Dear Tech Companies: Flexible work is all about trust.
Each story in our Dear Tech Companies series focuses on issues in the tech space and provides strategies and solutions to companies looking to invest in meaningful solutions that will drive impactful industry change and make the industry more accessible to Black, Latina, and Native American women.
We need to talk about “remote work.” We’ve heard the debate over and over — is remote work good or bad? It often becomes a zero-sum dispute between employees and employers.
Here’s how the argument usually goes: one side, management, demands employees return to working in-person — by the end of 2024, 90% of companies are planning to implement return-to-office policies. The other side, employees, say that’s not going to work for them. Yet as workers are required to follow return-to-office mandates to keep their jobs, some companies have an alternate motive that intentionally creates a negative work environment — one in five HR professionals admitted their mandate was meant to make staff quit.
If you’re a company trying to force your employees out, this blog isn’t for you. But if you’re actively working to navigate this complex landscape with evolving norms, then read on.
Flexible Work > Remote Work
To start, we need to get out of our echo chambers in the “remote work” debate and stop losing sight of what companies should really be doing to improve the workplace — for everyone.
It’s not just about “remote work,” instead it’s about work flexibility more broadly. Work flexibility means trusting your teams to get their work done even if that happens outside of the traditional 9-to-5, 40-hour in-person work week. It means giving your employees the choice to work the way they work best, which isn’t one-size-fits-all.
Work looks different for each company, team, and employee. Some teams need constant collaboration while others can work alone; some employees are more productive in a quiet space while others thrive in a bustling office. It all points back to companies needing to consider which policies can help create a more flexible work environment for a productive, diverse workforce.
What does that look like in practice? Well, consider me. I have two kids who just went back to school and figuring out our new routine was a stressful transition time for all of us. We had to get back in the motions of drop-offs, pick-ups, and extracurriculars, but just when we got settled in there’s already a holiday on the books, Labor Day, and half days. Now, I need to make sure my kids are looked after while I’m working. That’s why my company offers flexible work policies, like flexing my hours and working outside of the office. These policies let me stay on track while working from home or adjusting my hours to pick my kids up from school.
The same goes for my peers who don’t have kids. They each have their own responsibilities and lifestyles — whether it’s needing to work from home a few days to care for a parent, taking calls off-camera for health reasons, or simply wanting the flexibility to work in another time zone.
Flexible policies and practices can be a strategic advantage for employers. Flexible policies are an investment not just in employee wellbeing, but company resilience and efficiency — a recent survey found that employees with flexible hours actually work an average of 1.4 more days per month, totaling nearly 17 additional days annually. Companies also save money with hybrid work options. A typical U.S. employer can save $11,000 annually per half-time telecommuter, primarily due to increased productivity, lower real estate costs, and reduced absenteeism and turnover.
What’s stopping companies from implementing flexible work policies? Lack of trust.
Employees can be productive working outside of a traditional work week, but that’s not what leaders believe. In a survey, 85% of leaders said that hybrid work makes it more difficult to be confident in their employees’ productivity and 48% of business leaders even installed monitoring software on employee computers. Leaders clearly want to see employees doing their job, and that’s easier to do when working at an office within a traditional work week. But it’s doing more harm than good — only 49% of employees say that they trust their employer.
The bottomline? Flexible work is not the problem. Resisting flexible work options might actually be a symptom of not trusting your workforce.
To get to the root of the problem, companies need to learn to trust employees to know what’s best for themselves and their own team. You might revisit job descriptions that set role expectations and ask yourself: are these in line with what you actually want to see from your employees? Can you use them to set clear accountability measures? You might also look at your middle managers: are they setting the right course for your employees to succeed? These are some places where trust can be built, or weakened.
Flexibility Done Right
Implementing flexible work policies only works when done right — with leaders’ buy-in, trust, and taking the steps to promote a culture that encourages adoption. Companies can do this by providing training and resources for leaders to learn how to build that trust and effectively manage employees that work in hybrid teams, across different time zones, with flexible job roles, and more. At the same time, leaders need to be thoughtful when implementing flexible work policies. They need to be ready to ensure some employees are not left behind.
Flexible work isn’t just about meeting your business objectives. Black, Latina, and Native American (BLNA) women might prefer work flexibility because it helps protect them from overt racism, sexism, and other -isms in the workplace. Many Black and other employees of color experience less racism when working remotely. Yet the psychological safety of employees and bias still impact BLNA women and need to be a top priority.
As we’ve learned how to work in flexible environments in the last few years, it doesn’t mean racial discrimination and bias goes away. In fact, it may even be harder to see. Companies should monitor their flexible policies and practices on an ongoing basis to make sure they are not inadvertently creating inequitable outcomes for employees. Leaders need to be trained in different ways now, including how to ensure risks, like proximity bias, are not getting in the way of performance bonuses and career advancement opportunities for BLNA women. Those who work in-person, for example, might find more opportunities for mentorships that can help their career excel, while employees working from home can go unnoticed.
It’s time for tech companies to take the demand for flexible work as a non-negotiable reality. If you want to learn more about how to create a flexible work environment, check out our Policy Spotlights on Flexible Work and Flexible Working Hours.
