A raging pandemic took the world by storm 2 years ago which changed our way of life drastically, forcing us to rethink and adapt to a changed world.
We socialised differently and we found new ways to keep ourselves entertained. One of the most significant ways the pandemic affected our lives was changing the way we worked, forever.
This shift in culture led organisations to invest more in employee welfare and come up with various innovative ways to change their workplace culture into a more flexible and enjoyable one that employees and employers can be proud of.
Let’s look at the ways some companies have re-thought their working arrangements, both before and after the pandemic.
e.g GitHub and Asana
ROWE is a popular Flexible Work Arrangements (FWAs) that measures employees’ abilities through their performance and the results that they produce, rather than the time they spend in the office or the number of hours they work.
Under ROWE, employees receive full autonomy over their tasks and it’s their call to decide how they will achieve their objectives, by scheduling their own timelines and working hours.
e.g Qualcomm, DBS
This is something for the professionals!
Companies practices this method where two professionals come together to create a partnership to carry out one job or task.
An example of this would be when one person is working 3 days a week each, for the same position. They would usually have one overlap day in the middle (e.g., Wednesday) where both professionals can hand over their duties or any other responsibilities to each other.
e.g Qualcomm, Mambu
Employees can have the choice to compress their weeks. Compressed weeks allow employees to put in more hours on their regular workdays to get one day a week off, like the 9/80 method.
The 9/80 method allows employees to split 80 hours amongst 9 days over two weeks which can supply various results such as having eight 9-hour days, one 8-hour day and one day off. It could also be arranged to have a day off every week.
e.g Fixx Digital, Netflix
Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) or leave, is a widespread practice employed by companies where employees can take paid leave without a limit on the number of days.
Of course, one cannot simply take 365 days off a year! There must be a culture of trust fostered between employers and employees, to prevent abuse of such policies. Employees should also consider their performance and job needs before arranging any time off. Both parties working together in this regard can create an enjoyable and stress-free environment, where productivity can thrive!
e.g TheSmartLocal, Apple, GitLab
A popular method, made almost prevalent everywhere during the pandemic, telecommuting (or more commonly known as “remote work” or “Work from Home”), is a method of FWA where employees can carry out their work from anywhere that’s not the office. Employees will then rely on communication services to communicate with each other e.g., Microsoft Teams, Zoom.
Gitlab is a company that embraces this kind of FWA, where operates fully remote with over 1500 employees located in over 65 countries. It has transparent KPIs of all employees, which are available to any public person. It is one of the biggest companies to embraces telecommuting, in the world today.
With the presence of collaboration tools like Jira, Asana etc remote work has never been easier and more popular