RETURN TO PIECE WORK:

Though I never would've wished for a pandemic to be the catalyst, I do believe our suddenly new ways of working are here to stay. As leaders adjust to this, here are four future-of-work pillars to which I hope they'll be paying special attention.

Pillar 1: Flexible hours

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, our definition of the word "office" has changed dramatically. It has expanded beyond cubicles and co-working spaces to include kitchen tables, couches, and even bathrooms.

The definition of the "workday" has changed, as well; it is no longer limited to a certain subset of hours that all employees share. For parents especially, the workday has become whatever they can fit in, whenever the fewest people are vying for their attention.

Without the boundaries of a physical office space or strict working hours, employees have been forced to set--and communicate--their own availability, based upon their personal schedules and productivity levels. This shift would've eventually occurred with the future of work, as well.

While some leaders might be nervous this flexibility will lead to reduced productivity, I have the opposite fear: that, without a delineation between office and home life, employees may work too much. In one survey of more than 4,500 developers and tech workers, for example, 66% of remote employees reported feeling burnt out. The reason? More than half cited longer work hours.

With that in mind, leaders should fight the urge to micromanage their teams and instead act as advocates for their newly remote employees, encouraging them to set clear boundaries and to protect themselves from work-from-home exhaustion.

Pillar 2: Data-based employee metrics

In a more flexible environment, leaders don't need to stop evaluating employee performance--far from it. They'll simply need to create new metrics of success, as they will no longer be able to judge employee effectiveness (foolishly, it might be argued) based on hours spent in the office.

At Automattic, the tech company that created WordPress, all 1,180 employees are remote. To measure individual success, CEO Matt Mullenweg has said the company focuses on outputs rather than inputs. Instead of assessing an employee's hours or availability, Mullenweg asks: "What do you actually produce?"

To be well-positioned for continued remote work during and after the pandemic, leaders will need to emulate Mullenweg, and develop new, measurable metrics of success for each employee. For a salesperson, perhaps it's the number of phone calls they make. For a human resources professional, perhaps it's the employee turnover rate. Because these metrics are so vertical-specific, leaders shouldn't hesitate to co-create them with their teams.

Then, once the metrics are set, leaders must make their new expectations crystal clear. Line managers and supervisors should schedule meetings with team members to answer questions and eliminate roadblocks. They should also determine a regular cadence for subsequent one-on-ones, as workers generally desire a higher degree of feedback when they are remote.

As anyone will tell you, however, the most important key to managing remote employees is trust. Leaders must simply trust that they hired good people, and that those good people will continue to do the work for which they are being compensated. That trust will allow leaders to foster a successful remote culture both during the pandemic and beyond.

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