Has working from home killed the command and control manager?

Has working from home killed the command & control manager or indeed the validity of this style of organisational culture? This is 'the big pointy question' Angela and Steve discuss in this edition of our 3@3 video blog.

Angela suggests that while managerial approaches need to change, we're not quite there yet. We are still seeing some organisations encouraging their middle management to push employees down the 9-5 route with little appreciation of those working with children in the house or partners that work shifts. Some organisations consider getting their employees to work their usual 9-5 working patterns as a return 'to normal', and are not yet in the place of looking at deliverable and accountability rather than the proverbial 'bums on seats' approach. These are the organisations that will struggle as this 'new way of working culture', embeds in society. However, Angela suggests that it's never too late to build relationships with your team based on trust, deliverable's and shared organisational goals. 

According to a Gartner report, the use of employee monitoring tools is on the rise, with 16% of employers in the US using technology to monitor employee engagement and productivity.

Those organisations concerned with physical KPI's, amount of hours worked, timesheets and logging keyboard activity will need to familiarise themselves with new styles of leadership and management, moving forward.

Modern Management styles have surpassed the one size fits all model championed by top-down organisations, where the C-suite makes all the decisions and instruct middle management to implement. 

How you manage your employees during the crisis, can affect the organisation in more ways than simply a perceived drop in productivity. Employees and prospective candidates will judge organisations, by the way, they have treated their employees during the pandemic and the bad press is remembered...Weatherspoons anyone? Employer roles are expanding in the consciousness of employees and customers. Decisions made today to resolve immediate concerns during the pandemic will have a long-tail impact on the employer brand. Those progressive and responsive organisations, working collaboratively with employees, demonstrating employee support and communicating openly will see the benefits as we approach the 'recovery' stage. 

Steve suggests that the 'need to be seen to be working to be paid', the model brought in during the industrial revolution, must be replaced with a value metric and that the value of the output you are asking your employee to produce is ultimately more important than the time it took them. 

With the proliferation of AI, process automation and the automation of manual tasks, human's 'value' to the future workplace lies in strategic and thought based activities. However, it's been proven that with this value-based approach, employees need more down and reflection time to complete tasks. Which makes sense right...being strategic requires brainpower and brain work is tiring work. 

But how do we manage the legacy of presentism that came with the industrial revolution? How do we fix it? 

Angela suggests that the glass ceiling effect that professional women often face in the workplace has a lot to do with presentism culture. The benefits of dismantling this culture are we will suddenly we see natural equalitie's emerging, with both parents accountable for the 'other full-time job' surrounding child care and management of the household. Steve suggests that the evidence approach to working will benefits fathers also, who often feel that they must be seen to prioritise work over family, to be viewed as 'committed'. ​

Watch the rest of the discussion here 

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