A sense of freedom — the ability to choose what you work on, as well as how, when, and where you perform your work — is a growing priority for talented professionals across sectors and industries, and one of the core elements of a fulfilling career.
But it is not just workers who benefit from freedoms like working at home. Companies that officially allow employees to work remotely at least three times per month were more likely to report revenue growth of 10% or more within the last year, compared to firms without such policies.
Many large companies track and report the efficiencies and benefits they gain from remote work policies.
These policies are examples of results-oriented management thinking. That is to say, policies shaped based on outcomes, not process. If someone can do their job and do it well while absent from the office, more power to them.
See: Hiring Remote Workers? Here are 5 Considerations
Here are three things you can do to bring more freedom into your workplace:
Depending on your industry, the product or service that you sell, and your geographic location, your employee’s needs will vary. And it is impossible to know what they want unless you ask them.
Employers have many options when it comes to increasing freedom: remote work, work-from-home, and paid vacation policies are some of the more commonly known. But you can also let employees choose their work and managers, select their own professional development opportunities, or provide incentive-based compensation for particularly good performance on key projects.
In-person facilitated discussions — not faceless surveys — are the best way to hear from people as they are more likely to give you authentic responses. Work/life balance is a very personal thing and to get the full picture it’s important to listen carefully.
If your organisation is too large to hear from everyone in person, make sure to at least flesh out survey results with a few facilitated discussions from different functional teams.
Companies like Slack, Hipchat, Yammer, Trello, and Asana are bringing fantastic new tools to the marketplace that make it easier than ever before for remote team members to communicate and work together, as well as interact with company stakeholders. Professionals who use Twitter and other social networks for professional reasons are always a tweet away from their teams.
If you’re not sure what team communication tools to use, get in touch with either a startup founder or folks who work in your local startup ecosystem.
Adopting high-freedom policies is a competitive advantage in the talent market. The more nuanced and relevant your policies are, the more competitive your hiring brand will be. If you have great benefits but don’t have a dedicated (and concise) section of your careers page or job descriptions that explains them, or you don’t talk about them during candidate interviews, you’re missing an opportunity to leverage that asset.
It is much easier to recruit and retain great talent when you are giving employees what they want while helping them excel at their jobs. More and more people want the freedom to decide where, when, how, and with whom they work. Do your best to provide that freedom.
See also: The 3 Keystones of Trust in Corporate Culture
Source: HBR
