3 Lessons I Learned When My Company Let Me Work Anywhere And Anytime I Want
What do you think will happen if your firm told you, “Hey, we are not going to track attendance and leaves any longer. Go do your job anywhere and anytime you want”?
Well, STORM did just that a few months ago. Our CEO called an emergency Town Hall meeting with everyone on an unassuming Tuesday morning and gave everyone the freedom to, basically, work whenever and wherever we want. And our small startup is not the only one doing it, apparently. Companies such as Facebook, Google, and Netflix are known to have enviable company perks which includes generous parental leaves policy. STORM took it two notches riskier by giving everyone unlimited leaves- which makes sense because the firm is 90% millennials.
Here’s what I learned observing this new company perk take over:
1. Autonomy is motivating.
Of course, at first, people were baffled. A lot of questions were raised during that Town Hall meeting such as “What happens to overtime pay now?”, and “Will there really be no consequence if I do not show up in the office for 5 days straight?”. But then, after a while, employees started posting on social media about this new company perk. Everyone was ecstatic about it- employees and friends of employees alike! For weeks, employees would express how happy and motivated they are with the new benefit that they are getting.
2. Trust + Metrics + Employee Management = Productivity
Now that the STORM Founders trusted their employees enough to let us do our work on our own time, there are two other variables that needs to be in the mix to sustain employees’ productivity. Well-defined metrics is a significant factor to make this program work. If employees are not aware of what they need to accomplish (and how they are expected to accomplish it), then giving them the freedom to do anything will just encourage irresponsibility in doing what they need to do. Along with strong managers that serves as mentors for the employees, individual performance will be monitored and developed even without face-to-face interaction all the time. Which brings me to my third observation…
3. Effective communication is more crucial than ever.
We tried everything- from Yammer to Viber to Google Drive to Trello and Slack. And to be perfectly honest, we are still trying to find the mix of communication and project management tools that we’ll need to communicate with each other perfectly despite not being in the same room all at once. Yes, we still do stand-up and sit-down meetings every once in a while. Although one thing that employees would really need for them to enjoy the autonomy that has been give to them is a set of effective communication channels. The company perk now demands our firm to find tech solutions to help us sustain our new found autonomy.
New employee benefits does not always mean “spending”. Sometimes, all it takes is to trust your own employees. It could pay off like it does for many firms out there. But let me tell you a secret- company culture dictates the readiness for this level of autonomy. Certain employee values and traits predetermine the effectiveness of autonomy towards work satisfaction and productivity such as creativity, risk propensity, and achievement recognition.
So I ask again, what do you think will happen if your company gives you the ultimate freedom to do your work anywhere and anytime you want?
Original post at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-lessons-i-learned-when-my-company-let-me-work-anywhere-recella?trk=prof-post
