Why coming to agreement on the number of days in office per week, won’t solve your flexible work conundrum.

Organisations at the moment, are having to wrap their heads around how to make hybrid work, work and the most salient issue is: how many days/week do people get work from home, and how many days do they need to be in the office?  (There are other challenges for hybrid work which I will attend to in further posts).

Some organisations are mandating the number of days e.g. , demanding that their staff come in at least 3 to 4 days per week.

With 58% of the workforce, saying they will quit if they are not allowed to continue flexible work, this is a sure recipe to p**! off your people (and create retention problems).

Other organisations are coming to an agreement about how days in and days working from home. This is a slightly better approach, but it is still doesn’t solve the central problem - the central misalignment between the organisation and its people.

Staff what autonomy to decide when to come into the office

The essential thing that people want isn’t a set number of days in the office, the essential thing that people want is autonomy.

They want to be able to choose when they come into the office.   The organisation also wants to decide when people to come into the office.  The disconnection is one of autonomy - who gets the power to decide?

Ever since Ryan and Deci came up with Self-Determination Theory (SDT), the world has understood that autonomy is a key driver for motivation and a powerful driver of productivity, innovation and discretionary effort.

The real thing your people want is autonomy.  They want to choose when and how work gets done.  Your organisation wants the same thing - to choose when and how work gets done. 

So, as David Rock put it so well “leaders need to solve for autonomy, and manage fairness”.

The question you need to answer is answer is: “How do I give the maximum amount of autonomy, that is fair – fair between staff members - and fair between the needs of the work and the needs of the individual?”

Organisations that cannot resolve this issue will find themselves facing an enormous talent drain.

A good place to start is by having productive, flexible work discussions that set expectations right from the get go. 

Working with HR managers, I’ve developed a framework “Seven issues to tick off for a productive flex work conversation” If you’d like a copy, pop a comment below, request the free framework.

Don’t leave it too long – now is the time to get it right.

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Oops – how to avoid today’s flex work discussion becoming a leadership challenge tomorrow