30% of people want to work from home.
30% of people want to work from the office.
30% of people want a hybrid of the two.
This Washington Post article asks the question, What do workers really care about?
The answer?
Not a mandate.
When you mandate everyone to work from home, work from the office, or work hybrid, you’ll get pushback. And attrition rates. And recruitment challenges.
The answer is flexibility.
Employees value flexibility. And when flexible work policies are revoked, 76% of workers are willing to leave.
Daniel Pink likes to point out that when we line up autonomy, mastery, and purpose, we thrive at work.
- Autonomy allows us each to perform our work without help or guidance.
- Mastery is when we know our job like the back of our hand and can help others learn it as well.
- Purpose is when we focus our work on something bigger than ourselves.
Working in public service, the purpose is clearly set. Getting your team to autonomy and mastery is the next step.
Being flexible is the first step to gaining autonomy.
Hear me out.
In May, I got to hear from Judy Archer, the head of Human Resources for Pierce County, Washington.
Judy Archer put it pretty simply:
- If your employees want to work remotely and you can make the job remote, make the job remote.
- If your employees want to come to the office, let them come by creating more flexible spaces.
Judy ran a similar survey of their employees at Pierce County and learned it was about 30/30/30 for preferring remote, office, or hybrid work.
She recognized that these are not binary choices; they’re on a scale.
Just like having a good employee or a bad employee isn’t a binary choice, it’s a scale.
She talked about how even the medical examiner in Pierce County found ways to make part of their job remote, creating a flexible environment where their employees could perform some of the activities at home.
This Washington Post story points out several great lessons for us to get a good understanding of what employees are looking for after COVID.
The #1 biggest issue for job satisfaction in a job is…drumroll please…the boss you work for.
The #2 biggest issue for job satisfaction is…you guessed it…pay.
The chorus of “why don’t we get paid enough?” will never stop until we get closer to providing living wages for all employees within our organizations.
It means paying the Parks Maintenance Workers enough to not qualify for food assistance.
Pay always matters and is a strong driver for changing jobs, but so is a job that is more interesting, more flexible, and more remote.
An interesting, challenging, and fun job will always win.
We can’t always control who the boss is, or how much the pay is, but we can pull levers to make our work more appealing to new hires.
I am not saying to make all jobs remote. That isn’t feasible.
What I am saying is, look for flexibility, creativity, and challenges to inspire your employees to achieve autonomy and mastery in their work.
Just like Judy Archer is doing in Pierce County.
Remember, being flexible is the first step to gaining autonomy.
Want to learn how to make your workplace more flexible?
Actions speak louder than words.