From survival to success
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Change happens – it’s a fact of life. But it doesn’t usually happen at the speed and severity of 2020, when global businesses were forced to adopt mass remote working at scale. And although those with experience of flexible working practices had a head start, many found themselves racing to achieve the simple ability to communicate, collaborate and access work – without which there can be no business, let alone business as usual.
It was by no means an easy process, although many have now settled into their groove. But the task of building our new world of work is far from over. The future of work looks very different from the recent past – and business leaders must think beyond survival, and into long-term success. Especially since, as we’ve witnessed, a new disruption event could arise at any moment.
And with remote and hybrid working set to stay, businesses must avoid the trap of thinking that the right chat and conferencing platforms are enough to get the job done. Being able to communicate is only half the battle; empowering teams to collaborate more intuitively and unlock productivity should be the next goal.
But what’s the best way of going about it? To find out, Smartsheet interviewed ‘Smart Voices’ from some of Europe’s largest organisations. We’ve combined their insights with broader research to help businesses understand how to build the foundations for the long-term future of work.
From how we manage teams to video conferencing and hardware logistics, the ‘way we work’ underwent a drastic shift in 2020. The good news? Many businesses were able to adapt at speed, proving that working remotely can work. And some are officially in it for the long haul: companies like Dropbox, Twitter and Square are all making remote work a full-time option.
The bad? Many were so busy trying to remain visible and communicate effectively through excessive video calls and always-on chat streams, that real collaboration and true productivity were impeded.
Our recent in-depth report found that ‘too much communication’ was often a serious problem, taking up hours in the day. While others felt the quality of communication, and thus collaboration, was poor.
Moving beyond
communication overload
Finding the
right balance
During the first wave of the pandemic, 53% of employees felt like they weren’t ‘on the same page’ as their colleagues and 68% felt distracted by too many chats, phone calls, and email conversations.
A new, fast moving and potentially disruption-filled world demands a dynamic, agile response, with every individual empowered to do their best work.
Smartsheet’s 2020 research shows that 88% of UK employees thought that the amount of time spent on video calls made it hard to get work done. Younger workers were even clearer on this, with 92% of Gen Z workers agreeing and 91% of millennials.
US research shows workplace collaboration and productivity is
now the #1 priority in digital transformation for business leaders. 51% said it was their focus, pushing more technical considerations, like creating multiple cloud platforms or extracting more data for decision-making, to a distant second.
At the beginning we got into over-communication mode, where everyone was over-communicating about everything... We've got to
a point where you have to replicate those quick
10-minute conversations versus everything being a half-hour Zoom call.
Employees and employers alike agree that communication overload is a real problem – and everyone is keen to find new and better ways to work.
Employee view
Business leader view
Making it happen
Better collaboration and improved productivity are the order of the day. So how can businesses go beyond communication overload? The right strategy will depend on your business make-up – but here are four things everyone should consider.
In a hybrid or remote setting, collaboration is more difficult
Four strategic steps
1.
Once you’ve determined your digital workplace strategy, it’s time to make sure you have the right software to support your plans – rather than relying on the tools that employees grabbed at without thinking during the early days of the pandemic.
Ready to start building a more collaborative workplace?
In a fast-moving, disruption filled world, a dynamic workforce will be best placed to thrive. To integrate good work management practice into your business culture, introduce centralised tools with plenty of scope to flex as needed, to bring everyone on the same journey – even across departments.
Tools that make work work for everyone
Consistent
systems
Cut time spent on organising work
Smartsheet research found that over three-quarters of employees would prefer doing fewer work calls, and 74% would prefer less email and messaging. The number of meetings has skyrocketed, and it seems everyone is keen to make their presence known. The ‘admin’ of work can cut into working hours even further. So, embrace solutions that help employees manage complex work with streamlined communication.
We don’t know what problems we may face in the future; but we know that COVID-19 won’t be the last crisis or culture shift businesses face. To prepare, invest in technology that offers the agility to work without disruption under all circumstances. Workplaces of the future are likely to be a hybrid office-home culture, so consider how to manage your business culture and motivate employees, wherever they work.
Tools that can flex for the future
Cloud solutions are preferable, as they’re infrastructure and location-neutral. It’s no wonder more and more organisations are migrating to cloud applications, enabling them to carry on working from where they left off, regardless of device or location. Following suit will allow you to weather future storms, while getting the most from your people and driving the best results during normal business conditions.
Acceptance is the first step to success, so don’t try to carry on like you always did. Acknowledge that in a hybrid or remote setting, collaboration is more difficult: 58% of UK employees working from home said it was harder to get status updates on projects, while 49% said that it’s now harder to give status updates, too.
of UK employees working from home said it was harder to get status updates on projects.
58%
Invest time in active process training
2.
Get ready to confront your fast-fix plan
3.
It’s time to
shine the spotlight
on work management
4.
Understand that some employees may take to the new world like ducks to water – but not everyone will, so invest time in active process training where it’s needed. Working remotely can involve a steep learning curve for employees; some may resist new ways of working, through fear of new technology or simply inertia.
Working remotely can involve a steep learning curve for employees.
Get ready to confront your fast-fix plan...
When the world was plunged into remote working, it was sink or swim – and many made decisions fast, like introducing a range of different communication channels. But you wouldn’t build a castle on sand. Be prepared to sit down and challenge how things happened, and take time to strategise for the communication and collaboration plan for the future of your new, agile culture. Hybrid working is set to be with us for the long term, so it’s crucial to get your foundations strong.
Hybrid working is set to be with us for the long term, so it’s crucial to get your foundations strong.
As you try to manage work better, ask yourself:
in your organisation, is project management stuck in a silo? If the answer’s ‘yes’, it’s time to shine the spotlight on work management. Encourage everyone to train up. When work management is seen as a cross-functional discipline, and a skillset that’s expected of all employees, office-based and virtual workers alike can allocate roles more effectively and ensure consistent, clear communication.
In your organisation, is project management
stuck in a silo?
Businesses have had to react and move quickly, which has led to the accumulation of a wide range of tools. Openness to new tools and flexibility in ways of working is crucial, but this is the time to think strategically and consolidate. Final choices should consider user-friendliness, multi-function capabilities, and integration, to ensure value is seen across the organisation.
Smartsheet’s integration with Microsoft Teams lets you turn chat into action. Send project notifications and reminders to Teams channels, and view Smartsheet sheets, dashboards, and reports without leaving Teams. Quickly understand project progress with accurate, real-time information. No more switching between apps just to approve or share info.
To learn how you can enable
Smartsheet for Teams, head
to our website.
Finding the familiar
Select solutions for optimal integration
And the ultimate thing to remember about building strategies and embracing tools for the future of dynamic work? Remember to shape any investment around the people
who will actually be using it.
Smartsheet research indicates that only half of businesses think their existing technology stack meets employee needs well. To tackle that, consider how tools are purchased, as well as what they actually do.
Pre-pandemic, many businesses took a ‘top-down’ approach to digital transformation, led by IT or senior stakeholders. Others left individual teams and departments to choose their own solutions, but didn’t roll these out across the organisation.
A new, more agile and dynamic workforce should combine both approaches – consider tools that were chosen on the ground, then select those that will become the standard across your business.
By the people, for the people
In 2021, it’s time to go beyond just ‘coping’ with our new world of work – and start thriving. Now’s the time to ensure you’re ready for whatever the future of work may hold. Businesses and workforces need to be more resilient, more flexible and more integrated – and your people, processes and technology must all work together efficiently in the long-term.
We don’t know what changes and new crises the future may hold, but a more agile and dynamic workforce will be prepared for (almost) anything.
Conclusion
Marketing Voice in retail
“The impact of this [is on] people and collaboration. How do you build a relationship when you're staring at a screen? How do you build trust to have honest conversations? In a [face to face] meeting, you know when to interject, because you can see people's body language, and you can sense their tone, whereas it's all so much more stilted online… It's the quality of those collaborations, not the nuts and bolts of the data being shared.”
Operations Voice in global banking
“I'm going to see investment into collaboration tools: further investment to move to the cloud, so that we can get rid of managing the heavy lifting, and further investment in AI and ML.”
IT Voice in energy
“[COVID] has forced us to at least try some of these tools. We would probably never have stood up five or six different document and comms collaboration tools simultaneously, but for COVID.”
Collaboration beyond communication
Tech Voice in media and technology
“Some of the younger people in my company enjoy playing video games and they share this moment of gaming sometimes, during lunch breaks. It's unnatural for us to work [remotely]... I tried to have informal parties or chats, but we miss having informal chats and just feeling their presence.”
Business Voice in telecoms
“At the beginning we got into over-communication mode, where everyone was over-communicating about everything... We've got to a point where you have to replicate those quick 10-minute conversations versus everything being a half-hour Zoom call.”
Business Voice in telecoms
“Suddenly I've gone from having five meetings a
day to 12 meetings, because everybody wants to talk about everything and
prove that they're
doing something.”
IT Voice in energy
“We've learned a lot. We've had our experimentation period and that was phase one. Phase two would be: how do you get people at home and in the office working together around a table effectively?”
Business Voice in telecoms
“Because the business is going through such massive transformation... you can see a complete divide between the people that are thinking, ‘thank God it's all changing’, and then others that are going to call to the old ways. And I wouldn't say it's a tenure thing, more that it’s a demographic thing.”
IT Voice in energy
“If you're in an organisation that's got a field team that is 10, 15, 20 years old, and they've been doing it for years, then trying to get tech change to those guys is hard… If [employees are] of a certain age and do a certain job, it will be harder to get adoption.”
IT Voice in energy
“We always underestimate those changes... There will be a lot of people who will be on the bottom and you need to bring everyone together. So communication and training has to ensure that a very big part of the people are together with you.”
Tech Voice in engineering
“From a workplace perspective, it makes a lot of sense... that you have a base of a technology that is familiar to people. Microsoft, for example, is a household name, [as] a big part of the world uses Windows.”
IT Voice in logistics
“We’ve got people loading airplanes, we’ve got people on ships, and they all need to collaborate and talk to each other. Some of them will use WhatsApp [and] a lot of people use Teams nowadays... So whether I am on a plane with my mobile device or I'm in the office with my laptop, it can work equally well.”
Transformation Voice in automotive
“We are working on developing new concepts to make use of the digital tools so that we can have whole change management or transformation processes facilitated in a virtual environment. And from Microsoft Teams up to thinking about virtual reality.”
Transformation Voice in automotive
“I don't think that we will get a workforce that's only working remotely... we are a company where you still have to be present for some meetings. [...] The interaction between the people [...] brings innovation because people talk about their work and exchange information. If you only work remotely, then you lose some of the possibilities, the serendipitous moments where maybe some of the next innovations work come from.”
Transformation Voice in automotive
“I think this is the biggest challenge in the transformation... how to give [teams] a perspective and a purpose to work on and how to find out what qualifications and competencies we need in the future. And how can we make use of the workforce that we have?”
Put formal systems in place, and don’t leave it to individual leaders to muddle through. Make a visible management commitment to your vision for dynamic work, including awareness-raising and training on the principles, and specific training in your chosen collaboration tools and processes. Training can calm fears and educate everyone about what they can achieve with these platforms.
A SMARTSHEET REPORT:
Average reading time: 10 mins
1. European business leaders on what’s next for digital transformation: 2020 Smartsheet research from interviews with senior figures in marketing, operations, IT and strategy from some of Europe’s largest businesses.
2. Empower Your Dynamic Workforce. This research is based on a survey of enterprise professionals conducted by 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, and commissioned by Smartsheet in May 2020. The survey sample was among 800 U.S. workers at enterprise companies with 1,500+ full time employees and three or more office locations. It was live from April 16 to May 1, 2020.
3. The Pulse on Productivity: This CARAVAN survey was conducted by ENGINE INSIGHTS among a sample of 1,004 U.S. adults ages 18+ who are currently employed, previously worked in an office setting but are now working from home due to COVID-19, and work for companies with 1,000+ employees. This survey was live on April 8-15, 2020.
4. ICT Trends 2020: Report by Telefonica discussing how CIOs can move beyond traditional operational and management approaches.
5. Empowering Employees to Drive Innovation and Agility: A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services Pulse Survey: Report by Harvard Business Review Analytics Services in association with Smartsheet.
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IT Voice in logistics
“[Project management] is not consolidated or centralised in any way, tool-wise. So it's hard to check out the total project portfolio within [the company] in a certain period. I have my own way of doing project management, and other departments of global IT have theirs... It could probably work better, but it still works.”
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IT Voice in energy
“We're paying multiple for what, in essence, is the same functionality. So I think we will go, ‘right guys, you pick the [tool] you want, but this is only going to be one’. There's [going to be] a bit of cleanup, there's a bit of cost reduction, and that probably forms the strategic lens as to what we're going to do.”
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From survival to success
From how we manage teams to video conferencing and hardware logistics, the ‘way we work’ underwent a drastic shift in 2020. The good news? Many businesses were able to adapt at speed, proving that working remotely can work. And some are officially in it for the long haul: companies like Dropbox, Twitter and Square are all making remote work a full-time option.
The bad? Many were so busy trying to remain visible and communicate effectively through excessive video calls and always-on chat streams, that real collaboration and true productivity were impeded.
Our recent in-depth report found that ‘too much communication’ was often a serious problem, taking up hours in the day. While others felt the quality of communication, and thus collaboration, was poor.
1
And with remote and hybrid working set to stay, businesses must avoid the trap of thinking that the right chat and conferencing platforms are enough to get the job done. Being able to communicate is only half the battle; empowering teams to collaborate more intuitively and unlock productivity should be the next goal.
But what’s the best way of going about it? To find out, Smartsheet interviewed ‘Smart Voices’ from some of Europe’s largest organisations. We’ve combined their insights with broader research to help businesses understand how to build the foundations for the long-term future of work.
We don’t know what problems we may face in the future; but we know that COVID-19 won’t be the last crisis or culture shift businesses face. To prepare, invest in technology that offers the agility to work without disruption under all circumstances. Workplaces of the future are likely to be a hybrid office-home culture, so consider how to manage your business culture and motivate employees, wherever they work.
Smartsheet’s integration with Microsoft Teams lets you turn chat into action. Send project notifications and reminders to Teams channels, and view Smartsheet sheets, dashboards, and reports without leaving Teams. Quickly understand project progress with accurate, real-time information. No more switching between apps just to approve or share info.
To learn how you can enable Smartsheet for Teams, head to our website.
Watch a demo
