Future Of Work Post Pandemic – What You Need To Know Now

Companies are still figuring out their remote and hybrid work arrangements. Meanwhile remote work company policies continue to change. In many companies, decision-making within teams is often left to each manager’s discretion. 

But the reality is that companies, leaders, and managers are still trying to figure out what is the best approach to work arrangements.

At the same time these decisions around work location can significantly influence your personal decisions around where you’ll live, where you kids will go to school, and if you’ll look for a job in another company.

Networking, which is a critical part of establishing the connections you need to get promoted, becomes harder as you can no longer casually connect over the coffee machine or hallways.

Here are a few things you can do to influence how those policies apply to you: 

·      Find out where your boss stands – Stay in dialogue with your boss: find out how much decision-making power they have, express your preferences, ask what would make remote or hybrid work easier for your manager to handle, what your manager’s concerns are, make suggestions on how to adjust processes to those new working arrangements.

·      Find out where your employees stand – Stay in dialogue with your employees: find out their own preferences, concerns, and what would make remote work most effective for them.

·      Suggest a trial period – If you prefer remote work and your manager is not keen on it, you can also ask for a trial or experimentation period to give it a go.

·      Make connection and networking a priority – Be intentional about connecting with people when you are in the office or virtually.

Just remember, in these transition moments with much uncertainty and change, you can influence outcomes, even if just for yourself.

With increased remote and hybrid work, virtual meetings are now common. But virtual meetings have their pros and cons. 

According to Mckinsey research, “…some work that technically can be done remotely is best done in person. Negotiations, critical business decisions, brainstorming sessions, providing sensitive feedback, and onboarding new employees are examples of activities that may lose some effectiveness when done remotely.”

On the pro side of virtual meetings:

·      You are able to interact not only on camera and voice but also with the chat function, raise your virtual hand, and share documents.

·      You see everyone at once.

·      It allows you to multi-task with cameras off in less important meetings.

·      These characteristics make virtual meetings more favorable than in-person meetings for introverts, women, and minorities.

On the con side:

·      You lose eye contact, body language communication, hand gestures, and in some cases where people keep their cameras off, all visual indicators like facial expressions, on top of experiencing video fatigue. 

·      Studies suggest that about half of communication happens through the body language, which means you’ll miss out on a lot of cues, and other people will miss out on many of your cues when you are speaking.

·      In-person meetings tend to facilitate connection, warmth, and empathy. Faceless virtual meetings can be more edgy, matter of fact, and cold.

·      Traditionally, a lot of networking happens before and after in-person meetings. These are less likely to happen in virtual meetings.

Here are a few things you can do to minimize the impact of the negative aspects of virtual meetings and leverage the positive ones: 

·      Upskill your communication – Be more intentional about your virtual negotiations, critical business decision-making, brainstorming sessions, feedback, and onboarding new employees. Use best communication practices and don’t leave it to chance.

·      Camera decisions – Be intentional about when you have your camera on and off.

·      Improve your virtual look – Improve lighting, show your face and upper body, and make sure your camera is clean. When you speak, look at the camera.

·      Intentionally connect – Place more effort to connect and establish rapport with people on one-on-one meetings.

·      Replace lost non-verbals – Express part of your lost body language with more clarity in your choice of words and appropriate tone, including your intention, reaction, curiosity, acknowledgment, empathy, and appreciation.

·      Use range of communication methods – Use the chat and other virtual resources available.

This intentionality around your communication in virtual meetings can be achieved by being more assertive.

Post-pandemic, many professionals want not only location freedom, but also time flexibility, especially women and minorities. According to BCG research, 76% of employees are searching for more flexibility.

Whether you are looking for a job with flexibility or want it in your current job, you’ll need to express it.

The challenge is that the more freedom you get, the more insecurities it can create for your manager. They might worry that they will lose control, won’t know what you are doing, or that you’ll be less productive. 

It is your responsibility and it is in your interest to improve the communication so that your manager feels more comfortable with you having more autonomy.

Here are a few things you can do to maximize your chances of getting the flexibility in both time and location that you want: 

·      Establish a performance communication process with your boss – Before you ask for more flexibility, start by curbing line manager fears by establishing new solid communication processes around your work, your deliverables, and your goals that would work remotely. A great way to do this is to send weekly or even daily emails to your manager with accomplishments, plans for the next period, and anything you need from them to do your job well. Proactively make suggestions to your manager, implement those changes, and get their ongoing feedback on how it is working for them.

·      Investigate prospect job flexibility – When you interview for a new job, talk to people from your future team to better understand the realities around work location and time flexibility. 

·      Communicate boundaries – Once you have an agreement with your boss, you’ll need to clearly communicate your boundaries to people and the consequences of not following them. For example, blocking out times in your calendar or saying, 

o   “If you’d like me to be present in the meeting, please schedule it between 8am and 5pm.”

·      Follow up on boundaries – Some people will ignore or forget your boundaries. Kindly follow up reminding them, 

o   “I noticed that you scheduled a meeting with me at 7am my time. Since I am only available for meetings between 8am and 5pm, if you’d like me to be there, please re-schedule in that time. Otherwise, send me a summary and I’ll provide my input later or before the meeting.”

With inflation, the cost of living goes up. If your compensation doesn’t rise as fast as inflation, your real wage decreases, and your financial situation will be tighter.

In times of inflation, salaries are expected to increase. However some companies will shorten the work week rather than increase pay to retain talent according to Gartner article “11 Trends that Will Share Work in 2022 and Beyond.”

Employers are also paying significantly higher salaries to attract new hires.

That means many of you will have to decide if you’d rather reduce work hours and decrease your real wage which could also affect your pay negotiation in future roles, or if you’d rather work the same hours and increase your salary to maintain your real wage and ability to sustain your current lifestyle.

Here’s what not to do: simply allow the company to make this important decision for you. You’ll have three options: accept their offer, negotiate their offer, or seek another offer elsewhere.

Here are a few things you can do to prepare to best leverage this situation.

• Stay up to date with your current market value – Because of inflation and changes in industry mix with the pandemic, your current market value is changing fast. That is why it is important to understand your current perceived worth to your employer and look for ways to increase it.
• Understand your leverage – Realize that your market worth for doing the same job has probably gone up, and that new employees hired at your level in your company are likely be get paid significantly more than you. Which means that if you resign and your employer needs to recruit your position externally, they’d probably have to pay the new joiner a significantly higher salary then you. That means you have leverage. Do your research to understand what your current market value is.
• Study offers – When your company offers a change either in wage or work hours, take into consideration inflation, what your priorities are, and your alternatives.
• Be the exception – Whatever the company says is a policy, can still be changed. There are always exceptions, and you can be that exception if you negotiate in the right way.

With remote work, several companies are developing or adopting new technologies to support the operational managerial tasks such as scheduling and approving travel.

That means that managers will have more time for people-development or strategic matters. At the same time managers might struggle at first with the redefinition of their roles and even resist their new priorities. They may find certain conversations, like discussing your future, your ongoing performance, and other touchy-feely topics during 1-on-1s, rather uncomfortable at first.

They might also fail to communicate how that automation will affect you and others in the team.

Given your manager’s role is likely to change, it is important to you to empathize with their new reality and help them better manage you and your needs during the transition.

Here are a few things you can do to help your manger navigate those changes to better manage you.

• Let them know what you need from them – Your manager can’t guess what you need to do your job well and be successful. Whether that be a specific training, time off, a part in certain projects, introductions, mentorship, resources, it’s your job to let them know.
• Ask if there is anything you can do to make their work easier – Demonstrate your willingness to be supportive of them. They might not have an answer the moment you ask, but they’ll awaken to the fact that you are willing to help and will reach out if something comes up. This could open up new opportunities for you and improve your relationship with your boss.
• Share a list of topics you want to discuss for your 1-on-1s – If you don’t come prepare for 1-on-1s, your manager may get derailed into non-helpful topics for you, leaving you frustrated. There is no one better than yourself to know what you need to thrive in your job. You are your best advocate. In light of that, show up prepared for your 1-on-1s with an agenda. If your boss has anything they want to add, they can do that too. That way, you’ll show that you are motivated, energized, prepared, organized, and a good communicator. Another benefit is that your boss is less likely to cancel on you in the future because they know you have prepared ahead and that it will be a good use of their and your time.
• Ask for feedback – One of the most important jobs of managers is to provide regular, timely, useful feedback. But it is also uncomfortable for many managers. This is something that you too can influence. Instead of passively waiting for your boss to one day give you relevant feedback, ask for the specific feedback you want. Then, follow up with clarifying questions until the feedback is refined enough to be actionable. That way, you’ll also be helping your boss do their job well and at the same time leverage their time in a productive way.

Investments in automation and AI are accelerating with the pandemic, according to Mckinsey. 75% of executives agree digital transformation is more important now given the pandemic, according to BCG report.

It means companies are going to be shaken up again. Automation in HR processes, supply chain, operations, customer interface, internal communication, and several other business areas could cause fast changes in some or many aspects of your work.

With change comes uncertainty. With uncertainty comes fear for many. And with fear comes stress, less productivity, and even burnout for some. While for others it means opportunity, excitement, and leverage.

The difference between seeing automation as stress or seeing it as opportunity is your response.

Here’s what you can do to leverage automation in your favor, instead of allowing it to become a source of stress and fear.

• Talk to people involved in the automation changes – When you find out the changes that will happen in advance, you can decide how to engage with it. Will you be a part of it? Do you want to influence the outcomes based on your role knowledge? Will the change be so big that you’ll want to start to position yourself for a new job function or even leave the company? The earlier you know, the more options you’ll have, and the more time you’ll get to make the necessary moves to thrive.
• Ask your manager how they see the automation changes impact the team and your role – Your manager may have access to more information than you have around automation projects. Leverage that knowledge by directly asking them about it and what they think you should do to best leverage it. With this approach you might even become an ambassador for the automation in your team.
• Look outside of your company for inspiration – Maybe you know someone from school, past jobs, or industry conferences that have experienced workplace automation before. Call them up, ask them about their experience, tips, and articles. Inform yourself. Then you can use that knowledge to make better decisions for yourself and for your team.

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