Your Campus Remote Work Policy Might Be Right But Not Good
We’ve had every wrench known to Home Depot thrown into the mix as campus leaders are working to telegraph the COVID-19 variant punches over the last few years.
What was expected to be a mass migration back to the happy office spaces last fall was halted as leaders protracted their work-from-home policies indefinitely into another miserable pandemic winter.
As spring winds down, you are once again preparing for what your new office environment will look like to start up the 2022-2023 academic year while praying not to lose any of your best talent, right?
What hangs in the balance is a ton of tension to manage. Many leaders I serve are scrambling to solve this conflict via fixed policies and practices designed to be RIGHT (efficient) but not always GOOD (effective).
What hangs in the balance is a ton of tension to manage. Many leaders I serve are scrambling to solve this conflict via fixed policies and practices designed to be RIGHT (efficient) but not always GOOD (effective).
I hear ideas from leaders across the country which are widely divided and (in my opinion) narrowly grounded in personal bias and views rooted in a pre-pandemic framework for how the work should be done.
Grounded Perspective
Gallup has been a trusted base for making sense of the mucky middle of these types of tensions for years. I have appreciated their most current study conducted to give voice to the needs and plans of more than 140,000 U.S. employees surveyed since the pandemic. These insights paint a vivid picture of how campus leaders might not want to FIX the problem but FLEX it to keep their best talent and attract more of the same in the year ahead.
Spoiler alert: Employees with the ability to work remotely universally desire a hybrid office environment, which allows them to spend part of their week working remotely and part in the office.
Hybrid work in the educational space is increasingly complex but can’t be set apart as a non-starter. Some campuses are mustering up the courage to take on a learning posture in this new reality. The following lessons will define our work lives for years to come. Ultimately, how a hybrid campus unfolds will depend on the capacity of work teams to be uber-clear about the work priorities and how leaders adapt to the changing needs of the learner experience.
Let me make a bold statement that will make half of you want to stop reading. I believe it is becoming shallow and a bit selfish to say that the work of education must be 100% on-site. Equally, I don’t think it is best practice to allow everyone to work and learn 100% remotely. It’s the middle ground where we will find leaders in the winner’s circle.
Based on Gallup’s insights, approximately half of the U.S. full-time workforce (representing about 60 million workers) report that their current job can be done remotely by working from home, at least part of the time. The new term for these workers is "remote-capable employees."
Before the pandemic, very few remote-capable employees worked exclusively from home (8%), while one-third had a hybrid work arrangement.
Then the pandemic hit, and most remote-capable employees were forced to work from home in some capacity.
Fast forward to the current day, most campuses are wondering what to do with this new group that CAN work from home. Those who are seeking to even the playing field are calling them back to campus.
When asked how these remote-capable employees desired to work into the near future, about 53% preferred a hybrid arrangement, and 24% would choose to work exclusively remote.
Nine in 10 remote-capable employees currently prefer some degree of remote-work flexibility in the future, and six in 10 specifically prefer hybrid work. Most employees have developed an affinity for remote-work flexibility that has matured into an expectation for those now coming into the workforce.
While permanent plans for remote flexibility are lagging in the educational space, more and more demand is trending in this direction.
What does this mean in the battle for talent? I suspect that many of your best talent on campus will not receive the flexibility they desire, and many (more) will leave.
Fact: Remote work isn’t a fad. It is here to stay, and hybrid work is the future for most remote-capable employees.
Working for a campus that doesn't consider the unique needs of remote-capable employees might create more inertia than engagement. When employees are required to work entirely on-site but would prefer to work hybrid or fully remote, employees experience:
- significantly lower engagement
- significantly lower wellbeing
- significantly higher intent to leave
- significantly higher levels of burnout
Counter Fact: To be fair, the long-term effects of mass-scale remote work in education are yet to be seen.
Nonetheless, attracting and retaining top talent amid today's "Great Reshuffling" of the workforce will require all campus leaders to address the remote-work question in a fluid, vs a fixed manner.
Failing to offer flexible work arrangements is a significant risk to campus hiring, employee engagement, performance, wellbeing, and retention strategies.
Why Hybrid?
Gallup asked remote-capable employees who prefer hybrid work why they desired this arrangement.
The most common responses won’t surprise you.
The top reason employees prefer hybrid work is to avoid commute time.
We all can agree that a large slice of the life pie is taken away from us in the time it takes to get ready for work, travel to the office, and return home every day.
The other key reason employees prefer hybrid work represents a strong desire for more personal freedom to work when, where, and how it best suits them. Their demands for better well-being, work-life balance, and flexibility represent a new "will of the workplace” that won't consent to the traditional office attitudes in the future.
For balance, the study also pointed out that remote-capable employees are increasingly isolated by the digital world and need to feel connected to their coworkers and their organization. There is a common agreement that connecting with the team and feeling a part of the campus culture is easier to experience in person.
Although remote employees enjoy their flexibility, four in 10 would give up some time at home to have in-person office experiences.
Overall, the top reason people want a hybrid work arrangement is to have the flexibility to manage their week while still feeling connected to their organization.
These sentiments align with adjacent Gallup research showing that achieving work-life balance and improved personal wellbeing are top reasons people would change jobs.
Hybrid work helps employees get the most out of their day while ensuring they feel connected to coworkers and the organization.
So, What’s the RIGHT and GOOD Response?
For starters, campus leaders should delineate between the work.
What’s your team’s interdependent work?
What’s your team’s independent work?
Highly interdependent teams must stay tightly connected and rely on one another to work in a real-time/high-definition world. The more interdependent your teams are, the more explicit leaders must be about when work must be done collectively and on-site.
These teams require a certain amount of air traffic control and more face-to-face time to keep everything moving cohesively.
Conversely, when teams work independently (doing tasks that require less real-time collaboration and more asynchronistic focus), they can be given more autonomy and flexibility over work schedules.
In a hybrid environment, highly independent teams must double down on quality communication, ownership of performance outcomes, and team connection. Their most significant risk is working in isolation for too long or at the wrong moments. Highly independent teams also risk culture erosion and the neglect of remote-working coworkers.
While hybrid work schedules should look different by campus and team, it is universally important to keep assessing, adjusting, and reassessing how the current arrangement is working.
In the end, campus leaders who retain their best talent and attract more of the same will have apparent answers to WHY people should come into the office and HOW they should spend that time together.
Campus leaders are working to create firm ground for this new normal in the face of increasing volatility. It can be easy for leaders to get bogged down in policies and rules concerning hybrid work. Based on the needed efficiencies (right) and desirable effectiveness (good), the modern hybrid workplace needs to provide three things:
- Productivity: Workplaces that execute upon 90-day priorities for all teams.
- Flexibility: Workplaces that allow personalized work schedules that honor the remote-capable voice to thrive in life and work.
- Connectivity: Workplaces that encourage the spirit of partnership, teamwork, and organizational culture
Here are a few recommendations to help campus leaders stay focused on what's essential while managing the tension of work triage.
Boost Productivity
Shape work strategies around objective productivity, not just policy compliance.
Now is the time to redefine what Higher Performance looks like for your team and how to best work together to achieve that vision. Ensure collective focus on the immediate performance outcomes and have the right tools for tracking your progress. Assess which team activities are best on-site and which can be done remotely.
Consider the interdependency of the work.
As previously discussed, when teammates are more interdependent, they need more coordination of schedules and time on campus. Team members are responsible for a mix of interdependent and independent work. These individuals should consider where they can best focus on their assignments and when they should be in the office to boost collaboration and team culture.
Boost Flexibility
Allow for flexibility within a framework.
There is likely no single campus work policy that will be ideal for all teams. Allowing leaders some authority to individualize policies is necessary, given your campus' different kinds of work and life circumstances. It is also essential to set boundaries for when employees are expected to be in person and allowed to work remotely.
Warning: Flexibility and autonomy can create ambiguity and coordination issues.
Experience (and the research) find that leaders communicate less frequently and effectively in the remote modality. However, hybrid team engagement can actually surpass on-site engagement when managers proactively check in with their teams multiple times per week. As flexibility increases, leaders need to increase communication about work priorities, progress, and handoffs between team members.
Boost Connectivity
Think virtual first.
When team members in the office behave as if everyone is working remotely, remote workers are more likely to feel part of the team. For example, having laptops at team meetings, so everyone has an on-screen presence can create a more inclusive experience. Also, taking time to learn together is a great way to grow into a hybrid team.
Consider a few of our Higher Performance Team Workshops to sharpen your advantage and raise your team engagement.
Give people a compelling reason to come to the office.
“I come to the office with a smile because of a policy,” said not one of your high-capacity team members. A policy is not an answer to why people should be working on campus. Leaders need to develop a compelling workplace value proposition representing the culture, benefits, and interactions your people will experience on-site.
Say Hello to the Modern Workplace
Saying your campus is a modern workplace is much easier than creating an effective one. Undoubtedly, hybrid work will be more challenging for leaders than their old ways of working. Flexibility for workers makes coordination difficult. Remote workers can feel neglected, technology requirements must change, and hybrid work will raise additional complex issues of trust, equity, and accountability.
Because of this, you might want to armor up and shut your eyes tight. However, "hybrid" isn’t just a work schedule or employee perk -- it's an entirely new way of working together.
Crafting an exceptional hybrid work experience (culture, not policy) will be worth it -- if you put in the hard work to make it worth it.
I have already seen the benefits for those who did it before the pandemic and are living it today with lines of people who are ready to fill open positions.
These exceptionally led hybrid teams tend to have more engaged employees, more intentional and meaningful interactions, and, ultimately, better flexibility to integrate work and home life.
All signs indicate that hybrid is fast becoming a new expectation of your high-capacity employees and teams.
I am fired up to experience the next chapter of this tremendous global work experiment and its impact over the next few years.
One Question
What valuable lessons did you and your team receive by working differently over these past two years?
One Challenge
I am encouraging (and challenging) every campus executive team to block off time this summer to critically think about your work triage assessed against your 90-day priorities. What work can be done independently? What work must be done interdependently? How can you boost productivity, flexibility, and connectivity?
The Research
Check out the Gallup article on hybrid workplace.
P.S. Here are the two best ways I can help you right now:
1) Get your FREE guide:
5 Evidence-Based Practices to Reclaim More Team Engagement with Less Effort.
Download this free guide now.
2) Schedule a Call:
Let’s talk about the obstacles (and opportunities) that you & your team are currently facing.
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