- Businesses have an opportunity to eliminate inefficient workplace dynamics when returning employees to a physical workplace
- Encouraging asynchronous communications, increased worker engagement, and other strategies
- Changes can be made via small projects rather than bureaucratic actions
Summary by Dirk Langeveld
As businesses develop strategies for returning employees to physical workplaces, they shouldn’t abandon opportunities to improve their workplace dynamics to eliminate unproductive practices. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review offers tips on how companies might redesign their policies.
- During remote work arrangements, asynchronous communication became the norm rather than rapid turnaround; employers can encourage this practice to continue, focusing on outcomes while using more written communications to replace meetings and conference calls
- Improve worker engagement by offering more leeway to pursue opportunities of interest to them instead of mandatory courses, including topics not directly related to their role in the company
- Other strategies include empowering employees to make low-risk decisions on their own, reducing the number of steps necessary to complete a project, redefining organizational values to be more meaningful, and aligning hires and tasks to employee strengths while automating or outsourcing simple or process-oriented tasks
- Companies can set things in motion by setting up small projects rather than initiating bureaucratic actions like setting up a committee to explore options
