The Reality about Hybrid Work
There’s a significant disconnect with a number of articles on ‘Hybrid Workplaces’ and it’s really disappointing to see SO MANY large consultants pump out articles that ignore reality.
So this is a short take to offer an additional perspective.
1) Hybrid workplaces have existed for centuries, they are not new, though the sudden interest is
2) Much of the discussion has been on how to assist employees who prefer to work in an office, to get used to working at least part of their time, from somewhere other than the office
3) Almost NONE of the discussion looks at the fact that between 40 and 60% of workplaces (depending on their make-up) have employees who prefer to work Anywhere OTHER THAN an office, have been forced to work in an office for most of their careers
4) The SINGLE BIGGEST DRIVER for mandating (yes that is the word) people work in the office is the utter lack of skill sets held by in particular, line managers, to manage staff NOT in their line of sight
5) CFO’s are suddenly waking up to the false ‘sunk-cost’ of extremely expensive commercial real-estate. Many are now asking ‘why have we rented so much space for so long?’
I’ve spoken about this for over a decade, here and overseas, on radio, in magazines and press both online and in print. Number 4 is the continued entrenchment of the Wedgewood factory model from the 1780s that saw the role of ‘overseer’ stand behind workers to guide them in the use of new tools and methods not seen on the farms. The ‘overseer’ in now known as ‘manager’ and very few understand how to guide and support staff who aren’t at their desks.
The skillset missing (and I flag my bias here in that I run sessions on How To…’) is what I have called Outcomes Based Management. It requires MUCH more planning by Managers and a much greater awareness of the outputs of their office based workforce. Once understood and implemented, employee productivity climbs as much of the wasted effort of ‘being busy’ dissipates to make way for outcomes.That also leads to far greater engagement of the workforce.
The Hybrid workforce – and staff who work from their cars already know about it, is a useful option. I just wish more Managers would embrace the approaches available to them whilst also recognising that half their workforce will likely prefer it.
I’m heading to Singapore for a few days to facilitate a scenario planning workshop on behalf of the Asia Business Forum. There is something intimately exciting for a futurist to be going to arguably the most future focused of all countries and to spend just a brief time immersed there. There’s no doubt that great…
Read More >Greenwashing is a term used to define marketing actions by organisations, claiming to take an environmental approach to their products or services, when in fact, they are doing nothing or very little. Greenwashing is a form of marketing hype, and in turbulent times, many companies may be contemplating ‘sexing up’ their image by tapping into…
Read More >Strategic Futurist Marcus Barber will be the key note speaker at the Australian Computer Society’s annual conference to be held in Adelaide on July 30 at the Adelaide Convention Centre With the theme ‘Survive and Thrive’ Marcus will discuss the likely issues of the near term future and why right now, organisations do not have…
Read More >The next Advanced Strategic Planning one-day workshop being run by The Australian Strategic Planning Institute will take place at Rydges in Adelaide on the 13th of July and bookings are now open The TASPI workshops are jam packed with ideas and processes to ensure that your operational, business and strategic planning efforts deliver the…
Read More >Hands up if you remember the dot com bubble? Or how about the Y2K bubble? Housing bubble? ‘Bubbles’ as they apply to all things economic are little more than an oversupply of positive confidence in a particular area of economic concern. In fact ‘Bubbles’ are caused by the SAME things as ‘Recessions’ just at opposite…
Read More >Just a handful of places are left for The Australian Strategic Planning Institute’s one day Advanced Strategic Planning workshop at Karsten’s in Melbourne on the 26th of May. Please note that there are no places available for the June workshops in both Brisbane or Sydney, and the Adelaide workshop in July is half filled though…
Read More >Richard Pratt has succumbed to a battle with prostate cancer and there’s no doubt that many words will be written on paper destined to end up as recycle materials at his VISY Industries plants. There’s a harmony in that thought – all those words of type and paper discussing Richard Pratt will be recycling through…
Read More >Thousands of Australians are just receiving or are about to receive a pretty handsome cheque from the Federal Government as part of the economic stimulous package. The question then is ‘what do I spend this on?’ Below I offer a futurist’s view on where certain generational types might consider spending the bonus. As a…
Read More >It is almost a year since the Australia 2020 Summit was held in Canberra and it is expected that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will provide feedback on the summit, the ideas it generated as well as the ideas of those not at the summit who provided input and thinking. Of course a lot has changed…
Read More >A few years ago whilst researching and generating ideas for the National Geographic Channel’s futures based TV shows ‘Future Matters’ I discussed the idea of what I then called ‘WEs’ or Wearable Electronics. I mentioned that this was a substantially different approach than portable electronics, which is what most mobile phones and laptop computers were…
Read More >