Workplace Flexibility

The Death of the 9-to-5: Why We’ll All Work Flex Schedules Soon

Several months ago, I was talking to a college senior about her career plans. She wanted a job with flexible hours, and I asked why. The young woman said she wanted the freedom to take a short nap right after lunch when her energy flagged the most and the ability to work late at night when her brain was sharpest.

If I had made a comment like this when looking for my first job 16 years ago, I would have been laughed out of the room. But coming from a college student today, the request doesn’t sound all that strange.

Source: www.themuse.com

The infusion of the Millennial generation into the workforce has laid the groundwork for significant workplace changes to take place over the next 15 to 20 years.  This article, in fact, suggests Millennials may go as far as actually abolishing the idea of a 9-5 office environment all together by the year 2030!

Seem like a radical idea?  Perhaps.  It certainly would be a break away from a longstanding tradition of how, when, and where Americans conduct business. Fortunately, organizations today are getting a taste of the workplace of the future by implementing or expanding flexible work arrangements and work from home programs.  

Organizations should not be quick to dismiss these changes as fleeting trends or office fads.  With an astounding 77% of Millennials stating flexible hours will make them more productive, it’s beyond time for employers to consider the work preferences of their people moving forward.

If your organization is seeking to implement work policies that will help attract, retain, and take advantage of the immense potential of young talent, contact Stegmeier Consulting Group.

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.

 
https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Blog

What Employee Engagement Means And Why It Matters

Employers who fail to engage their employees are costing their company billions of dollars. What’s more, research from Gallup’s 2013 State of the Global Workplace survey, shows that this is a widespread issue — just 13 percent of worldwide employees say they are engaged at work. In the U.S., where engagement is at 30 percent, Gallup estimates that active disengagement (18 percent of the workforce) costs the economy $450 billion to $550 billion per year. While businesses are busy engaging everyone else under the sun — customers, partners, millennial and more — most employees don’t have any outlets for engagement. Thankfully, every business leader has the power to change this.

Source: www.business2community.com

In corporate environments driven largely by time, money, and customer needs, losing track of yor employees’ levels of engagement can be a costly misstep.  As this article points ou, companies with a higher rate of engaged workers tend to realize higher earnings per share.

During times of change, the importance of employee engagement becomes very apparent.  Ensuring your employees are involved and informed is crucial.  As an organization prepares to move to a new location, or make renovations to their current physical workspace, leaders must act swiftly to ensure uncertainty, and ultimately resistance, do not derail efforts.

Organizations that partner with Stegmeier Consulting Group for their workplace change initiatives will quickly come to realize that many of our services revolve around engaging their workforce.  These include, but are not limited to, creating customized surveys, conducting focus groups, and developing an employee team of “change champions” who will communicate with their fellow employees throughout a project.  We’ve witnessed these strategies effectively minimize resistance in organizations across many industries, and have helped make the overall workplace change a positive  experience for everyone involved.

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.

 

https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Workplace Flexibility

Flexible Work Arrangements: Managers Are Key to Their Success

How would you describe flexible scheduling? Does a standard definition come to mind?

In a new SHRM survey on flexible work arrangements (FWAs), which surveyed 525 HR professionals from a randomly selected sample of SHRM’s membership, “FWAs,” “flex time,” “workplace flexibility,” “flexible scheduling,” etc. are defined under the following definition:

“… A dynamic partnership between employers and employees that defines how, when and where work gets done in ways that work for everyone involved (including families, clients and other stakeholders).”

Source: www.tlnt.com

In order for organizations to have effective flexible working arrangements, senior leaders must ensure that offerings are made in earnest and that middle managers and employees are well-informed of the policies.   This article reveals that a whopping 50% of employees in this survey find out about flexible work arrangements while on the job.  Ideally, flexible work arrangements should be trumpeted as benefit during recruitment efforts, as they can be a great draw for today’s top talent.


It comes as no surprise then that within the organizations polled, most see those arrangements used by only 1 to 25 percent of the workforce despite their availability.  Certainly not every employee needs to take advantage of a flexible work arrangement, but it would be interesting to see employee utilization numbers after proper steps have been taken to ensure all employees are fully aware of how, when, and where they are able to conduct their work.  And of course, as the article mentions, leading by example goes a long way; anytime senior leadership works flexibly, mid-level managers are more inclined to do the same, and in turn, be more open to the employees they supervise following suit.


We at Stegmeier Consulting Group understand that communicating new or changing workplace policies regarding flexible work arrangements can be challenging and need handled with no small amount of delicacy.  In many cases, clients we work with prefer us to draft timely communications to their employees that can address questions or concerns up front.  We also have experience in crafting and revising flex-work policies to ensure your organization takes an effective approach to flexible work arrangements.  Let us help your organization get everyone on the same page when it comes flex-work.  As the definition mentioned in the article implies, flex-work is a dynamic partnership between an employee and employer, and each side must do their part to ensure the program’s success!

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.

https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Blog

A Beginner’s Guide to Managing a Remote Workforce

Source: www.skilledup.com

Elizabeth Anderson, a consultant with Stegmeier Consulting Group, was recently interviewed for an article on remote work featured on SkilledUp.com.

The article sought to introduce its readers to the concepts, trends, and perceptions of remote work currently prevalent in the business world.  Elizabeth was able to contribute her insight as to how to properly implement and grow a teleworking program from the ground up.  She also was able to provide suggestions on how to utilize technology to enhance the teleworking experience.

To read the entire article, click on the following link: A Beginner’s Guide to Managing a Remote Workforce.


Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.

 
https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

 


Telework

Build the Right Virtual Team – Management Tip of the Day

Virtual teams are hard to get right. If you want to effectively lead and manage one, start by assembling the right team. You won’t get anywhere without hiring and developing people suited to virtual teamwork, putting them into the right-sized groups, and dividing the labor appropriately. When building a team, conduct behavioral interviews and personality tests to screen for qualities like good communication skills, high emotional intelligence, an ability to work independently, strong resilience to recover from snafus, and sensitivity to other cultures.

Source: legacy.hbr.org

Virtual teams are employees that work in conjunction with one another despite being located in different areas.  Sometimes these individuals are spread out across different time zones and even in different countries!  Because of this, teams must understandably be formed with care to ensure a cohesiveness can exist and the team can thrive.  

This article offers up some great suggestions on how to assemble an all-star virtual team.  Employee engagement is a great first step.  This article recommends getting to know your people and conducting assessments to better understand their styles of work, behaviors, strengths, and weaknesses.  Once a profile of the employee’s attributes is formed, the organization can plan on how to integrate that person’s strengths with the rest of the team, and shore up through training any identified areas that are lacking.

At Stegmeier Consulting Group, we’re willing to bet that the concept of virtual teams isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. With technological advancements that are consistently improving online collaboration, as well as increasing costs of travel and corporate office space, organizations will quickly realize the advantages of enabling employees to work virtually (if they don’t already.)

If your organization is interested in learning more about virtual teams and remote work, contact Stegmeier Consulting Group.  We’ll help you analyze how ready your workforce is for a change to a new style of work and can conduct the training to ensure your employees are prepared to hit the ground running.

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.

https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change


Work Life Balance

Best Advice: Forget Work-Life Balance. Think Work-Life Integration.

When it comes to balancing life and work, I wish I could offer up some sage advice given to me long ago that solved all my problems. But the fact is for years I struggled with balance, keeping a busy job separate from my home life, and vice versa. And then, just last year, I heard something that stopped me in my tracks…

Source: www.linkedin.com

This article offers a unique perspective on the question almost all workers face: how do I live a rewarding, well-rounded life that allows me to designate ample time for my career, my family, and myself?  The solution, according to this article, is called work-life integration.  

Work-life integration is a mindset where, ideally, work and home life do not conflict with one another.  Instead, they are looked at as a whole.  For example, an employee may tend to think he or she needs to be a different person entirely once they step into the office.  The work-life integration approach, however,  encourages people to be themselves.  This may lead to lower stress and anxiety, and may actually make coming to the office a more pleasant experience.  This is an interesting break away from the long held idea of work-life balance, which as the name suggests, indicates that there should be clearly defined boundaries between life and work.


Whether your organization would like to encourage more work-life integration, or allow for better balance, we at Stegmeier Consulting Group recognize that time management is an important topic in the modern workplace.  We have worked with several companies who have sought to integrate and/or balance their employees’ time by offering flexible work schedules, mobile capabilities, and work-from-home programs.  Browse our website, or simply contact us to learn more about how we can help your workforce to a more productive style of working, simultaneously allowing employees an improved quality of life.


Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change



Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management

The Elements of Great Workplace Design

What makes a great workplace? A quick search on Google shows a combined global monthly total of over 50,000 searches involving the combination of terms “office”, “interior” and “design ideas”.

Source: servicefutures.com

Those who examine the evolution of the workplace have come to learn that over the years the phrase “going to work” has shifted from “going to DO work” to physically being present at a certain location for a period of time.  Given that realization, it’s not surprising that such a strong emphasis has been placed recently on the quality and design of work’s physical location, especially as it pertains to the psychological state of the employees that occupy the space.

This article presents some interesting research and new ways of thinking about the workplace.  Mentioned, of course, is the popular topic of open-office layouts, which Stegmeier Consulting discusses in-depth in a recent blog.  Other items covered include interesting findings about how productivity is affected by natural lighting and even a room’s paint colors!

SCG has seen many clients transition their workplace from an outdated and bland office design to a re-energized layout using some of the very suggestions that are presented in this article.  If you’re making a change to your work environment, regardless of which particular workplace solution you ultimately land on, it’s important to ensure that your workforce is ready and empowered to use the space as intended.  It’s important to examine how a proposed change may affect employees and then come up with a game plan to make it a smooth transition for your workforce.

Check out both our Case Studies page as well as our project with Iron Mountain to see some examples of clients for whom we’ve led change management efforts and you’ll see how they’re happily conducting business in a vibrant environment!

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change


Telework

Work-from-homers outdo deskbound colleagues in major experiment

Do work-from-home (WFH) policies encourage employees to “shirk from home” or are they an essential way to make our modern work lives actually work?

To answer the question systematically and scientifically, we and two of our students ran an experiment with Ctrip, China’s largest travel agent. Ctrip wanted to test a WFH policy both to reduce office costs and to reduce the firm’s high annual rate of staff turnover (50%). Ctrip management was concerned, however, that allowing employees to work from home could have a negative impact on their performance, so they wanted to test the policy before rolling it out to the entire company.

Source: www.brw.com.au

Rolling out a work from home policy – even a temporary, experimental one – can feel like a gigantic leap of faith for organizations.  In the case of the travel company Ctrip, their management is certainly glad they took the time and put in the effort to conduct this workplace study.

The methodology behind creating and comparing balanced test and control groups in this experiment seems sound.  To further emphasize the validity of the test, however, we at Stegmeier Consulting Group would have recommended testing the same employees over time at home and in the office.  When doing productivity studies (of teleworkers or of people in a new alternative work environment) you really need to see how the people affected improve or decline in effectiveness.  This removes varying employee attributes and competencies from the equation and avoids any distortions that may arise when working with two separate  groups of people!  Still, we applaud the study and believe it is a great point of reference for other organizations considering implementing a remote work policy.

Many of our clients have opted to do some workplace experimenting of their own by selecting a “pilot group” to test out a new office layout or a telework policy. Facilitating these pilot groups and helping organizations assess their change readiness is just a small sample of the services we offer at Stegmeier.

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.

https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change