Following the pandemic, numerous studies have suggested that remote working might cause a fall in productivity. Research published by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in March 2022 suggests that work from home productivity is approximately 60 percent to 70 percent lower than at the usual workplace.
Yet many others show higher productivity data – including suggestions that remote employees work 1.4 more days per month than their office-based counterparts, resulting in more than three additional weeks of work per year.
With so many conflicting opinions, it can be challenging for individual firms to cut through the statistics to build models that meet their corporate goals. However, it is incontrovertible that there are significant benefits to the rapid adoption of digital tools – both at home and in the office.
It is without question possible for white-collar employees to operate seamlessly from their homes, and remote working can deliver widespread efficiency savings such as down-sizing office space. But we must also acknowledge that there are personal, social and economic implications.
Remote working risks eroding company culture – do we aspire to live in a world where employees never mix or where water cooler conversations and face-to-face brainstorming disappear into the digital ether? Are employees loyal to the employer brand when there is restricted physical interaction?
With vast swathes of a workforce staying at home, retail outlets face lower footfall, putting jobs at risk and damaging value chains. From a well-being perspective, there is a risk of isolation and professional burnout.
The American Psychological Association’s Work and Well-Being survey has found that 79 percent of the 1,501 employees experienced work-related stress in the month before the survey. Three in five workers said work-related stress caused them to have a lack of interest, motivation and energy at work.
Employee-first
To safeguard employee well-being and maintain high productivity, the future of work must be built around strategic input from across the business: From the board room to human resources, change management and those at the coalface of service delivery. All must be consulted.
By leveraging the insights and motivations of its diverse workforce – including a fast-growing ratio of women across the business – Mashreq Bank has integrated a hybrid model that places the employee at the centre of the operating model. The strategy dovetails with hiring the best talent in every market with a sharp focus on women’s empowerment as part of a wider diversity and inclusion strategy.
The core rationale is simple: the well-being of a diverse workforce affects service delivery, quality of output and customer satisfaction. Indeed, employee morale is as important as the digital CX tools we develop and deploy. And entwined in maintaining well-being is a diversity and inclusion policy that focuses on bringing women and people of determination into senior management roles: when all employees have a voice, all share in the company’s success.
As part of this overarching objective, a new women empowerment initiative, called Ashriqi, was launched in 2021. Ashriqi is a platform for women to network, learn from each other, source mentors and support one another in progressing their careers.
Diverse voices
Peer-to-peer learning such as this represents a fundamental shift in how businesses engage with their employees – liberating them from over-centralised control and allowing colleagues to collaborate outside of typical structures. In the context of a hybrid model, virtual networks enabled by digital tools can open new doors to creativity and individual success – particularly for companies with cross-border operations.
Of course, this shift affects employees in different ways, with younger generations more likely to be already plugged into the digital world than their more mature colleagues. Professional services firm EY points out that the success (or otherwise) of digital change rests upon the consideration leaders give to the people who are on the ground, putting the transformation into action.
If international firms can leverage digital platforms to bring people of all generations, cultures and capabilities in different countries together, they can realise new synergies and nurture relationships between diverse colleagues thousands of miles away. For Mashreq, this means giving an equal voice to employees in all of the geographies where the bank operates – from its many Centres of Excellence in Egypt, India and Pakistan.
This approach allows firms to build a unique culture of innovation and collaboration, drawing on the expertise of world-class employees in multiple locations. That, in turn, provides brand new opportunities to maximise talent to build superior experiences for a worldwide customer base. Perhaps the key word here is engagement: analysis from McKinsey suggests that employees who feel included in more detailed communication are nearly five times more likely to report increased productivity.
Choice and freedom
It is evident that a successful shift to a hybrid working model cannot be possible without an empowered and engaged workforce that has been given the freedom to choose how they get the most out of their careers. The solution lies in the granular detail – working out how to get the absolute best out of people through the prism of choice and freedom instead of through a one-size-fits-all diktat. Liberation does not necessarily come from sending everybody home.
Companies must listen, flex, and create an approach that is right for their unique workforce and their customer’s needs. When digital tools are used to create choice and flexibility in a diverse and open environment, those technologies can do what they are supposed to do: unleash potential.