The Coronavirus pandemic has changed attitudes towards working life, bringing with it essential changes and measures to keep employees safe and allay their fears. Lockdown has understandably made employees, many working remotely consider the work-life balance and what the future will look like for them.
As workplace restrictions ease and we all get back to business it is clear that attitudes towards the culture of work have changed and there is a need to continue exploring flexible approaches in the workplace. Rather than business as usual, our recent adaptation is an opportunity to learn from the changes forced on industry and transform business practices.
So where should you start? Journey4, the management consultancy specialising in the rail transport sector, has undertaken exclusive research with businesses around the UK to understand what their experiences have been during lockdown.
As Jonathan Booth, Director of Journey4, explains to railbusinessdaily.com, the result is a practical tool kit that can be used by managers and their teams to build on these new ways of working.
“Our research identified that most people do not want to return to the old ways of working and that new hybrid models will be required to build on the learnings from the lockdown period.
“Many of the changes we have made will become permanent as businesses consider how to settle into a very different future.
“We established a Smarter Working group, with people from 20 different businesses, representing 13 sectors from around the UK, to look at how people have been adapting to the new ways of working during lockdown and how this could inform decisions on changing business models.
“Four key themes were identified as areas to focus discussion: Leadership and Culture, Work Life Balance, Productivity and Communication. For each of these areas the main issues were explored by looking at what we could ‘Stop’, ‘Start’, and ‘Continue’ to do in order to improve and work smarter in the future.
“In general, we found that there have been a lot of perceived benefits from the new ways of working, although there have also clearly been many challenges.
“The strongest sentiment we picked up is that people don’t want to go back to the old ways of working for a range of reasons, such as personal well-being, flexibility, effectiveness / productivity and environmental impacts and, instead, want to be involved in the transition to a ‘new normal’.
“Many businesses will already recognise the things that they should ‘stop’ doing when transitioning post-lockdown, as well as those things that they should ‘start’ doing and ‘continue’ to do. This will be an evolutionary process requiring a great deal of flexibility and agility and will continue to change over time.
“As the rail industry considers new ways of managing the process of work, we want to help businesses prepare for the best way to reinstate efficient and manageable working practices within which employees feel they can be effective, connected and motivated.
“We have developed a set of tools that business leaders can deploy to help manage the transition to the new business model. One of the key learnings for business leaders moving past the lockdown is to focus on ‘leadership’. This means leaving others to manage and recognising that more than ever the employees need leading and the leaders need to provide confidence and demonstrate that they trust their people to work effectively.
“We believe that this unique period can help organisations transform future business models and harness some of the benefits of increased productivity, improved communication and enhanced employee well-being experienced through working from home. At the same time, we also need to address those things that haven’t worked so well, such as social interaction, feelings of isolation and some of the practical and technical issues of working remotely.
“With so much potential change required, business leaders need practical tools to help them manage the transition to the news way of working effectively. The tool kit, which is available to download for free here, contains nine business tools which can be used to help manage the transition to these new ways of working. Engaging with your employees and adopting a user-centric approach will be key to managing a successful transition and lead to a more productive and competitive business.”
Click here to download the tool kit.
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