So is remote — remotely working?
It’s interesting to be in this moment in life. With Your FLOCK. And working with clients in the creative and marketing agency world many of whom are loving being back in the office. And that want to be there. 3 days a week. If not more.
Very few are full time back in the office. Nor want to be.
(See this great quote and wonderful use of THAT meme — from Matt Smith — Director of Transformation & Innovation at THINK.)
But there are still a lot of people in the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. As the speakers at our great event last week talked about.
“Marketing and creative people need to collaborate. And get together. And enjoy each other’s company as well as to get their thinking done back at home.”
So it was interesting to read about full remote companies and tech companies that weren’t remote forced but remote first. These lucky companies — often startups working in tech like Your FLOCK and much bigger ones too. They never felt an existential crisis with the pandemic surge in remote working. As they had started out like this from day one.
They, a little like myself, had already seen the benefits of working remotely and working from home. They already used tools to help them manage their teams and make sure everyone felt welcomed and wanted. They already knew how to onboard people and the power of feedback and the need for extra motivation and recognition when you don’t have an office as a magnet for human behaviour and interaction.
So what did companies like Buffer find out in their new landscape view of the world of remote work? Well there were
7 insights the new report shone a light on:
- Remote work continues to be perceived as very positive
A whopping 98 percent of respondents want to work remotely for the rest of their careers. Another 98 percent would also recommend remote work to others.
2. Remote workers don’t want a hybrid setup
When asked about the structure remote workers would like to have, the response was clear — 71 percent would prefer fully remote, and 20 percent would choose hybrid but also remote-first, which is very close to being fully remote.
Just 6 percent selected hybrid and office occasional, and another 2 percent selected hybrid and office first, with 1 percent selecting fully office based.
(1% of technology employees wanted fully office based — JUST 1% — think about that for a minute. That is a massive turn around.)
3. Flexibility continues to be the biggest benefit of working remotely
For 22 percent, the biggest benefit of remote work is the flexibility in how they spend their time, for 19 percent it’s the flexibility to live where they choose, and for 13 percent it’s the flexibility to choose their work location.
4. One in three remote workers reports staying home too often because they don’t have a reason to leave
The next most selected struggle for remote workers was loneliness, with 23 percent of remote workers selecting it overall and 15 percent of remote workers selecting it as their top struggle from the list.
(Which is something mentioned in our event last week. Another human reason to return occasionally, and with purpose, back to the office for some people.)
5. Remote workers find work boundaries important but are only moderately successful with setting them
While 71 percent of respondents say it’s very important to set work boundaries, remote workers are only moderately successful.
6. Remote workers are split on if career growth is more difficult remotely, but it’s trending toward easier
We saw a huge increase in the number of people who selected that remote work made career growth easier — from 14 percent to 36 percent. We also saw the group that found career growth more difficult decreased from 45 percent in 2022 to 28 percent in 2023.
Which is interesting because this is an often reported fact in the mass media. That working from home and working remotely damages your career. But we have to add that being reported in the media doesn’t mean that it’s true. As the stats around this are very shaky and anecdotal as they would be — as this remote work revolution has only started.
7. Remote workers feel connected to their colleagues, and are more energized and engaged
Seventy-five percent of remote workers feel connected to their colleagues, even though a majority of the respondents work across time zones. More than half, 58 percent, of respondents, said that they feel engaged about their job, compared to 30 percent who are unengaged.
Now this is amazing. As the office was seen as the creator of company cultures. Without the office, you would think employee engagement would fall. So how come this is not the case?
I believe it’s all to do with the ability of these companies — the ones that are remote first. To do three key things that more traditional companies do not do as much. Or as well. Often to the extent they do not believe they are important to do in the first place. And this is what my new book is all about.
“How To Unlock Employees Real Potential With Feedback, Recognition and Leadership”
Which thanks to Your FLOCK.
You get at 100% discount on Gumroad — just enter the promo code:
YourFLOCK
To get the ebook for free.
Saving you a lovely £10.My book talks in detail about the importance of feedback, recognition and leadership. And how we need to change how we all act at work for our companies to become more successful. Something my book doesn’t talk about, but could be linked to that success, is…
THE FOUR DAY WORK WEEK.
As reported in Bloomberg: “World’s Largest Four-Day Work Week Trial Finds Few Are Going Back”. About one in six employees in the study said NO amount of money would convince them to return to five days a week. No amount of money — that’s a BIG claim.
The study involved 61 organisations and about 2,900 workers. Who adopted truncated work weeks from June to December 2022. As Bloomberg reports:
“Only 3 organisations decided to pause the experiment…The rest were convinced by revenue gains, drops in turnover and lower levels of worker burnout that four is the new five when it comes to work days.”
The hard numbers are an even more robust argument. Organisational revenue was up 35% from a year earlier and rose by 1.4% during the trial for the companies doing the experiment. Employee absenteeism dropped from 2 days a month to 0.7, while turnover fell by more than half! And the companies in the trial rated the overall experience a 8.3 out of 10.
A resounding success surely? So why aren’t we all convinced into doing a 4 day work week? To be honest with you I don’t know.
WAS BEING ABLE TO WORK FROM HOME A FACTOR?
Again it’s not something I know.
But it’s worth thinking about the new figures that are showing that the percentage of people only working from home is plateauing.
Rather than rising.
At around 22 percent of the workforce.
The number of people working from home, and from the office, so hybridlike, is much, MUCH, higher.
And,of course this differs by occupation/region/age and where you are in the country.
Your age being a factor is something we have seen before especially in the creative and marketing sectors that we work with at Your FLOCK.
We are seeing that young people are wanting to get back into the office more. As the Economist @cipd who tweets about the world of work. demographics, pay, hours, skills, insecurity, WFH etc @JonathanBoys says:
“Are younger workers (20–24 yrs) heading back in? I’ll be keeping an eye on this trend.“
(If you are super interested in data and graphs around this subject. I would be keeping an eye on Jonathan’s work too.)
With the young people in the marketing and creative sectors that we work with at Your FLOCK the employee feedback platform — this heading back to the office is understandable.
Many young people moved to cities for the vibe. They want to work in great places all together. To enjoy the social aspect of office life. Heck a lot of people used to even meet their loved ones at work. And some people think it’s a great place to be productive..
Even though a study by Stanford of 16,000 workers over 9 months found that working from home increased productivity by 13%.This increase in performance was due to more calls per minute attributed to a quieter, more convenient working environment and working more minutes per shift because of fewer breaks and sick days. In this same study workers also reported improved work satisfaction, and attrition rates were cut by 50%. But this might be — older people working from home and so the findings could be misleading?
What we can conclude is that the remote work revolution is far from over. And on the 30th edition of this newsletter.
We have to remember three things.
- The office still has an appeal to many. And that’s good.
- That hybrid is here to stay. No matter what people say.
- That the need for managers and team leaders that understand the importance of using technology and receiving feedback and giving recognition is even more important than ever.
And if you don’t have three — and you are a manager of people waiting for everyone to get back in the office — you could be one loosing your job. Not them…
Oh and 4.
We should all be having a 4 day work week*. If you are not already :)
Happy Work Wednesdays.
See you next month.
*We don’t yet at Your FLOCK — the employee feedback platform. But we are a start up so we aren’t allowed to**.
** Kidding
REFERENCES with thanks.
https://buffer.com/state-of-remote-work/2023
https://www.apollotechnical.com/working-from-home-productivity-statistics/
https://www.raconteur.net/talent-culture/middle-managers-role-layoffs/
https://archive.ph/fhJIm#selection-3467.0-3473.119
About Your FLOCK:
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Based on the motivations of your people.
At a time of hybrid working
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On Feb 15th Your FLOCK was proud to present an event with 3 AMAZING new speakers from award winning companies and professionals.
All with a different take on what it means to create a workplace people love working in. Especially in regards to the highly competitive sectors of creative, digital and marketing agencies in the North West.
With a great line included:
Julie Chadwick
Managing Partner at Dentsu Creative. Julie Chadwick. Is a legend who has an amazing career spanning different agencies that she was Managing Director of such as BJL. She is an experienced Director with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry. With a strong professional background with a Journalism BA (hons) focused in Journalism from The University of Sheffield.
She is Managing Partner at DENTSU CREATIVE which is Dentsu International’s new and sole global creative network that transforms brands and businesses through the power of Modern Creativity.
Malin (Roy) Cunningham
Founder & MD of Hattrick | Sustainable B2B content marketer & communicator
Malin has created and implemented marketing and communication strategies for some of the biggest businesses in the UK and overseas. Born in Sweden, Malin has an innate understanding for cultural differences along with a lifelong passion for communicating in a global world.
She helps run Hattrick. An B2B marketing and creative agency that takes the pressure off sales and marketing teams with content that makes people smile, think and click. Stand out copy, video and design.
Dr Emma (Baker) Langman FRSA
Change Optician at BAKERFISH, Coach, Facilitator, Speaker, Human, Friend, Mum. Emma is one of our faves at YourFLOCK. Not just because she has said some lovely things about our product and introduces us to some awesome people and amazing companies. But also as she knows what she is talking about. As she is a Leadership and Change Management specialist.
As well as being a Non Executive Director, Engineer, Consultant and Manager. She is also a team leader that uses YourFLOCK at her company Bakerfish. The strategic consultancy for integrating process improvement, people development and genuine inclusion.
As a thanks for following us on LinkedIn and reading this newsletter — you can watch the replay of this amazing event here.
