What Teams Should Know About the Future of Workplace Communication - Info for Leaders, Managers and Team Builders
For the past half century, the global economy has increasingly grown to rely on digital communications and greater connectivity between managers and workers all over the world. Though such reliance has increased at a greater pace in the past twenty years, it took a drastic leap forward during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Asana, a global manufacturer of project management software, recently released its third annual Anatomy of Work Index for the year 2022, which analyzed the behaviors and attitudes of over 2,000 U.S. workers and over 10,000 workers worldwide in an effort to understand the effects such a dramatic shift to remote work has had on both workers themselves and companies’ overall productivity.
Read on for some key takeaways from the assessment - and some ideas on how companies can lean in and embrace our new collective communication landscape.
How Our Work Lives Have Changed
According to Nicholas Bloom, an Economics professor at Stanford University who has studied remote work for over twenty years, the percentage of workers with remote jobs shot up from 5% in 2019 to 25% in 2022, a five-fold increase that would have otherwise taken thirty years to reach. The pressure for so many companies to quickly adapt to workers interacting purely through their computer screens in the face of the spread of the COVID-19 virus was compounded by the effects of city-dwelling individuals relocating to places with a lower cost of living without sacrificing their current jobs and an influx of younger workers entering the workforce - workers who have never known a world without the internet and smartphones.
For companies and managers trying to navigate such a dramatic shift, not to mention the uncertainty of managing a world in which pandemic-era restrictions have come and gone with various surges of the virus, acknowledgement and adaptability are critical; this is an unprecedented change in professional communication and work culture, and it’s not possible to predict the future. With regulations, increasing costs of operations, and a huge digital migration constantly creating new expectations, communication skills are going to be key. Map out what is needed from your team for the foreseeable future, and know that any long-term goals must be structured in a way that allows for changes to be made.
What Workers Have to Say
The shift to remote work brought a myriad of positive changes for workers, most notably the flexibility inherent to being at home rather than in an office. Workers have been able to ditch long commutes and weave chores and errands into the day without sacrificing any quality in their work; Asana’s report found that while remote workers spend an average of 1.5 fewer hours on their work during a typical workday, they more than make up for it at other times during the week. Due to the flexibility, 76% workers have expressed the need to keep working remotely, and 58% said they either prefer or would be amenable to a hybrid work environment.
However, workers have also expressed a drastic increase in burnout and imposter syndrome, with 80% of workers saying they experience one or the other and 46% reporting they are currently experiencing both. Digital overload is particularly problematic now that so many apps and softwares have been introduced for greater connectivity, especially for younger workers, who are more likely to feel pressured to respond to every notification from every app in real time at all hours of the day. These problems are greatly exacerbated when companies struggle to adapt to remote communication.
The good news: now that pandemic-era restrictions have been lifted in most of the world and the COVID-19 infection rates have declined, stress levels are generally on the decline as well. According to Bloom, the high levels will continue to decrease for remote workers as they are able to socialize more with friends and family outside of work and now that many companies offer hybrid schedules, allowing them to return to the office and collaborate with other team members in-person as needed, offering additional relief to those who prefer more human interaction. But the return of socializing in person isn’t going to fix the problem in its entirety; rather, companies must continue to build systems that provide a healthy and sustainable work environment.
Overall Productivity: Where Does the Time Go?
Asana’s report analyzed the time spent on “work about work,” or time employees typically spend chasing status updates, switching their focus between various apps and softwares, changing priorities in the middle of a task or project, communicating about work, and duplicating work that has already been done or is currently being done by someone else. While not all work about work is bad (communicating about work is essential, particularly for those in positions of leadership, and adapting to changing priorities is an inherent part of any job), team members will spend 2.9 hours per week on duplicated work alone; C-suite workers will spend 4.6 hours a week on duplicated work. In general, the more senior the individual, the more time is spent on work over work. 4.6 hours per week over the course of a year comes to a little over 239 hours per year.
Work about work has remained fairly consistent over the past few years and is not necessarily a consequence of shifting to remote settings, however, companies must be mindful of adopting too many new systems in an effort to over-correct from the loss of in-person connection as well as over-burdening workers with unnecessary meetings. While missed deadlines have drastically declined in recent years - from 36% in 2020 to 14% in 2021 - 27% of workers say too many meetings have resulted in missed deadlines in the past year.
The Future of Work: How to Move Forward
Regardless of how companies feel about this new era of remote communication and digital connectivity, the changes made in the past three years have made an irrevocable impact in how we work today. Particularly as the younger Millennials and Gen Z increase their presence in the workforce, the persistent issues of burnout, impostor syndrome, and the demand for greater flexibility are realities that will need to consistently be addressed.
Here are 7 steps companies can take to strengthen processes and build a sustainable model for workers in this new era:
Healing burnout begins with making sure team members know they are valued. Take the time to communicate to team members recognition for their accomplishments and support their daily tasks.
Invest time in training and mentorship, especially for younger team members, and hold space for questions and necessary clarifications to reduce imposter syndrome.
As a contributor to the Asana report, Cognitive Neuroscientist Dr. Sahar Yousef recommends implementing a strategic break schedule: macro breaks to be taken monthly, for half a day to one full day at a time; meso breaks weekly for one to two hours; and micro breaks, done daily for just a few minutes to alleviate stress.
Consolidate apps and make sure relevant information is living in one singular place. Especially for larger companies, it’s easy to be lax about multiple departments falling into a siloed workflow and each adapting their own project management and communication tools. Be careful not to over-do it with too many systems - it will streamline communication and take some pressure off of your budget.
Set guidelines on how to efficiently run meetings and what topics require a meeting as opposed to an email.
Encourage teams to block out their calendars and snooze notifications for a period of time in order to focus on a current project, and make it known to other teams and departments that non-urgent needs will be met later in the day or week.
Communicate start and finish times for working hours and clear expectations and deadlines for each particular project so workers know when they are off the clock and how to prioritize tasks while working, and lead by example; if you do not want a team member to feel pressured to respond to your email at 10 p.m., don’t send the email until the following morning.
Implementing systemic and strategic improvements to the evolving landscape of workplaces in a company of any size will depend on trust, communication, and a willingness to accept how the past few years have affected workers. Particularly with the shift to more remote work, cohesion and an effort to have teams building sustainable practices together is going to be critical. Team trainings, regular check-ins, clearly defined goals and instructions, and healthy work/life boundaries will help keep your team rowing together with confidence.
About the Author
Jackie Miller launched Bespoken in 2015 to channel years of professional performance experience into techniques that improve public speaking, presenting, and professional communication skills. She holds a B.F.A. and M.A. both from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
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