Preparing for the new world

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Preparing for the new world
Jun 19, 2020 . 5 mins read
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Blog 3/3 in the series “The new remote employee experience”

 

We have been social distancing for months now, and at Koos our moods are shifting from “I have never felt this relaxed before” to “I’ve officially turned mad in my house, please let me go to the office.” Most of us expected that working from home would be a temporary measure and that soon we would go back to ‘normal’. But now we have got a different perspective on how we see ourselves working in the future.

In blog 1 and blog 2 we discussed how our work-related needs are still the same, yet require a different approach to fulfill in this new context. In the first blog, we focussed on practical needs such as the need to stay focused and stay active and we provided tips to fulfill these needs. In the second blog we went more in-depth and discussed the shift in emotional, work-related needs using the so-called morphological tension model. This blog discusses ways to prepare yourself for the new working norm which is slowly developing. 

Shift in the model: Re-establishing the basic needs

Times like these tend to trigger risk-aversive behaviour and increase the desire for stability.  A crisis changes the drivers (and corresponding needs) behind our behaviour. We tend to shift to the left side of the tension model, trying to reestablish or reinforce our basic needs: connection, support and recognition. We go back to the essentials of having a good work experience. As an organization getting these things fixed should be your number one priority in times of crisis.

However, this also causes a huge potential pitfall.. When you are clinged to safety, innovation is easily forgotten. It is easy to lose track of the transformational drivers that are needed to overcome this crisis. To be able to anticipate this change, organizations should force themselves to keep on providing an environment where it is possible to innovate.

How to start innovating again? 

We survived the first shock of the crisis and are now preparing for the new world. So how to climb out of the safe zone and start innovating again? We provide you with 3 important steps to get your organisation back on track. 

1. Provide support in the new (blended) working routines

When looking at new working routines flexibility and balance are key. Yes, we are eager to go back to the office but working from home isn’t all that bad. A healthy balance between working at the office and working from home is what’s missing now. We have realised that every Koosje prefers to maintain a different working routine and environment. So why would we expect all of our colleagues to work in the same way and in the same environment? When we have the freedom to go back to our lovely playhouse, a.k.a the office, we will encourage our Koosjes to consider what works best for them. 

However working partly remote comes with new challenges. When a part of your organisation is at the office and another part is at home, you need to pay special attention to the cohesion of the organization. People at home shouldn’t feel left behind. Think carefully about initiatives that keep the organization together. Create an infrastructure where an employee at home can easily get involved with employees at the office. 

Finally, one should rethink the use of the office. It will not be about just going to the office for the sake of going to your work. Now it is the time to carefully consider the benefits of your office and use them to really fulfill your employees needs. How are you going to use your office for the better? This might result in an evolution in office design, with less regular working desks and more specialised environments.

2. Keep your organizational MOJO high! 

We realised that we could only innovate when our Koosjes felt supported. You can’t expect your employees to start developing themselves and the organization, if they don’t feel connected and happy in the first place. To stimulate the mojo we have done several things varying from a ‘Koos bingo stamp card with several different activities to fulfill from home, to remote drinks every Friday and even a Koos Remote Office Party.

Especially when people start to develop different working routines and see each other less often it is important to pay more attention to the cohesion within the company. 

3. Offer your employees ways to develop themselves, to keep the organization relevant in the changing world.

Staying relevant is all about being able to adapt to the changing world. This means creating new propositions that fit this new world. However to be able to do so, you should enable your employees to develop themselves in a way you can actually create this new proposition. We realised that now is the time to invest in your employees and give them more time to work on their personal development and expand their skills. An initiative we started was setting up an UX Academy, to enable our service designers to be able to work on UX projects. We are very proud that our first graduate is already working on UX right now!

Conclusion

So how to prepare for the new world? Make sure you create a supporting environment for the new way of (blended) working, keep your organisational MOJO high and enable your employees to develop themselves. This will enable you to continue with the development of your value proposition, to keep the innovative spirit high and be able to anticipate to a world that is changing faster than ever! 

Do you need help to keep your innovative spirit high? Contact us! 

Need help preparing for the future? Contact us!

Written by
Preparing for the new world
Jun 19, 2020 . 5 mins read
Share this article