The world of work changed completely during 2020. Before stay-at-home orders went into effect, only 1 out of 5 employees who were able to work from home actually did it. Now, almost everyone has worked from home at some point with plans to continue at home.
But the Future of Work is more than just working from home.
Here are the basics you need to know about operating in the Future of Work as you pursue a Work-as-a-Lifestyle career.
Wide Talent Pool
Even before the pandemic, companies were starting to look beyond their city for talent. But with almost everyone working remotely, most businesses are willing to hire employees from anywhere. This change has widened the talent pool and brought opportunities to workers in rural parts of the country (if they have stable internet access).
For employees, that means you have access to your dream job even if you don't live within an hour of a large city. Employers can now find the exact person who fits their culture and can do the job well.
Scalable Workforce
The cost of employees from health insurance to onboarding and training makes growth challenging for most companies. One of the benefits of the Future of Work is the increase of freelancers and experts to take over specific tasks that may not need a full-time person or a long-term role.
Small businesses no longer need a full-time accounting department or bookkeeper. They can hire a bookkeeper for as many or as few hours as they need during the week. Websites like UpWork and Fiverr, while maybe not the best option for building a career, give freelancers the jumpstart they need for finding work.
Collaborative Technology
The best way to share notes with your coworkers is through the collaborative technology available today. You don't have to send the same document at different levels of revisions back and forth, hoping everyone looks at the most recent edition. Edit presentations or spreadsheets in real-time on Google Slides or through Microsoft Teams. Various project management tools make it easy to keep up with a project's status across the team.
You may find it daunting to learn new tools and keep up with technology, but it truly makes us more efficient and gives us the flexibility so many want out of their jobs. Get on board and learn how to survive in the Future of Work!
Lead with Trust & Empathy
With an increasingly team-based workforce, empathy has become more important than ever before. Managers need to respect their teammates' family life or home challenges in order for the team as a whole to do better work.
Happy employees do their best work, and that happiness comes from feeling understood and valued.
Trust is the key to a remote or flexible workplace since each manager needs to believe their employees can complete the work by the deadline and work towards it together. Gaining trust and trusting each other makes the Future of Work possible.
Our Framework
At SWAY, we’ve built a framework to help you succeed in the Future of Work. The Dynamic Work Framework encompasses the future of work and your mindset built on four pillars: Learn, Act, Connect, and Support.
These four components have both internal and external elements:
External: the physical, tangible skills you can learn today for success
Internal: how to apply this pillar to your own mind for personal growth
In this framework, “Learn” means improving those soft skills critical to flexible work, like asking good questions and leading a meeting well over Zoom. The internal side is increasing your curiosity, so you're always growing. “Act” includes specifically managing your day-to-day schedule, then looking at yourself for data (what times do I work best? What's the best time for a workout?). “Support” goes beyond LinkedIn connections to coaching and mentoring while learning to value your own emotional intelligence. “Connect” covers the importance of trusting others and trusting your intuition.
The Future of Work: Finding Efficiency through Flexibility
In the Future of Work, your human value and creativity become more important as the world becomes more technological and efficient. But since you are more than your work, you also need to know how to find fulfillment through your job as you pursue a Work-as-a-Lifestyle career.
In the comments, answer these questions for yourself and encourage each other as you prepare for the future of work:
Do you feel like a particular area needs the most growth?
How do you see flexible work as more than working from home?
How are you adapting to the Future of Work?