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Preparing for the ‘work-from-anywhere’ workforce
Employers in both the public and private sectors are confronting a sea change in employee expectations, prompting their top executives to rethink how they recruit, manage and empower their workforce, according to a new report.
As employees adapted to working from home and experienced new flexibilities around when and where they worked, they also discovered greater latitude to seek out employers willing to offer more flexible work-life arrangements.
As a consequence, it’s increasingly evident that traditional telework arrangements and recent efforts to support remote work are no longer enough to compete for top talent in government, suggests David C. Wyld, Merritt Professor of Management at Southeastern Louisiana University.
The report, “Gearing up for the ‘work-from-anywhere’ workforce,” produced by FedScoop and underwritten by Zoom Video Communications, cites a number of studies including Wyld’s analysis, that reflect the extent to which knowledge workers are now more emboldened to choose employers who offer work flexibility.
A study noted in the report of 4,912 workers conducted in January by Momentive and Zoom, for instance, found:
- Just over two-thirds (69%) of workers say it’s important for them to be able to choose whether they work in-person, remotely, or a hybrid model.
- Almost half (45%) say it’s likely they would look for a new job if they weren’t able to work from their ideal location.
To compete for talent, agencies will need to move more deliberately to embracing a work-from-anywhere (WFX) mindset. However, doing so also promises to strengthen the ability for agencies to deliver public services more effectively and efficiently, says Stephen Ellis, government solutions lead at Zoom Video Communications, in the report.
The report notes examples over the past two years where federal, state and local government organizations that deployed Zoom’s video communications platform — initially to facilitate collaboration between remote workers and partners — discovered how Zoom’s capabilities also enabled new and more innovative ways to serve their constituents.
Federal officials are already recasting the technical and policy groundwork to support more permanent adoption of remote work, according to the report. The Office of Personnel Management, for instance, released new guidelines in November on “the future of work” to better meet the government’s “human capital needs and improve mission delivery.”
The report, however, adds that organizations that deploy greater technical support for hybrid and remote work are also likely to see wider employee satisfaction. A Future Forum Pulse survey cited in the report found that people who work at organizations they describe as technology innovators report much more positive work experiences. The report also includes links to Wyld’s recommendations for “8 building blocks for managing a remote workforce.”
This article was produced by Scoop News Group for FedScoop and sponsored by Zoom Video Communications.
