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

Workplace Flexibility, Workplace Strategy

The Keys to Imprinting Innovation Into Company Culture Are Agility And Flexibility

Over the past 10 years we’ve seen a lot of new innovation within the tech startup community. What prevents large organizations from innovating at the same rate as small tech companies?

Source: www.forbes.com

This article presents us with an interview of Gabe Cooper, a leading mind in the software field.  Mr. Cooper discusses the need for larger tech organizations to become more “agile and resilient”, especially in the face of so many successful startup tech companies sprouting up these days.  Mr. Cooper stresses the importance  of agility and flexibility when it comes to a business model as opposed to a rigid, straight-forward approach that lacks the innovation shown by startup competition.

We at Stegmeier Consulting Group believe that agility and flexibility is just as important in the physical work space as it is in a corporate strategy.  Larger companies hoping to develop, maintain, or improve an innovative culture may want to take time to study the landscape in which their employees work.  Does this environment allow for collaboration?  Can employees move freely about the workplace without losing their ability to be productive?  And what remote working capabilities exist so employees spend more time generating ideas rather than commuting?  At SCG, we possess the tools and experience that can answer these questions and guide your company through a successful change initiative.  

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

Solving the Open-Office Paradox

Several recent articles such as “Google got it wrong. The open-office trend is destroying the workplace.” and “Open-plan offices can be bad for your health” have suggested open-office environments are distracting, stressful, and even unsanitary. The claims conjure mental images of shared Read More

Workplace Flexibility

Flexible Working Myths

There are loads of myths about flexible working that may be putting you off, so we bust some of the most common ones.

Source: www.totaljobs.com

Op-ed pieces and interviews like this one can be a great source for new ideas, but they often do not have statistical sources listed. Never base your case for workplace flexibility on statistics from unknown sources! Be sure to fact-check before presenting to colleagues. Chances are, they will want to know the source as well.  

Workplace Flexibility

How Flex Work Is Impacting Business Collaboration

Contrary to predictions otherwise, many companies still marginalize flex work as a fleeting trend, oblivious to the direct impact it’s already made on businesses everywhere. The ability to work where you want and when you want is now a necessity for all types of workers—workers in the field, business travelers, employees catching up after office hours—pushing workplace technology to support new levels of mobility and flexibility.

Source: www.workflexibility.org

Envisioning what the future workplace will look like is always exciting for us here at SCG.  The survey results mentioned  in this article  predicting 73% of work will mostly take place from remote locations by 2050 reinforces our belief that companies will continue to seek out ways to offer mobility and flexibility to their employees in coming years.

But what will that look like?  Will almost everyone have a home office?  Perhaps.  Or perhaps we will see a continued surge in the popularity of Coworking spaces such as WeWork.  One thing is for certain: technology will play an enormous role, as it does already.  Websites and programs that allow for collaboration across great distances by distributed employees are almost sure to become more mainstream (for examples, see the 21 Tools That Will Help Your Remote Team Work Better Together).

And now the big question: where do you start?  If your organization is intrigued by the prospect of flexible and/or remote work for your employees and the associated benefits, contacting Stegmeier Consulting Group is a great first step.  Our initial services include a sharing of our research and experience in the field of Change Management, as well as our thoughts on how our consultants can assist in your initiative.  

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, Workplace Strategy

Is Your Strategy A Compelling Story People Understand? – TalentCulture

Working alongside executive leadership teams at large companies, I find that one of the key opportunities for organizational growth and transformation is when leaders recognize the need to revisit, refresh or redefine the key building blocks that drive their business. When the CEO or CMO realizes it’s time to reinvigorate and reposition their brand it oftentimes highlights the need to refine or redefine their overall business strategy.

Source: www.talentculture.com

At Stegmeier Consulting Group we strongly agree that a company’s vision or mission statement and core values are important building blocks of a successful organization.  In fact, our research has identified the vision/mission statements and a company’s core values as two of the 15 Critical Influences that factor into human behavior in the workplace.  Corporations that want to re-energize their strategy and their employees could indeed benefit by taking a step back to review these factors in order to take larger steps forward.


Our company specializes in workplace change initiatives.  While many may associate that with simply the redesign of physical space, our holistic approach allows us consult on every one of our 15 Critical Influences.  To discover what all of those influences are, or to find out how Stegmeier Consulting can assist your business, please contact us.


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, News, Workplace Strategy

Distractions in the Open Office: What You Can Do – Diane Stegmeier’s WCPN Interview

The average American spends more time at work than on any other activity. But the work space doesn’t meet everyone’s needs. There was a time when the open office was all the rage, as advocates argued breaking down the walls builds up creativity. But employees say it just builds up the noise – making it impossible to get any work done.  SCG founder Diane Stegmeier was recently interviewed about the topic everyone seems to have an opinion about–open office plans.

How quickly do the words ‘open office environment’ prompt a strong debate? Give a listen to NPR’s The Sound of Ideas, where radio host Mike McIntyre facilitated a lively discussion on the topic, Where We Work. Thanks to those who called in with great questions & comments regarding the challenges of concentrating in the open workplace.

Telework

How Flex Work is Bad for Work-Life Balance

No more commute. No more awkward elevator rides. No more watching the clock tick slowly toward quitting time. And, best of all, flex work means better work-life balance.

 

Except only it’s not as easy as it sounds. Flexible work arrangements aren’t an automatic fix for work-life fit. 

Source: workplace.care.com

Often times we here at SCG come across articles that cover the benefits of working from home or that provide helpful tips for the remote worker (you may have seen Stegmeier Consulting Group post articles in the past such as 9 Things Successful People Do When Working From Home, for example).

The uniqueness of this piece lies in the fact that it plays devil’s advocate and cautions readers to think twice before simply waltzing into a work from home setup.  The risks and pitfalls that are inherent with a telework program do exist, and it is important to be aware of these issues whether you are a veteran of the remote working environment, or someone that is newly transitioning out of working 9-5 at the office.

Our company has significant experience working with organizations that are instituting new, or expanding current telework programs.  We recommend (and assist with) the development of remote work policies that set expectations for everyone involved with teleworkers, including their coworkers and superiors.  We caution organizations not to look at remote workers as employees that should labor around the clock simply because of their convenient access to their home office.  While seemingly an efficient solution to address problems  that arise at various times throughout the day (or night), over-dependence on teleworkers can contribute to their inability to separate work-time from personal time, which can lead to employee burnout.

Telework does offer the best of both worlds:  the potential for increased productivity and employee work-life balance. However, there is no magic switch to flip to make the strategy work. Like most successful ventures in the business world, a teleworking initiative must be thoroughly planned and properly implemented.

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