, businesses are making decisions about where they can cut fixed costs, more offices will close and flexible working will naturally be part of the new normal. Company culture and inclusive team rituals have to be in place to support a happy team to have an appropriate work-life balance.

Invest in your team’s development. (Training)

Workloads seem to be increasing with little space for learning and development. Now, more than ever is the time to invest in training and this has to be prioritised by business leaders.

It will take creativity and innovation to get us out of this recession.

Allowing your people to train, develop and think creatively will help you out of this mess. Many businesses have had to be creative in how they’ve navigated the crisis. Whilst nobody knows what’s round the corner, we can make some pretty good bets, with quick, deep diving customer research and foresight work. Businesses that have had to pivot and adapt quickly can take this behaviour forward, adopting a more agile approach.

Reflect on what sticks.

Don’t just go back to old ways, take time with your team to figure out and navigate what behaviours and changes you’ll continue. One of our healthcare clients commented recently that digital adoption has moved forward by 10 years for their business. Why go back to slow, clunky decision making and hoop-jumping? We’ve had a taste of a digital-first approach — it’s in our hands as to what new behaviours and practices stick.

Corporate responsibility now extends to our homes.

We’ve proven over the past few months that remote and flexible working works. HR teams across the country have quickly immobilised to support their staff. As well as paying particular attention to mental health, on a logistical level, businesses have a responsibility to set their employees up to work safely at home with the correct equipment. Online, it’s not good enough to just provide employees with the tools and platforms they need, they need to have confidence to actually use them.

Breaking down hierarchy.

It’s been a real eye-opener seeing people in their home environments. We’ve seen dogs, cats and family members all appear in Zoom or Team calls, we’ve seen leaders and colleagues in their home environments and it’s reminded us that people of all levels are human, have responsibilities, lives and thrive in different environments. It’s made us a lot more empathetic, real and it’s breaking down hierarchies. This needs to continue.

Thank you to all our WFHers who took part in The Great Work from Home Experiment, it has given us wonderful insights into the experiences of a huge variety of people. Sharing the highs and lows has been a privilege, but it’s also strange researching a topic that is such a shared, lived experience for us all right now. We’ve seen huge amounts of empathy and understanding through the study, as well as within Fluxx, and with our clients too. Sometimes it’s worth taking a moment to remember what a crazy time we’re living in right now… When it feels like we’ve dropped the ball, or there’s too much going on, or we’re just having a bad day, remember we’re all in this together, and we’ll get there.

Check out highlights from Week 1 to 6: The Great Work from Home Experiment, Insights from Week 2, Motivations and Not-so-Guilty Pleasures, Mindfulness, achievements and personal brand building, and Magic wands, wellbeing, and back to basics.

Drop us a note if you’d like to join Fluxx Talks, where we’ll be sharing a deeper analysis of the results from the study, along with a range of industry experts. We’ll be diving into the ways businesses should prepare for the new normal. Jassi@Fluxx.uk.com