Working From Home
has become the new New! Everyone wants to have it! Those who have it! Take it for granted and those who have too much of it! Begin to hate it. In the past year I have experienced all of it, working a couple of days at home per month to working 6000 miles away, spending 6 hours per day with no communication. If you ever want a sanity check, I suggest that
Work from home for six months, in a new unknown Country, 6000 miles away, 8 hours behind. It will test you, Mark My Words.
Anyway with that said, is Working From Home the key to solving the pitfall trap so many companies fall victim to while, trying to expand? Lets Explore that idea!
We have all heard the stories of companies who are showing noticeable progress, generating a bit of client interest, couple of whispers, maybe signed a big contract or two, 10-25 million range of annual revenue. Now, Some of these companies take in their stride, assess the situation, plan accordingly and grow with their success. Simple it works for some. However we do have
The Dreamer
These great companies see a situation, allow their minds to wonder and begin to plan for a future that was never available. A usual tell of these companies is a bulging product line that hasn’t been delivered. They’ll usually have one solid product, does the trick, and pays the bills. A second tell The Dreamers have, is Expansion. Everyone needs to expand. Oh! We don’t have a games room, we want an open floor plan and we need a better culture. Shocking how many companies think a better office space is going to improve productivity. Now that’s one mans opinion but I am a man who has somewhat honour and I will explore that opinion. Back it up as they say.
Example X
Lets take Company X as our example, A medium size company with 80 employees, 4 products on the go consisting of
The Bill Payer, The One on its Way Out, The Replacement and The New One (Hopefully better than the Horse).
An area that Company X had a massive issue was staff resourcing, the reason the issue couldn’t be addressed was due to a spacing issue and a 10-year lease with 5 years remaining. The office space has a Call Centre feeling, were desks are been shovelled together creating a noisy office. This creates an environment that some can work in but also one can’t work in. Some people begin to loose productivity, become distracted by the constant noise and interaction from colleagues. Some people enjoy this but it’s not sustainable.
One solution to test before lumping a lot of adults together into a small confined space, Working From Home. Easy!
Lets Try Again!
Company X is a medium size company with 80 employees, 4 products on the go consisting of The Bill Payer, The One on its Way Out, The Replacement and The New One. Company X needed to grow by 20 employees to maintain the current increased level of productivity they were experiencing. Office Space was a big issue at Company X, there were no seats available for the additional employees.
The management has decided against an idea about adding additional desks due to the fact it could lead to a disruption to the current working environment. They where bound to a 10-year lease with 5 years still remaining. A manager named Chris overheard a conversation between two executives and had a suggestion, A Working From Home scheme.
Chris scheduled a meeting with both of the executives to pitch “How the idea could work”. 20 employees where identified who could work in pairs where one member would work 3 days in the office and 2 days as WFH one week and 2 office days and 3 WFH days the following week. The second member would do the opposite to their counterpart. Finally allowing Company X to hire the ten additional staff needed, as ten desks were now free.
The Executives wanted to add a couple of guidelines they deemed especially relevant, if they were to test the scheme.
- WFH pairs would need to preform as one in order for the scheme to work. One mind one presence.
- A breakout area was needed for the times when the pair would be needed in office.
Chris agreed, and suggested the following plan to get the scheme into testing:
The Game Plan
- Setup of hotspot desks in order to get started.
- Schedule meetings with the 20 targeted employees
- Evaluate communication tools and address and issues that could impact the test cycle of the #wfhscheme
- 90 days to evaluate the scheme and if successful begin to hire new talent
- Emphasise the need of team work to fully test the viability of the scheme.
- Plan the days accordingly, ensure schedules work..
The Benefits
We touched base on a topic a while back about how companies have become caught up in implementing a culture into their companies. This is great! but NOT for everyone, some people as strange as this may sound, enjoy going to work, getting their work done and heading home. Should Culture be a higher priority than Employee Well-Being? How many of your colleagues have you heard or seen show a form of dis-satisfaction with how they could benefit from working a day from home.
Time spent with their children, run a few errands, not wake up at 5/6 a.m or spend 3 hours in traffic. We live in a society that operates Monday though to Friday (this is of course only certain sectors, however sectors we all need), Yet our days off are weekends. Strange! Any way A couple of days a week from home could improve the satisfaction of employees. As they say moderation is key. Finally Test it out, Be Chris and let us know how it works out?
