How to keep a dispersed workforce in the loop

By Jonathan Porter August 23, 2021 â€" 4.44pm

How do you switch off when the office is literally on top of your doona? And how do you have ad hoc collaborative “tap on the shoulder” meetings when you’re on the other side of the world, in different time zones, or working flexible hours in the same city?

Matt Loop, APAC head of business collaboration platform Slack, has a few ideas â€" and they don’t involve interminable 24-panel video calls.

Employees need the right collaboration tools to navigate the new world of work.Credit: Getty.

Loop joined the company in December 2019 just before the pandemic struck and has a mission to “asynchronously connect” the region’s dispersed workforce through tech and transforming culture.

“Some meetings have to be synchronous, but the majority - for example, status updates - do not,” he says. “Video calls are fine when trying to recreate those structured face-to-face boardroom meetings, but for those little ‘tap on the shoulder’, ask a question, drop-by-the-desk moments, recreating them as video calls simply doesn’t work.”

Leaders instead need to identify novel ways to replace synchronous processes and meetings with alternatives - to boost efficiency, productivity, and flexibility.

“The way we work has changed forever; we’re never going back. As part of that transformation, we need to replace synchronous, scheduled meetings with asynchronous, flexible alternatives,” Loop says.

Matt Loop, APAC head of business collaboration platform Slack.Credit: Supplied.

“Most of Slack’s core product roadmap is focused on encouraging more asynchronous work and ad hoc collaboration over structured meetings. Arguably, a majority of the video calls we do each day could easily be replaced by a simple Slack thread or quick Slack Huddle.”

COVID-19 has upended office work as we knew it, with once bustling buildings reduced to rows of empty desks. And with half of Australian knowledge workers now declaring they would quit if not given the option of working remotely, employers should focus their minds on giving their employees choices, Loop says.

“Workers converted their couches and spare rooms to offices, and companies did their best to keep the figurative lights on for the first few months,” he says.

“After that initial swirl, we started to realise that office life had been stuck in a nine-to-five rut for decades, one that was no longer serving workers or companies. All around the globe, people are demanding more flexibility in where and how they work, as a result.”

Slack’s The Remote Work Tech Effect research has found that after a year of working remotely, one in two Australian professionals would look for a role elsewhere if they weren’t offered the flexibility of maintaining some level of remote work, he says.

“And yet nearly half of respondents said their organisation did not consult with them prior to putting in place return to the office plans. So, what we’re seeing is a gap between the preferences of employees and what employers are actually delivering.”

Work has moved on from simply going to the office.Credit: Getty.

While managers must establish and communicate expectations, there’s no need for the one-size-fits-all approach to productivity that has plagued offices in the past.

And it’s not just flexibility in where they work - employees want to be given greater choice in when they work too, allowing them to build a work day that better fits around their life as the lines between home and work continue to blur.

On employee wellness and work-life balance, Loop says: “It’s about empowering employees with the ability to make choices about their work, allowing them to build a working week for the work-life balance they need.

“The employee who’s a morning person may love to get up at 7am when they’re most alert and sign off closer to 4pm. Great. The employee with young kids may need to log on a little later once school starts. That works.

“The employee with bad Wi-Fi and three roommates may want to come into the office four days a week, but that doesn’t mean the rest of the team needs to, too.”

Moving to a hybrid model gives organisations a fresh opportunity to rewrite norms and support all employees to help them do their best work.

“As we redesign our work models, leaders should consider how they’re positioning themselves in the battle for talent, and what will most appeal to their employees and potential candidates.”

Loop acknowledges that app proliferation is a pain point that has been identified in multiple iterations of The Remote Work Tech Effect study. On average, Aussie knowledge workers say they are juggling four workplace apps a day and wasting 20 minutes navigating between them. As a result, 79 per cent say a fully integrated single platform, containing access to multiple apps, like Slack, would appeal.

Companies, he says, need to be smart about the tech they put in place to support their employees through the transition to a hybrid work model. Those businesses who get it right will be rewarded with more than just increased productivity.

“Employers will be creating a work environment for their people that engenders happy employees to work effectively with a strong sense of purpose, culture and belonging,” Loop concludes.

Learn how leading businesses are reimagining what’s possible in the workplaceâ€"and how to chart the strongest path forward for your organisationâ€"in this free eBook from Slack: Reinventing work.

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