We have (not yet remotely) got this!
Come on New Zealand. We have not yet remotely got this!
I’m not talking about the pandemic. That is being handled in a way that so many around the world, including me, have nothing but admiration for.
I’m talking about remote and flexible work.
Paula O’Kane, Senior Lecturer at Otago University, was recently was quoted in an article by the Guardian highlighting how we haven’t embraced the possibility and benefits of remote and flexible work following our relatively short lockdown, in global terms, in 2020.
During the 2020 lockdown, a study from Otago University found that 89% of people wanted to continue some form of remote working.
I work with many organisations who are enabling that to happen. It’s so encouraging to see this open up in small pockets of our world of work.
There are still so many other workplaces that are either reluctantly allowing it to happen, or still only using it as a business continuity plan, such as right now back in lockdown.
Let’s zoom out for a minute…
… we’ve got low levels of productivity, a strong economy near full employment, no ability to bring people into the country to add to our workforce and fuelling wage inflation. We also have stress levels leading to burnout that are affecting more than 1 in 10 New Zealanders.
What has any of this got to do with remote and flexible work?
When remote and flexible work is done well productivity gets a big boost. The four-day week research has shown this is possible even when people work fewer hours and get at least the same amount of work done. It also reduces people’s stress levels, which would go a long way to tackling the chronic levels of burnout we see right now.
When it comes to taking the heat out of our labour market, flexible work offers even more possibilities. People want more time, not just more money. If you’re caught in a bidding war right now to recruit and retain the workforce you need, play a different game. You won’t win the wages war. That can go on infinitely if we let it. But if you change the game and offer people something that money can’t buy, such as more autonomy over their time and fewer hours either in the office or a shorter work week, they will want to work with and for you.
Remote and flexible work aren’t without their challenges. These challenges are not insurmountable though. With good tools, support and consistency remote and flexible work will make a huge difference to the way we work, the relationship all of us have with our work and, more importantly, with each other.
Come on New Zealand, we’ve totally got this!