<h4>Ultimately it's people that make things work, and that means .building trust, flexibility, and belonging into your workplace culture.</h4>

Culture

Ultimately it's people that make things work, and that means .building trust, flexibility, and belonging into your workplace culture.

Culture | Qatalog Blog

The need for a customer-centric approach in business has never been more critical. Qatalog recognizes that true customer centricity extends beyond mere feedback collection; it involves integrating customer insights into every aspect of business strategy. Here&rsquo;s how companies can cultivate a culture that places customer insights at the heart of every decision.
<h4>Democratizing customer insights</h4>
True customer centricity involves making customer insights accessible across all teams, not just confined to customer service or marketing teams. By democratizing this data, every segment of the company, from product to finance, gains the ability to make informed decisions that are aligned with customer needs and preferences. This integration ensures that customer insights are a driving force behind business strategies, leading to products and services that truly resonate with the target market.
<h4>Harnessing technology to enhance insights</h4>
The future of customer insights lies in leveraging emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning. These tools can dramatically enhance our ability to analyze complex datasets, offering deeper insights into customer behaviors and predicting future trends. Businesses adapting to these technologies can better tailor their offerings to meet and even anticipate the desires of their customers.
<h4>The power of asking the right questions</h4>
To extract valuable insights from customer data, businesses must ask the right questions. Power questions that delve deeper than surface-level data can uncover underlying customer motivations, preferences, and areas of dissatisfaction.&nbsp;
For example, instead of simply asking, "Are you satisfied with our product?" companies might ask, "What specific features of our product exceed your expectations?" or "What challenges do you face when using our product?" These types of questions can reveal more about the emotional and practical implications of a customer&rsquo;s experience, allowing businesses to address current needs and innovate in anticipation of future demands.
<h4>Implementing customer salience</h4>
Following the gathering and analysis of deep customer insights, implementing customer salience is crucial. This means prioritizing these insights in strategic discussions and decision-making processes at all levels.&nbsp;
Customer salience ensures that these valuable insights are not merely collected and reviewed but are pivotal in guiding the direction of the business. This strategic incorporation of customer feedback helps align products and services more closely with actual market demands, which enhances customer satisfaction and loyalty.
<h4>Activating insights through engagement</h4>
Collecting insights is only the beginning; they must also be effectively communicated and acted upon. This requires robust strategies for insight activation, including engaging storytelling and comprehensive stakeholder communication. By presenting insights in a compelling and actionable manner, businesses can ensure they are utilized to their full potential, influencing decision-making and driving strategic shifts.
<h4>Encouraging actionable outcomes</h4>
The ultimate test of effective customer insight integration is the implementation of changes that reflect the collected data. Creating a seamless flow of information within the company and establishing protocols for action based on insights are crucial. This not only improves internal operations but also enhances the customer experience, leading to better business outcomes and a stronger market position.
<h4>How can Qatalog help?</h4>
At Qatalog, we are not just advocates for customer centricity; we enable it. Our tools are designed to make it easier for businesses to access, analyze, and act on customer insights seamlessly. By embedding these insights into every facet of your operations, your business not only meets but exceeds customer expectations, setting new benchmarks for industry excellence.&nbsp;
In today&rsquo;s competitive landscape, a customer-centric approach is not just beneficial &ndash; it's essential. Choose Qatalog to ensure your strategies are powered by a deep understanding of your customers, guaranteeing not just survival but thriving success in the marketplace. <a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow">Sign up for a demo</a> today.

Discover how Qatalog uses AI and customer insights to drive a customer-centric culture and informed decision-making in businesses.

Advancing customer centricity in business | Qatalog

The need for a customer-centric approach in business has never been more critical. Qatalog recognizes that true customer centricity extends beyond mere feedback collection; it involves integrating customer insights into every aspect of business strategy.

Advancing customer centricity in business

Your onboarding process can make or break your new hire's experience and determine their success at the company. A great onboarding &mdash; or orientation &mdash; experience can make them feel right at home, providing them with all the information and guidance they need to hit the ground running. A bad onboarding experience, however, can have dire consequences.
Let&rsquo;s take a look at the risks of poor onboarding practices, and how to set them right.
<h3>The costs of bad onboarding</h3>
Failing to establish informative, intuitive, and efficient onboarding processes could result in one or more of the following:&nbsp;
1. Slowing the productivity of new hires
When you bring someone new in, it's important for them to have <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/when-is-the-right-time-to-create-a-knowledge-base/">access to all the information they need</a>. This may take the form of an information pack, containing essential documentation, and an overview of different systems and processes. But absorbing all this new knowledge, and understanding how to apply it, can be difficult for new hires. They might need additional mentorship and support.
For example, your information pack might introduce them to the different tools your organization uses. But does it tell them which to prioritize? And does your onboarding include some basic training on how they work? Without this guidance, it could take a new hire time to figure out what platforms are more important than others, and how to use them. With the right help, however, they could be doing productive work in no time.
​2. Increasing employee turnover
If new starters struggle to meet their productivity goals, there are a few potentially negative outcomes. Out of frustration and stress, for example, they simply might leave. But if they&rsquo;re not meeting expectations, your organization might also choose not to bring them on full time after their probation period.
Of course, you can always offer them extra support to help them get up to speed, but this eats up additional time and resources that should never have been needed.
What&rsquo;s more, if you don&rsquo;t improve the faults in your onboarding system, the cycle runs the risk of repeating itself. This means you&rsquo;ll need to either invest in supporting new hires more down the line, or face more attrition.&nbsp;
3. Damaging your employer brand
Just like your reputation matters to your customers, the way you market yourself as an employer affects how job seekers view your organization. If you have a poor onboarding process that fuels high attrition, your employer brand is likely to suffer.&nbsp;
Ex-employees talk, and they leave reviews on platforms like Glassdoor. This negative perception can hurt your talent acquisition &mdash; not just the number of applications you get, but the quality of talent you attract, too.&nbsp;
4. Hurting your team dynamics
The problems that arise from ineffective onboarding can have a ripple effect across your business, not only affecting your new hire&rsquo;s productivity but also hurting team dynamics and communication.&nbsp;
The affinity your new starters feel towards your team &mdash; and vice versa &mdash; influences the way your teams work. People need trust, transparency, and chemistry to work well together. So if you have a poor onboarding process, your new hires might struggle to form bonds and collaborate. Worse yet, if your new hires underperform as a direct consequence of poor onboarding, then their line managers and colleagues might feel like they can&rsquo;t rely on them.&nbsp;
5. Making you vulnerable to compliance and legal risks
When a new hire starts a job, there's often a lot for them to take in. One of the less glamorous aspects often involves learning about data security and governance policies to protect sensitive information and ensure legal compliance. If this isn&rsquo;t done properly during the onboarding process, you&rsquo;re increasing the risk of data security breaches, and you might not satisfy the requirements for protocols like GDPR or SOC 2.&nbsp;
<h3>Here&rsquo;s how to revamp your onboarding process</h3>
If your organization is suffering from chaotic onboarding, the good news is that you can take some straightforward, actionable steps to improve it. A few simple changes can go a long way in making the experience better for new hires.
1. Embrace pre-onboarding
&lsquo;Pre-onboarding&rsquo; makes the most of the time from when your new hire accepts the job offer up until their first day. Managers should try to make new starters feel excited about their role, and one way to do that is to encourage team members to reach out to them via email. This means your new colleague will have some friendly faces when they start working.
Another way to improve your new hire&rsquo;s experience is to make sure they have the right tools from day one, including physical equipment and access to any software they might need.
2. Make your orientation flexible
Pre-onboarding helps you get your employees ready to join, but there&rsquo;s also a lot you can do during their first day, or week, through orientation. It&rsquo;s your opportunity to formally integrate new hires into your company, usually by introducing them to the team and their supervisor. You&rsquo;ll also want to share important documentation with them, like the employee handbook and relevant paperwork.
All of this is relatively easy to do in person &mdash; you can get orientation out of the way in a few days. But there are benefits to developing a&nbsp;<a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-do-you-onboard-new-joiners-remotely">remote orientation experience</a>, too &mdash; people can take them from anywhere, and they&rsquo;re especially helpful for remote and hybrid teams. You can also make these experiences more enjoyable by breaking up the formal process into shorter, getting-to-know-you videos and chats with different team members.
Additionally, you can help new hires feel more at home by scheduling team events in the first couple of weeks of their tenure, and even setting up some coffee chats. Give them opportunities to network with their new team members and build rapport.
3. Integrate security and compliance training
Security and compliance training can be a little tedious, but it&rsquo;s definitely necessary. Minimize the risks of data breaches and legal exposure by familiarizing your new hires with security policies and procedures. Some steps you might want to take include: 
<ul>
<li>
Conducting awareness training around phishing. While most people may be familiar with what phishing is, evidence suggests that many employees aren&rsquo;t experienced in protecting themselves from it. It&rsquo;s the most common cybersecurity threat to organizations &mdash; between 2022 and 23, <a href="https://aag-it.com/the-latest-phishing-statistics/">80% of businesses in the UK</a> that suffered from cybersecurity attacks were victims of phishing. So, it&rsquo;s important to walk your new hires through common phishing scams and the best practices to protect themselves. 
</li>
<li>
Offering compliance training. If your organization has to comply with specific data privacy and security laws, e.g., in accordance with GDPR, SOC 2, or HIPAA, you&rsquo;ll want to incorporate training into the onboarding phase. This may include teaching them about the laws and covering the best practices for storing and managing data, and even conducting an assessment. 
</li>
<li>
Building a culture of security awareness. Keeping your organization safe is a continuous process, and don&rsquo;t expect your employees to pick up on everything from the get go. It&rsquo;s important to keep engaging them &mdash; providing them with regular training and guiding them when they slip up.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
4. Radically transform the way you design and manage your onboarding experience
Creating an efficient onboarding process lets you avoid all the negative consequences that we just covered, but to achieve this at scale, you need proper systems in place. And that&rsquo;s where tech comes in.
A tool like&nbsp;<a href="https://qatalog.com/">Qatalog</a> can transform your new hires&rsquo; onboarding experience. The workflows feature allows you to document and update the process, automate steps, assign the workflows to new joiners, and keep track of their progress.&nbsp;
This makes it easy for hiring managers to create and manage the perfect onboarding process and ensure that all of the critical areas are covered. From a new joiners perspective, it means they can effectively onboard themselves (and they can choose to pause and resume the sessions at any time), and their line managers can check in to view their progress.&nbsp;
<h3>The bottom line of successful onboarding</h3>
Poor onboarding can cost your business &mdash; productivity takes a hit, your employer brand and team dynamics suffer, and you could lose valuable talent. That&rsquo;s why building an effective, people-first onboarding experience is one of the best investments you can make.&nbsp;
Developing your onboarding process takes time, and you&rsquo;ll likely need to iterate. Keep collecting feedback and making improvements until you have a frictionless onboarding experience that makes new hires feel right at home.
<a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Book a demo with us</a> if you want to learn how to build a custom, seamless onboarding process with Qatalog.

Your organization might be damaging productivity and losing talent due to a poor onboarding process. Here's how to dramatically improve (and easily manage) your onboarding.

Beware the hidden costs of bad onboarding

Qatalog recently launched a mini-documentary series examining the staggering pace of change in the workplace, setting out to find better ways of working along the way. 
The first two episodes covered the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-paradox/" rel="follow">chaos and noise that our modern productivity tools</a> have created and the growing <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/operations-nation/" rel="follow">strategic role that operations teams play</a> in enabling increasingly complex workplaces. 
The latest episode is all about when we work and how increasing flexibility is rendering the rigid 9-5 workday obsolete. 
Visit <a href="https://language.work" rel="follow">language.work</a> for the full episode, or read below for some highlights. 
<h2>Timeless work &mdash; the death of the 9-5 </h2>
Many employers and employees are recognizing that tracking traditional working hours are no longer suitable for modern work. Working on flexible schedules, or asynchronously, has given people a new freedom to choose a work pattern that works for them. However, a <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">recent study by Qatalog and GitLab</a> revealed that over 40% of knowledge workers have still never even heard of the concept of asynchronous work. 
So let's start off with what asynchronous work is. It is typically defined as a system where workers complete tasks on their own schedule, without being expected to respond to all messages or emails immediately. And this flexibility in turn gives asynchronous workers the freedom to fit work around their lives. &ldquo;People are considering the role of work in their lives. And we've seen a shift from &lsquo;how is my life going to fit around work,&rsquo; to now &lsquo;how is work going to fit into my life,&rsquo;&rdquo; Sheela Subramanian, VP at Slack Future Forum explains.
 So what brought about this change? 
The pandemic acted as a catalyst, with technology as the enabler, and there is no going back. As Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab puts it, &ldquo;Now that people are used to working outside of the normal bounds, and they're used to experimenting with different ebbs of ebbs and flows of productivity, I doubt that you'll be able to put that genie back in the bottle.&rdquo; 
<h2>Creating a culture that works </h2>
For Dr. Oliver Harrison, CEO and founder of Koa Health, the switch to asynchronous and hybrid working has proven to be a positive experiment. So far, the company of 140 employees has seen significant improvements in productivity, team engagement, and even in their net promoter score. A return to a conventional 9-5 in the office would be a backward step. 
However, even as companies are slowly understanding and looking to reap the benefits of flexible working, asynchronous working is not everyone&rsquo;s reality just yet. For many companies, the change involves a significant shift in company culture, one which needs to be intentional and well communicated in order to avoid the pitfalls of &ldquo;digital presenteeism.&rdquo; 
Siobhan McKeown, COO of HumanMade, defines digital presenteeism as the performative aspect of modern work &mdash; &ldquo;This performance of always being online, of always being available, of always responding to things. There's that need to have that little green light on in Slack so that people can see that you're there.&rdquo;
 According to <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">research from Qatalog and GitLab</a>, this phenomenon impacts 54% of knowledge workers, who feel pressure to show they&rsquo;re online working. As a result, workers now waste 67 minutes every day, &lsquo;working&rsquo; extra hours simply to show they are online. 
So, how do we stop the performance? The experts interviewed highlighted three key steps:
<ol>
<li>First of all, strive to create an output-focused culture. &ldquo;Presenteeism was never a great way to measure the results of a business, but it was easier,&rdquo; Darren Murph tells us. &ldquo;As teams are more distributed, there is really no such thing as showing up or clocking out. Work can happen as the sun turns, and leaders will come to expect that results are what matters.&rdquo;</li>
<li>Secondly, the tone must be set from the top. Sheela Subramanian explains how she used status messages to communicate her core working hours during the pandemic, making it clear that outside of those her role is caring for her two small children. &ldquo;By showing my humanity, by showing the fact that I had multiple responsibilities, it gave an opportunity for others to feel like they could do the same thing.&rdquo; </li>
<li>And the third suggestion, from Daphnee Laforest, founder of Modern Leaders, was to replicate an &ldquo;open-source&rdquo; philosophy, used by many software companies long before the pandemic. This is about giving anyone access to the code and allowing them to make suggestions and comments, in their own time. &ldquo;You see a product evolving created by people who have never met in person, that might not be in the same country or the same time zone.&rdquo; </li>
</ol>
<h2>The hard truth about technology </h2>
While technology has enabled this new way of working, it can also make asynchronous working harder, due to the constant stream of notifications. <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">Qatalog and GitLab research</a> found that the average knowledge worker receives notifications from 6 applications every day, and 73% of workers respond to them outside their working hours. Dr. Oliver Harrison, a neuroscientist by background, tells us why they can be hard to ignore. &ldquo;The little red dots have been consciously designed to grab our attention and to set off a dopamine reward system in our brain.&rdquo;
 Again, the interviewees had some tips to combat this behavior: 
<ol>
<li>Configure notifications: Given the power of the little red dot, Dr. Oliver Harrison recommends configuring notifications so they're only active during your chosen working hours. &ldquo;This is the base for us to really mitigate some of the risks and get the best out of the technology, but avoid some of the pitfalls.&rdquo; </li>
<li>Use scheduled send: Another simple but powerful change is the ability to schedule communications across our work tools. As Laila von Albensleben explains, &ldquo;...not only does new technology allow people to work asynchronously, but it also allows people to be mindful about when people receive that information&hellip; with scheduled send, people don't necessarily feel the pressure to always be online and respond immediately.&rdquo; </li>
<li>Add breaks into your work calendar: &ldquo;Guidelines encouraging people to actually schedule breaks in their calendars are critical. It will remind them to let others know that they're not available, and to go outside, or even to have walk-and-talk meetings,&rdquo; added Laila. </li>
</ol>
<h2>The war for talent </h2>
Power in the labor market has recently shifted in favor of employees, who are demanding greater flexibility &mdash; and they are willing to quit if they don&rsquo;t get what they want. 
&ldquo;Companies are having to take quite seriously that people are reevaluating their priorities in life. And perhaps companies have to be a little bit more accommodating than they used to in order to make sure that they retain talent,&rdquo; Professor Julian Burkinshaw explains. 
<a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/?utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_source=qatalog&amp;utm_campaign=LW-documentary&amp;utm_content=Timeless-work-blog" rel="follow">Qatalog and GitLab research</a> also found that 43% of knowledge workers would consider a lower-paid role if it gave them greater flexibility, a view echoed by Siobhan McKeown. 
&ldquo;In my experience, people are willing to take a lower salary for more flexibility because they aren't just focused on their work, but they want to find balance through their work for the rest of their life. So I see this becoming more and more prevalent.&rdquo; 
One thing is clear. We are living through a monumental change in the way we think about work, and we all have a chance to make our mark on how we want it to play out in the future. 
Visit <a href="https://language.work" rel="follow">language.work</a> for the full episode.

The genie is out of the bottle. The rise of flexible and asynchronous working has irreversibly changed the way we think about time at work, but the reality is still catching up.

Timeless work — the death of the 9-5

We talk about trust in the context of personal relationships all the time. But have you ever thought about how trust feels? Do you feel it in your stomach? In your head? Or in your heart? This is a question too few leaders ask themselves.
I was just 17 when I first saw <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/build-a-people-first-working-culture/" rel="follow">what trust does to people in the workplace</a>. Working as a team leader in one of the biggest clothing stores in Europe, I realized that there was a connection between trust, well-being, and the team&rsquo;s ability to work together. And what worked back then, also worked in the later stages of my career, as I went on to become a senior executive in a 4,000 person organization. I realized that trust was the foundation of psychological safety in the workplace. That, in turn, is the main driving force behind team performance, whether my team was made up of five Dutch teenagers or a hundred middle managers.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;m happy to say that I wasn&rsquo;t the only one to have come to this realization. In fact, over the past two decades, many organizations have made trust one of their core values. Then the pandemic hit, and leaders had to quickly reinvent themselves, and their trust in teams.
<h2 dir="ltr">The role of trust in remote working</h2>
Not that long ago, the world got catapulted into a remote revolution. Business leaders were confronted with a new challenge; &ldquo;How do I build trust in a remote work environment?&rdquo;&nbsp;
It sounded easy at first, until many of them realized the old approach no longer worked. It was the same game, but with different rules. A bug slipped into the team code.
Instead of continuing to build and nurture trust like in the office days, the focus shifted. Leaders looked for ways to keep the team busy and aligned at all costs. Trust lost its position as a primary objective, with discipline becoming the core focus in driving performance remotely.&nbsp;
Moreover, the remote revolution didn&rsquo;t only change the way we work. It also exposed organizations and leaders and the real trust inside the teams (which is something I talk about in my <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KiVU-01jPo&amp;ab_channel=TEDxTalks">TEDx </a>talk). People suddenly realized that the emperor had no clothes and felt compelled to leave. We now call this the Great Resignation.
And there was one major factor that contributed to it. A disease even. Micromanagement.
<h2 dir="ltr">Micromanagement kills trust</h2>
Micromanagement kills trust in remote teams, and it comes disguised in many forms. Whether it&rsquo;s monitoring software, endless meetings, or a plethora of online tools, it all takes autonomy away from people.&nbsp;&nbsp;
I&rsquo;ve experienced how being micromanaged feels first-hand. It is like constant negative attention that gets paid in trust. And when the trust bank goes bust, the person either burns out or leaves the company.&nbsp;
As with most diseases, micromanagement has several symptoms (all perfectly treatable, by the way):
<ul>
<li dir="ltr">Digital presenteeism. This describes a constant anxiety to be online and visible. A <a href="https://language.work/research/killing-time-at-work/">study from Qatalog and GitLab,</a> found that 54% of employees feel pressure to show that they are online. As a result, workers spend an additional 67 minutes online each day, with 73% responding to notifications outside work hours. Digital presenteeism is seen as one of the main reasons for burnout among remote workers.</li>
<li dir="ltr">A lack of initiative. When people feel a lack of trust, they&rsquo;re less likely to take initiative. Proactivity becomes reactivity, which in turn makes leaders check in even more often. Reactivity kills playfulness in a job, and that spells bad news for well-being and engagement.&nbsp;</li>
<li dir="ltr">Lack of creativity. A lack of trust increases stress, which triggers a fight-or-flight response. When someone is in this state, there&rsquo;s not much activity in our right brain, where creativity lives. Instead, we&rsquo;re on the lookout for that sabertooth tiger and thinking of ways to defend ourselves, rather than creating stuff and thinking outside the box.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
There are more symptoms of course, but these three will be familiar to most people. Together, they can damage team morale, leading to high attrition rates and poor performance overall.&nbsp;
It doesn&rsquo;t have to be this way.
I&rsquo;ve spent 20 years leading teams. In that time, I&rsquo;ve learned lots about how to build trust, most of which can still be applied to remote work. These can be broken down into three core aspects - Leadership, Purpose, and Workflow.&nbsp;
Related reading: <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-to-set-remote-teams-up-for-success/" rel="follow">How to set&nbsp;remote teams up for success</a>
<h2 dir="ltr">Leadership</h2>
I don&rsquo;t think micromanagers are bad people who are obsessed with controlling people. I think they feel insecure and don&rsquo;t necessarily know how to lead their teams remotely, so they resort to micromanagement. To help remedy this, leaders and managers need training in empathic skills, inclusion, remote communication, remote culture, and remote workflows. The rules of the game have changed, but some organizations still think they can carry on as normal and get away with it.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;ve worked with dozens of leaders desperately trying to adapt to remote work and they were often just thrown in the deep end. In most cases they just need a helping hand to learn how to swim again.&nbsp;
<h2 dir="ltr">Purpose</h2>
When you are working alone at your kitchen table, it can sometimes be difficult to know if your work has any meaningful impact. That&rsquo;s why the best remote organizations are purpose-driven, as it helps people associate their work with something bigger.&nbsp;
To support this in a remote environment, leaders must articulate the core values, beliefs, and mission and vision statements of the company more often, and explain how people are contributing to it, as this keeps purpose alive.&nbsp;
It might not seem like a top priority for busy execs, but it should be, as it informs your culture and creates a strong foundation from which you can build trust.&nbsp;
<h2 dir="ltr">Workflow</h2>
<a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/hybrid-work-press-release/">According to research from Qatalog and GitLab,</a> 50% of knowledge workers say they are inundated with the number of tools they use, and 60% of them have no idea what their colleagues are doing. That to me, is a workflow problem.&nbsp;
Successful remote work is about processes. The smarter and leaner your tech stack is, the more it supports <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/async-the-promise-vs-the-reality/" rel="follow">asynchronous work</a>, which improves visibility and eliminates many micromanagement layers.&nbsp;
Working in this way changes the focus from time spent on the task, to delivery and outcomes. That&rsquo;s why I love Qatalog. It is a powerful tool to streamline asynchronous workflows in a single, centralized system, giving back precious time to teams.&nbsp;
I&rsquo;ve seen tremendous results in clients with the right tech stack and agreements on usage. However, the right digital tools are just one part of the equation. Teams must also put an effort into what we can do with tools, or more important, what the boundaries are.
<h2 dir="ltr">Final words</h2>
&ldquo;We had a golden chance to say goodbye to the rigid 9-5, but it appears we&rsquo;re still stuck in old habits of presenteeism, and technology is making things worse.&rdquo; I loved how Qatalog&rsquo;s recent Killing Time study expressed this, but I strongly believe that the golden chance hasn&rsquo;t disappeared quite yet.&nbsp;&nbsp;
But trust in remote organizations will make or break the future of remote work. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s imperative for leaders to take it seriously.&nbsp;
I trust that remote work is here to stay, and so is the end of the 9-5. And coming back to my original question, for those wondering, I can feel that trust in my heart.
<a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow">Book a call with our Customer Team</a> to find out more about how Qatalog can help support an open source culture at your workplace.

Teams can't function without trust. But how can companies forge trust in a remote environment? Founder of REMODE, Leon van der Laan, shares his key tips.

How to build trust in remote teams | Qatalog

How to build trust in remote teams

Picture this. After a lengthy interview process, you&rsquo;ve finally landed the job of your dreams with a company that seems to truly value you and your time. It&rsquo;s completely remote, giving you the freedom to schedule your work around your needs &mdash; whether that&rsquo;s childcare, traveling, or maybe you&rsquo;re just a night owl. You imagine what it would feel like to take a spontaneous afternoon off to go to the beach, no longer chained to your desk 9 to 5!
But after your first week, reality sets in. While you&rsquo;d hoped to start work at 10am, your boss starts pinging you most days from 8am, demanding to know where that report is or whether you&rsquo;ve received that email. You have non-stop meetings scheduled most days, and you wonder why half of these couldn&rsquo;t be done on email or Slack. And when you finally have some down time to get out of the house and go for an afternoon stroll, your boss messages again, questioning why you&rsquo;ve set your status to &ldquo;Away.&rdquo; The only free time you truly get to live your life is when everyone else goes offline &mdash; after about 5pm.
No, this isn&rsquo;t Hell. This is the modern workplace. And this experience is becoming increasingly common, with many companies talking a good game on flexible working, but failing to deliver.
<h2>Why async is still far from being a reality</h2>
Although async is often touted as the more productive successor to the 9 to 5, for most people it&rsquo;s still a distant reality. Of those of us who have heard of it, fewer can claim to actually be doing it. Our recent <a href="https://assets.qatalog.com/language.work/Qatalog-Killing-Time-at-Work-22-Report.pdf?1">Killing Time report</a>, produced in partnership with our friends at GitLab, found that only 9% of over the 2000 knowledge workers we surveyed were able to work asynchronously all the time.&nbsp;
Worse, there was a clear pattern of privilege when it came to who was working async, with C-Level Executives three times more likely to do so than junior workers.&nbsp;
Those of us who started remote working with entry or even mid-level roles can probably all relate to that feeling of needing to be online at all times. In fact, some employers actually demand it. And that is exactly what needs to change.
<h2>Work has trust issues</h2>
In a Qatalog survey of 2,000 knowledge workers, it found that <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/workplace-trust-crisis-press-release/">63% of workers said it was harder to build trust</a> between colleagues when working remotely. Research from Microsoft also revealed that while 87% of remote workers report feeling productive at work, <a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index/hybrid-work-is-just-work">only 12% of leaders claimed to be fully confident</a> in their distributed staff. Clearly something isn&rsquo;t adding up - and that something is trust.
So it&rsquo;s all well and good for companies to encourage and enable remote work &mdash; it&rsquo;s expected that a<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2022/02/01/remote-work-is-here-to-stay-and-will-increase-into-2023-experts-say/"> quarter of all jobs in North America will be remote by 2023</a>. But these workers won&rsquo;t experience real freedom created by asynchronous working until a culture of trust is established by their employers.&nbsp;&nbsp;
At present, it appears as though bosses are happy to take advantage of these new freedoms and work async themselves. But they are unwilling to extend that same flexibility to their staff because they don&rsquo;t trust them. Until bosses start encouraging employees to create their own schedule (and normalizing it), it&rsquo;s unlikely that those at entry-level will ever have the confidence to work asynchronously.
<h2>Async works differently for everyone</h2>
While it may take some getting used to, leaders need to realize that creating an asynchronous culture (that actually lets their employees work when they want) will only add long-term value to a business.&nbsp;
One of the huge advantages of async is that it&rsquo;s more inclusive. You could have a team of working parents, early risers, and mid-day swimmers, all collaborating productively on the same project. Which is why the promise of it is so desirable. Having a truly diverse workforce demands that employers trust their team &mdash; regardless of whether someone needs to take time off to do the school run or for a long run.
<h2>How can we make the present async?</h2>
It&rsquo;s clear that async is the future. But most of us could benefit from it right now. So, what can we do, as individuals, to make sure that what&rsquo;s promised in job interviews is actually delivered in reality?
For one, setting boundaries should be a priority. If your company touts async work, delete Slack, Teams, or any other work related tool, from your phone to ensure that your time is truly your own. Or, if that&rsquo;s not practical, change your settings so that you don&rsquo;t get notifications from those apps outside of your preferred working hours.&nbsp;
Another simple trick is to set your working hours on your Google calendar to avoid meetings being scheduled outside of your work day. And, if you feel comfortable, communicate these boundaries directly to your boss to make sure that you&rsquo;re both on the same page.
But ultimately, the onus should be on bosses to ensure that async work is able to happen without any barriers &mdash; whether they be technological or cultural.
Want to find out how Qatalog can facilitate an asynchronous workplace culture? <a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow">Book a call with our Customer team here</a>.

While many employers make bold promises when it comes to flexibility, the reality for knowledge workers is often very different.

Asynchronous work — the promise vs. the reality | Qatalog

Async — the promise vs. the reality

With more companies prioritizing remote and hybrid work, it doesn't mean you don't share time in person, but it increases the importance of optimizing those human interactions. Offsites can be messy, expensive, and hard to prioritize, so we wanted to share some best practices on how to execute one seamlessly, and focus on making it a key part of your overall employee experience
With the aid of Qatalog our Chief of Staff, Marta, we were able to seamlessly plan and execute a company offsite to a British countryside retreat for 43 employees. This involved the team getting together from 11 different countries, many requiring visas, accommodation, and extensive long-distance travel.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/TH0Ykoa2QZSmWgw7h1L3" alt="undefined" width="967" height="476" />
I spoke with Marta to get the low down on how she was able to plan such a complex trip, filled with team-building activities, in record time.&nbsp;
<h2>Five tips for planning your next company offsite</h2>
<h3>1. Collect everything in a shared Project</h3>
Creating a central location for all your documentation, resources, updates, and tasks is invaluable in providing context to everyone involved. Everyone gets excited about the potential of an offsite, leading to a large number of questions and information that needs to be shared to help people prepare.
Include information about the location, visa application deadlines, processes for booking flights, and directions to the venue. Other company-wide information like travel insurance policies and expense policies should also be interlinked. You currently might have this information housed in an intranet or an HR system &ndash; Marta had everything easily accessible, in one place, through Qatalog&rsquo;s Company pages. The aim is to get anything offsite-related under one roof and in the same work tool. This allowed Marta to not repeatedly answer the same questions, and more importantly give employees a single place to find information, get their questions answered, and provide feedback. Keeping the employees fully informed and part of the transparent process.
<h3>2. Put processes in place&nbsp;</h3>
You will need to collect a lot of information from attendees so make sure you have a process for gathering, tracking, and storing it all.&nbsp;
Marta had to ensure she had information from everyone on the big things, like flight bookings and visas, all the way to the more intricate details like dietary restrictions and swag requests.&nbsp;
This was also a great opportunity to ask others for recommendations on the team-building activities &ndash; &rdquo;If you had a magic wand what is something you would like to do or see at the offsite?&rdquo; Her favorite responses: bread-baking, karaoke, and petting zoo.&nbsp;
Marta delivered all three.&nbsp;
You can gather all of this through either email communication, type forms, or follow Marta&rsquo;s lead, and use Qatalog&rsquo;s no-code Workflow function.&nbsp;
<h3>3. Organize and prioritize your tasks&nbsp;</h3>
Keep on top of your tasks, break them down into smaller, actionable subtasks, add deadlines, and delegate where possible. Make sure stakeholders are aware of progress or risks and setbacks.
Some examples of the tasks on your to-do list: book venue, plan meals and menu, plan activities, order equipment&hellip;
&hellip;and most importantly: bring spikeball.&nbsp;
Qatalog provides a quick and easy way to manage and assign all the to-dos &ndash;&nbsp;gantt charts and kanban tasks allow you to track what needs to be done, and stakeholders get visibility into progress without having to ping you for updates.&nbsp;
<h3>4. Set timelines for communication</h3>
Don&rsquo;t overwhelm participants with information overload in a single email or multiple hard-to-follow threads in Slack. Divide your communication about the event into 3 clear phases, Marta&rsquo;s phases were as follows:
<ul>
<li>1st phase: share details about the location and date</li>
<li>2nd phase: share information about activities</li>
<li>3rd phase: share the agenda, and make it available for team members to refer back to during the event.</li>
</ul>
Once Marta was ready to share details of the offsite with the wider company, rather than using email she consolidated everything into Posts. A key benefit of Posts is that everyone involved in the Project gets notified, and Marta gets insight into who has read them through real-time read-receipts. The Post can always be found within the offsite Project itself, which acts as a single source of truth and prevents scrolling back through multiple different threads or seeing outdated decisions or announcements.&nbsp;
<h3>5. Re-use previous work</h3>
Here&rsquo;s the real secret! She&rsquo;s been reusing this same structure for every offsite, saving herself from having to start from scratch every time.&nbsp;
Through Qatalog&rsquo;s structured hub, once work has been created, all of it can be duplicated and repurposed for your next initiative. Marta simply duplicates the Project every 6 months, with all the relevant company policies, the same Workflows, the same Tasks, and even the same collaborators.&nbsp;
Co-ordinating distributed team events is becoming a common scene across most ops teams. They build a strong working environment, increase employee retention and allow employees to know the people they work with. Learning about fellow team members outside of work can help develop and demonstrate empathy for them when they need it most. This ultimately leads to a better culture.
Thankfully the ability to collaborate asynchronously on such initiatives, scale them as the company grows, then watch it all fall into place come the event has never been easier&hellip;as long as you have a framework to help you out.&nbsp;
Ready to start centralizing the planning of your off-site on Qatalog? We can get this set up for you in minutes. Get in touch <a href="https://qatalog.com/contact/demo/">here</a>.

Five tips for planning your next company offsite.

How to plan an offsite | Qatalog

5 tips for planning a successful offsite.

How to plan an offsite

<h2>What is 'employee experience' and why is it important?</h2>
The definition of employee experience (EX) is the sum of all the different touchpoints an employee has with a company. It ranges from recruitment and onboarding to autonomous work. And encompasses how they feel about their colleagues, the team culture, and even what they think of the workplace tools they use.
Creating a positive employee experience is essentially how you create workplace engagement and ensure people want to work at your company. It can be measured with a range of KPIs like employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity. When employee experience is stellar, your team will be more energized and productive, which should translate into a positive culture for everyone. But it doesn&rsquo;t come easily and requires proper processes, structure, and the right digital tools to be in place.
To help you get started, we&rsquo;ve put together some top tips on how to improve employee experience as you grow your team, and how <a href="https://qatalog.com/work-hub/">Qatalog&rsquo;s Work Hub </a>can support your org to build the foundation of a people-first culture. To learn more <a href="https://qatalog.chilipiper.com/book/oezejo">book a call</a> with our customer team/employee experience experts.
<h2>Top tips to drive employee engagement and improve 'employee experience'</h2>
Follow these 5 tips and you&rsquo;ll be on your way to building a consistent and positive employee experience across your teams.
<h3>1. Transparent and semi-automated new joiner onboarding</h3>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/1BQL3N0MSlCcywY90iCm" alt="UI-May.png" width="800" height="391" />
Onboarding can define an employee&rsquo;s experience and their chances of success. It can be tricky to get right, especially if your team is <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-do-you-onboard-new-joiners-remotely/">remote</a>. Far too often onboarding processes are dominated by boring admin tasks and fuzzy details on what to expect during your first few weeks. Tasks should be automated wherever possible, allowing new employees to focus time where it matters. Automating processes like uploading verification documents, sending a welcome email, and requesting workplace tool access can be easily done with Qatalog <a href="https://qatalog.com/workflows/">Workflows</a>.
New joiners should also have a clear central view of what&rsquo;s expected in their first 3 months. This can be achieved by documenting the complete onboarding process, making it transparent and straightforward for the joiner. A <a href="https://qatalog.com/templates/30-60-90-day-plan/">30-60-90 day</a> plan together with important resources should be incorporated into an onboarding <a href="https://qatalog.com/projects/">Project</a>. And, there should only be one primary onboarding flow for an employee to run through, this can be done by merging multiple processes into one with our new nested <a href="https://app.qatalog.com/workflows/" rel="follow">Workflows</a> feature!
<h3>2. Make knowledge accessible, visible, and searchable</h3>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/UNYGXKh3TNqSwD7XOjx7" alt="UI-May-1.png" width="800" height="406" />
Learning through proximity and overheard conversations in a remote setting is no longer possible. To counteract this, work should be made visible and accessible. There should be no knowledge asymmetry, employees should be able to easily find the context and information they need to do their job.
Adopting an <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-we-built-our-all-in-one-search/">all-in-one search tool</a> can help increase visibility, making it quick and simple for people to find the files and documents they want, no matter where they&rsquo;re stored. Qatalog&rsquo;s <a href="http://qatalog.com/search/" rel="follow">Search</a> integrates with your tool stack, like Slack, Google Drive, Asana, Microsoft Office, and Outlook, and also connects to relevant work like <a href="https://qatalog.com/projects/" rel="follow">Projects</a> and <a href="https://qatalog.com/goals/" rel="follow">Goals</a> across teams.&nbsp;
Not having access to the right resources is a problem that hinders employee experience, stifles employee engagement, and reduces productivity as countless hours are wasted trying to find information or the right person to get access from. Accessibility is easy to manage in Qatalog, now you can add any Google Drive file as a resource within a Project, <a href="https://qatalog.com/company-section/" rel="follow">Team</a>, or Goal, and the right coworkers will automatically get access.
<h3>3. Instil a documentation-first culture</h3>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/vKzAYoieQz2uG6RbYjmK" alt="UI-May-2.png" width="800" height="310" />
To build transparency and visibility, so that crucial information is recorded, you need to <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/company-culture-and-documentation-culture/" rel="follow">create a culture of documentation</a>. Teach employees what information should be centralized and ensure you&rsquo;re providing a tool that employees enjoy using, otherwise adoption will be limited. Following in the footsteps of Amazon's widely praised documentation culture, meetings should start with a document review. You don&rsquo;t have to scrap all presentations and only write documents but find a balance that works for your team. Start by running a Weekly Business Review asynchronously. Each team could write a short paragraph about the progress towards goals and initiatives, with the final update shared company-wide as a Page or a Post.
Qatalog powers this kind of <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-to-become-async-first/" rel="follow">async culture</a> by providing a complete and structured way to run meetings, share updates, and jam on ideas. For example, you can use Pages to document things like design docs or quarterly reviews &mdash; and bring your documents to life with tables, images, and rich editing. Share weekly sprint planning, team updates, and project status updates with Posts.&nbsp;
<h3>4. Make decision-making transparent with one single source of truth</h3>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/erelD9IuRPiVDaJ9Xq40" alt="undefined" width="800" height="421" />
In remote teams, it can be harder to build trust. It requires a shift from ad hoc conversations on Slack, to structured, centralized systems, allowing all employees to quickly understand what decisions have been made and why. This is key to building a positive team culture and a high-trust environment. However, repeatedly sharing manual updates and decisions with stakeholders or having to update multiple sources can be taxing. Instead use tools that pull information into one place and that continuously document decisions, progress, and updates, within the context of your projects, goals, and teams. A Work Hub offers these capabilities and has the benefit of sitting as a coordination layer across your org, connecting the often disparate parts of work.
<h3>5. Create a feedback-first culture</h3>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/22i62jOER2abFV34b2cg" alt="undefined" width="800" height="375" />
Feedback can take many forms &mdash; recognition of a job well done, constructive feedback on a particular initiative, and structured performance reviews. For employees to be empowered and happy, they need to feel valued, and that&rsquo;s where positive reinforcement comes in. To grow and develop in their role, feedback on work and structured performance reviews are key. The former is often solved by implementing HR tools that sit separately to day-to-day work and seldom get used, or people revert to unstructured impromptu feedback over Slack messages, destined to be forgotten. Feedback should be baked into the context of work and this is where Qatalog&rsquo;s Kudos capability can help, allowing you to log feedback directly on a person's profile.
Sharing and requesting feedback must be done in the right way to ensure it&rsquo;s rich with context and gets the right visibility. For example, Threads within a Project or Team are a great way to get more sets of eyes on a decision or path you&rsquo;d like to take. And comments on Posts or Pages can provide detailed feedback on an initiative you&rsquo;re working on or a planning document you&rsquo;re writing.
<h2>So what improvements can you expect?</h2>
Introducing the behavioral norms and values of open communication and visible decision-making is how you build a deliberate team culture. And a strong team culture creates a more inclusive and positive place for people to work. It also means:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Less virtual eye-rolling when a particular decision is made as employees can retrace how that decision was made and why.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Less missed opportunities for collaboration. Typically 2/3 of employees report missing opportunities to collaborate and 62% believe it&rsquo;s difficult to figure out what others are working on.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Knowledge won&rsquo;t be trapped in siloed tools and employees won&rsquo;t waste time digging through cloud storage systems, message channels, and cycling through tabs, saving them around 59 minutes per day!&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
The bottom line is if you&rsquo;re scaling quickly and you don&rsquo;t put your people first your employee experience will suffer and ultimately you&rsquo;ll end up with high attrition, poor onboarding, and low productivity. But don&rsquo;t worry, it&rsquo;s not too late, you&rsquo;re <a href="https://qatalog.com/signup/">one click away</a> from making a change &hellip;
If you want more tips on managing employee experience, check out our blog on <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/keeping-virtual-teams-connected/">employee engagement programs</a>. Or <a href="https://qatalog.chilipiper.com/book/oezejo">book a call</a> with our customer team.

A complete guide on how to improve the employee experience. Learn how to drive workplace engagement with Qatalog.

Improve digital employee experience in 5 steps | Qatalog

We answer what employee experience is, why it’s important and how you and your team can create a stellar one in 5 key steps.

Improve the digital employee experience in 5 steps

This is a guest post by <a href="https://runningremote.com/" rel="follow">Running Remote&nbsp;conference</a>, who cover every facet of building a remote team to help develop the future of work.
Remote and hybrid work has become the norm for millions worldwide, and while it&rsquo;s filled with opportunities and advances, it comes with challenges too. One of the greatest challenges that remote team leaders face is the obstacle of creating a team culture and maintaining the &lsquo;human element&rsquo; of interaction. Remote companies need to be proactive about building team culture, it&rsquo;s not something that will happen without intentional and broad effort.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Most agree it's important and needed, but many aren&rsquo;t sure how to go about implementing it in a way that feels natural and effective. Offices create opportunities to connect naturally but they don&rsquo;t often occur within a remote working environment, and an optional Friday virtual happy hour isn&rsquo;t enough to foster a strong <a href="https://runningremote.com/?utm_source=qatalog">remote team culture</a>. Remote culture is not simply about social bonding but touches upon all of the elements that create a strong culture, from values to trust.&nbsp;
<h2>Challenges of remote work team culture&nbsp;</h2>
Data suggests that remote workers suffer from a sense of isolation, so it is essential that opportunities are created for team members to connect, feel supported and be part of a vibrant team. Team culture is one of the core appeals that draws high-quality talent to organisations and creates an environment that promotes well-being as well as excellent work from employees.&nbsp;
The challenges of building remote culture, are of course the lack of face-of-face communication, lack of belonging, as well as different time zones and cultures. Team rituals can be weaved into workdays and weeks, bringing people in distributed teams together in fun and innate ways. At the same time, rituals that maintain company culture go beyond just fun games, quizzes, and happy hours. They reinforce values that lay at the core of the company's unique DNA and make employees feel more authentic and appreciated.
<h3>How rituals help remote teams&nbsp;</h3>
Rituals build team camaraderie and culture and create the &ldquo;human element&rdquo; that many remote workers long for. It&rsquo;s helpful to remember, especially if working across various cultures, that a broad approach providing different forms of connection is beneficial as people need different things at different times to feel connected. Everyone has their preferred medium where they feel the most at home, and it&rsquo;s important to take this into account.
Ritual is a repetitive action built into our routine, something that we are used to and expect. That&rsquo;s why it&rsquo;s so powerful for maintaining social connections and enhancing psychological safety.
A muti-ritual approach tends to work best, with remote organisations confirming that facilitating multiple rituals engage many people in different ways, allowing them the opportunity to connect in ways that feel most natural to them.&nbsp;
<h3>Recommend rituals for creating remote team culture</h3>
Creating specific channels for certain topics
A fun and easy way to start building remote team culture is to create specific &lsquo;social-only&rsquo; channels or threads in slack or your preferred communications tool. Ask team members to share a photo from their weekend, home office spaces, dinner or lunch ideas, or the books, podcasts or tv series they are currently engaging with.&nbsp;
Social discussion threads and channels can be created for topics such as travel, parenting, food, articles to read, and more. Conversations tend to flow when a space has been created and someone starts the thread by contributing. Photos in particular are a great way to bring another element into the written online remote world, offering a glimpse into colleagues' lives, in and out of their remote work setting, helping people connect visually, which is often a missing link with remote teams.&nbsp;
Add extra time for socialising before or after meetings&nbsp;
Connecting with colleagues is generally a highlight of the workday, and there can be a misconception that every minute of work time in a remote team needs to be productively work-output focused. In an office environment, there are times during the day for coffee and tea and casual conversations to talk, which doesn&rsquo;t tend to happen in remote working environments.&nbsp;
Adding on extra time before or after meetings for casual conversations, in both 1:1 and team meetings, provides a clear opportunity to connect in an unstructured way that isn&rsquo;t simply agenda related. It&rsquo;s a simple and effective way to connect with colleagues which are likely to become a weekly highlight.&nbsp;
Co-working streaming sessions&nbsp;
Co-working sessions are an effortless way to allow for small-talk conversations while working in ways that colleagues would usually connect if in person, fostering a virtual team environment of joint working. Using your technology of choice, colleagues simply sign in, with or without video, and can tap in and out of conversion during the streaming session. It&rsquo;s also an excellent way to allow for collaboration, brainstorming and discussing opportunities as teams work either individually or together on projects during streaming.&nbsp;
Some remote teams have a rolling ongoing streaming session people can join and leave throughout the day, and others set aside time blocks of 1 hour for smaller groups to connect. Playlists can be created and shared, creating a real-time connection that&rsquo;s natural, effortless and high-energy.&nbsp;
Virtual coffees and lunches&nbsp;
While Friday &lsquo;happy hours&rsquo; tend to be a common ritual among remote teams, virtual coffees and lunches can be overlooked. In office environments, coffees and lunches tend to be the most common way that colleagues connect on a personal level. Virtual coffees can be scheduled into the calendar every morning at the start of the work day. They allow for informal conversation as well as discussing any work-related questions or topics in an easy way, rather than sending emails, messages or scheduling calls.&nbsp;
Remote teams have found a weekly virtual team lunch to be a fun way to chat similar to in-person connections. Better yet, team leaders could order and have lunch delivered to colleagues for this weekly ritual.&nbsp;
Challenges and quizzes&nbsp;
People enjoy different ways of connecting, and many are driven by challenges and quizzes to get competitive energy going. Quiz topics can be run similar to &lsquo;pub&rsquo; quizzes, with team members taking a turn creating a topic and questions and facilitating the online event live via video. There are also platforms that are created specifically for quizzes, which are both challenging and entertaining. Challenges are fun and easy ways to connect teams and can be broad, from fitness challenges to reading, meditating or cooking. A weekly or monthly challenge could be shared in Slack, with daily updates and check-ins from participants.&nbsp;
&lsquo;Ask a Boss&rsquo; question sessions&nbsp;
Rituals are not simply team building activities, as company culture is based upon values, involving people in the decision-making process, connection with the organisation, and building trust. While it&rsquo;s important to create informal social opportunities to connect, it&rsquo;s also equally pivotal to develop more formal ones that are directly &lsquo;work related&rsquo;. Allow for opportunities where team members can ask questions and share feedback, such as scheduled meetings where people can speak directly with leadership and &lsquo;Ask a Boss&rsquo; anything that&rsquo;s important to them and the workplace.&nbsp;
Charity work together&nbsp;
Reinforce company values by providing social responsibility initiatives, such as charity work or sustainability challenges. Colleagues can pick a social cause to contribute to, and fundraise together, with running challenges, morning-tea fundraisers with friends, or online crowd-funding. Locally, employees could be offered a day to volunteer with a local organization, providing an in-person connection opportunity, and sharing photos and their experiences back with the team.&nbsp;
Experiment and create rituals that work for you
The core takeaway from team leaders is that the connection element is hugely important, but it must be intentionally created. Remote organisations that have had the most success have cultivated various rituals for different personality types. Rituals tend to work best with both mandatory and optional sessions and balance both informal and formal connections.&nbsp;
Many colleagues will have their own great ideas for connection and are often open and willing to be involved in creating a connection as much as leadership is. Ask for your team's input with a brainstorming session or a simple open question, and see what rituals excite and inspire others. With intention and experimentation, remote organizations will find their unique groove, and a vibrant culture can be created.&nbsp;
Learn more&nbsp;
If you are interested in learning more practices that will reinforce your company&rsquo;s remote or hybrid work culture, join the world&rsquo;s largest remote work conference and community, Running Remote. As remote environments have become the new norm, many leaders are facing the challenge of redefining their company&rsquo;s culture in these new conditions. Running Remote brings together world leaders in remote and hybrid work that will discuss successful employee onboarding, async communication, engaging immersive experiences for your employees, and much more.

An 8 step guide on how to set company rituals and overcome the culture challenges of remote work.

Rituals for building remote team culture

A guest post written by the team at Running Remote on how to overcome the culture challenges of remote work and create shared values and trust through company rituals.

The benefits have changed, the working hours have changed, and our attitudes toward work have changed. Now, instead of culture being an ask, it&rsquo;s a necessity. <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/build-a-people-first-working-culture/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Adding flexibility</a> to that culture is part of the language.&nbsp;
We&rsquo;ve entered a new era of empowered knowledge workers who are willing to fight for the working model they prefer and aren&rsquo;t afraid to go somewhere else to find it.
We&rsquo;ve entered the era of the empowered employee. If you want to hold onto your best talent, you should already be thinking about how to adapt the way you work according to your employees&rsquo; post-pandemic expectations.
In this post, we&rsquo;re going over the &ldquo;Great Resignation,&rdquo; and how <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/autonomy-and-employee-engagement/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">employee autonomy</a> can be an asset to your organization. We&rsquo;ll also discuss the role of successful companies in this new era. Let&rsquo;s get started.&nbsp;
<h2>The &ldquo;Great resignation&rdquo;</h2>
Anthony Klotz, an associate professor of management at Texas A&amp;M University&rsquo;s Mays Business School, coined the term &ldquo;<a href="https://www.theversemedia.com/articles/anthony-klotz-defining-the-great-resignation">Great resignation</a>&rdquo; in May of 2021.
Klotz defines the &ldquo;Great resignation&rdquo; as a mass exodus of employees from their current positions. After high rates of resignation when the economy was strong throughout 2018 and 2019 with a dip in 2020, he predicted that these numbers would spike as soon as a vaccine became available. He was correct.&nbsp;
The pandemic was a time of reflection for many. Employees are taking a hard look at <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-to-create-role-clarity-within-your-hybrid-team/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">what their job requires</a>, how it aligns with their life goals, and what they need from their employer. Employees whose needs aren&rsquo;t met within their current positions are empowered to find work elsewhere -- hence the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/employee-burnout/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">upward trend in resignations.</a>&nbsp;
<h3>Here&rsquo;s a bit of what Klotz told the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210721-why-worker-loyalty-is-at-a-breaking-point">BBC</a>:&nbsp;</h3>
&ldquo;Honestly, I can hardly recall a time when the job market was so much in the employee&rsquo;s favor and that&rsquo;s definitely a good thing. Wages have to go up. Companies have to adapt. But it may well be a slow period of experimentation.&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;
After seeing how flexible companies can be while still exceeding profit margins, many employees are no longer willing to sacrifice on work-life balance.&nbsp;
2020 brought almost 6 million fewer resignations than 2019. So whether employees were sticking it out to see what happened, looking for security in an uncertain time, or happy with their jobs, the mass exodus is being felt across industries.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/JMLU4TonTNSZhPSlTKyn" alt="undefined" width="691" height="340" />
<h2>Empowering employees with autonomy</h2>
According to a recent <a href="https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/workforce-of-the-future/library/workforce-pulse-survey.html">PwC survey</a>, more and more employees seek flexibility as compensation for their work, in addition to a salary. Giving employees autonomy over their work schedule shows that leadership cares about an employee&rsquo;s life outside of work. <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/putting-trust-back-into-teamwork/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">It showcases a trust</a> that can inspire workers to get the job done.&nbsp;
Employee engagement is more critical to your organization&rsquo;s success than you might think:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Companies with high employee engagement are <a href="https://blog.smarp.com/what-is-the-true-cost-of-poor-employee-communication">22% more profitable</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Employee engagement can reduce absenteeism by <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx">41%</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Low employee engagement costs companies <a href="https://www.conference-board.org/topics/dna-of-engagement">$450-500 billion every yea</a>r</li>
</ul>
When you <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/build-a-people-first-working-culture/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">trust your employees</a> to get their work done in a way that fits their lifestyle, you&rsquo;ll experience a boost in employee engagement and <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424215501.htm">job satisfaction</a> across your workforce. In fact, <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx">85% of all employees</a> are not engaged in the workplace, and <a href="https://www.effectory.com/knowledge/hr-analytics-autonomy-and-employee-engagement/#:~:text=Autonomy%20is%20essential%20for%20employee%20engagement&amp;text=Governing%20their%20own%20roles%20and,they%20can%20improve%20their%20performance.">79%</a> of autonomous employees are engaged.
You won&rsquo;t lose out on productivity, either -- the US workforce collectively reported a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/autonomy-and-employee-engagement/">5%</a> increase in productivity since shifting toward autonomy and asynchronous work.&nbsp;
<h2>A lasting culture of empowered employees&nbsp;</h2>
We will be feeling the impact of the &ldquo;Great resignation&rdquo; for some time. While the pandemic brought pain to so many, a new generation of empowered employees might just be the silver lining.&nbsp;
Employees are learning to take control of their life. In the past, they were willing to remain stuck in a job that didn&rsquo;t bring happiness or fit their lifestyle. After a year of getting uncomfortably familiar with all we have to lose, employees aren&rsquo;t willing to sacrifice their well-being or happiness for comfort and security.&nbsp;
Instead, they&rsquo;ll risk their comfort by seeking autonomy at a company that supports their individual needs -- and they will provide that company with good work in return.&nbsp;
Klotz ended his BBC interview by saying, &ldquo;as an organization, you don&rsquo;t just want to capture people&rsquo;s bodies, but you want to capture their hearts too. And it&rsquo;s that bit that&rsquo;s going to prove tough.&rdquo;

We go over the great resignation and the era of empowered employees working where their balance best suits their lifestyle.

Welcome to the era of the empowered employee | Qatalog

After seeing how flexible companies can be while still exceeding profit margins, many employees are no longer willing to sacrifice work-life balance.

Welcome to the era of the empowered employee

I once worked at a company that had an actual water cooler. One of those old-school ones with the tank on top. Ironically it was the go-to spot for all kinds of catching up. Throughout the day, I would see colleagues gathering there to fill their water bottles while simultaneously keeping up the chit-chat.
More than just information sharing, having a specific social location allowed us to mingle with colleagues, build relationships, and form bonds that often lasted beyond the office walls.&nbsp;
Most of all, the water cooler was a place where I was welcomed and felt like I belonged.&nbsp;
<h2>What is belonging?&nbsp;</h2>
&hellip;and what does it look like in today&rsquo;s working world?&nbsp;
The sense of security that we get from camaraderie is what makes trust, flexibility, and focus possible each day, and is created through consistent, positive interactions.&nbsp;
Belonging in a digital world means that we are thoughtful about the ways we communicate and practice empathy that allows us to fill in gaps. Sharing a cubicle has never been the cause of true connection, but oftentimes is the reason why people say belonging in remote or hybrid working models is more challenging.&nbsp;
Belonging is measured through connection, value, and shared goals. All of which can only be achieved through group work. If an individual team member is the only one focused on establishing company culture and bringing that sense of belonging, you&rsquo;ll never see an impact across the organization.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/4eMlFA5AQgKmVUY2taBI" alt="undefined" width="691" height="340" />
<h2>How to build belonging within your org</h2>
<h3>1. Define your virtual culture</h3>
Culture is no longer beer gardens or ping pong tables. True organizational culture is defined by the unique experience that employees, clients, and vendors will have when interacting with your organization, inside or outside of your office. As a team, work together to define and record the values, priorities, language, customs, and benefits that set your group apart.&nbsp;
It is not enough to simply replicate in-office culture in a virtual environment. The world of work has changed and culture is no longer about how cool it is that a company has a nap room. The core of every company culture should be a shared objective.&nbsp;
Here are some other ways to virtually weave culture into your team&rsquo;s efforts to drive feelings of belonging:
<h3>2. Work for a common cause&nbsp;</h3>
As a team, review your organization&rsquo;s purpose, mission, and vision statements. Talk about how your team&rsquo;s goals contribute to these statements and use a work hub like Qatalog to link <a href="https://qatalog.com/goals/">goals</a> with the right people, projects, and teams.
<h3>3. Start the conversation</h3>
<a href="https://language.work/study/">32%</a> of those surveyed said their company had never organized <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/keeping-virtual-teams-connected/">connection-building activities</a> for their employees. Move beyond the pass&eacute; virtual happy hour and try trivia nights which build better genuine connections.
<h3>4. Recognition and appreciation</h3>
Get everyone involved with communal celebrations. For birthdays, have teammates share a fun memory of the celebrant. <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/redistribution-of-credit/">For job-well-done awards</a>, gather peer-to-peer nominations to encourage support of each other.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/wFxIcWeTRU6GXJbA59Qq" alt="undefined" width="691" height="340" />
Related reading: <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/redistribution-of-credit/" style="background-color: #eccafa;">What redistribution of credit means for corporate culture</a>
<h2>Bringing trust into the office</h2>
How can you trust someone you&rsquo;ve never met? Well, most of us do it every day with the people we spend the most time with - our coworkers. But <a href="https://language.work/study/">41%</a> of employees said they find it harder to trust coworkers they have never interacted with socially. Trust is built on socialization, which is why you have to include it in your company culture.
The new way of work is shifting to a people-first workplace that is rooted in trust, flexibility, and focus. These three areas all level up to belonging. This sense of belonging takes on new meaning with distributed workers. Team members need to feel just as valued, if not more so, to defend against feelings of disconnection and isolation.&nbsp;
Read more &rarr; <a href="https://language.work/" style="background-color: #eccafa;">Language.work</a>

The new way of work is shifting to a people-first workplace that is rooted in trust, flexibility, and focus. These three areas all level up to belonging.

The importance of belonging at work | Qatalog Blog

Feeling like you belong is important, even at work

This interview first appeared on <a href="https://webrazzi.com/2022/01/21/qatalog-ekrem-elmas-turkiye-den-yurt-disina-calismak" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Webrazzi,</a> the the leading Turkish technology publication.&nbsp;
Ekrem is the Head of Design at Qatalog and, like many of the team, he works remotely. We sat down with him to talk about why he joined Qatalog, his experience working as part a distributed team, and what the rise in remote working means for hiring and the Turkish economy.
How did you come to join Qatalog?
I joined Qatalog in early 2021 after a relatively short series of meetings with our founder and CEO, Tariq Rauf. Based in Izmir, Turkey, I was working on a productivity tool at the time, which helped teams track their goals, and it had gotten onto Qatalog&rsquo;s radar. After getting to know each other better, we realised that we shared the same passion for making work better, and I became a member of the Qatalog team. I've always had a desire to solve this problem, so being part of a team that's built around this mission is awesome.
Can you tell us a bit about what it&rsquo;s like to work in a distributed team at Qatalog?
It's really fun. I spend every day connecting daily with brilliantly talented engineers and designers from various backgrounds and cultures, all working together to solve a common problem, which is inspiring. People log on from around the world &ndash; from Squamish on the West Coast of Canada through to Boston and London, as well as here in Turkey of course. &nbsp;Remote work has its own challenges for sure, but the product we are building is designed to make remote work radically better in the first place. If you can handle the balance of sync and async working like we do, you can really stay in your zone and get aligned with the rest of the organization at the same time.
Do you think hiring is different for remote first organisations and individuals?
The hiring process has definitely changed, as everyone has an online presence now. When used deliberately, this means&nbsp; someone can clearly tell who you are, what you are doing, and where you are heading, without speaking a word. For example, one of our talented engineers, Tobias, made a flexible icon family called <a href="https://phosphoricons.com/">Phosphor</a> for interfaces, diagrams, presentations. It clearly showed that he really cared about design and those are the type of people you want to hire. That&rsquo;s why it can be a really powerful tool for both companies and individuals to inform their decision making process. The rest is just looking for overlap in the intentions.
As for onboarding, automating processes is always a great idea and I'm a huge fan of Qatalog&rsquo;s workflows feature that helps people onboard themselves and keep track of progress.
In your experience, what are some of the challenges of remote work?
Making async work actually work! This requires letting individuals or teams work at their own pace, towards their own goals, with their own tools, but without creating&nbsp; silos of information. At Qatalog, we are working to solve exactly this problem by building a work hub that powers transparency across work streams and helps people easily navigate the virtual workspace. When you have all three, it's bliss, but it does require conscious thought to get it right.
We actually partnered with Cornell University to explore the challenges with remote work. We discovered that the uncontrolled adoption of digital tools is killing productivity in a remote setting, with employees wasting an hour every day trying to find information hidden within apps, 6 in 10 of people say it&rsquo;s hard to know what colleagues are doing, and 43% say they spend too much time switching between different work apps like Slack and Zoom. You can find out more about this at language.work.
Lots more people in Turkey are now working remotely for global companies. What&rsquo;s your take on this trend?
It's been great to see this transformation and I think the talent pool in Turkey has now overcome the initial barriers of old stereotypes and issues around trust. When I first started working remotely seven years ago, maybe 1 in 10 people that work in tech were working remotely for global companies. But now it's more like 7 or 8. It's a big beautiful world and there are an infinite number of opportunities and problems to solve.
Of course, there are also certain financial benefits that come with remote work, because of the ever-changing landscape of the Turkish economy and the exchange rate. But I am very positive about the shift to remote work. I firmly believe the know-how gained by individuals working for global companies/startups and the competition for talent it creates will have huge benefits for Turkey in the long run. Local employers are now competing with world's best companies for local talent, which forces them to come up with better offers/perks or to change their mindset to provide something as good.
Work is changing for the better, and this change has been created by competition, rather than simply waiting for it to happen.
&nbsp;What&rsquo;d be your advice to candidates who are applying to work in a global company?
We&rsquo;ve been growing quickly since I joined, which means I get to do lots of interviews.&nbsp;This probably applies to most roles, but the best advice I can give to candidates is to clearly articulate what motivates you, the work you&rsquo;re most proud of, and what you want to do next. It&rsquo;s a simple but very powerful tool and will typically give the person hiring you most of what they need to make a decision. If there is an overlap between your intentions and the company&rsquo;s, it&rsquo;s pretty likely that you&rsquo;ll get an offer.
For global companies operating remotely, it&rsquo;s also really important to look beyond your own environment and pay attention to what&rsquo;s happening elsewhere in the world. At Qatalog, for example, we have 15 different nationalities, speaking 25 languages, working across eight countries. I&rsquo;ve found it is often much easier to quickly build connections with team members when you have a sense of the different issues they might be thinking about. You don&rsquo;t have to be an expert, clearly, but showing an interest can make all the difference.&nbsp;
What do you think are the opportunities in design globally?
Design has become a huge industry of its own, with many different subcategories that fall under the &lsquo;design&rsquo;. This includes visual, product, UX, motion, and design systems, to name a few. Each of these goes deep and has lots of different opportunities within it. In my view, the biggest opportunity is solving business problems by making the end-user&rsquo;s life easier, no matter how you do it, because that instantly creates competitive advantage and amplifies the value you can deliver.
That&rsquo;s why design is now recognised as being critical to the success of all sorts of businesses, with more companies investing in and building better design teams and adopting a &ldquo;design driven&rdquo; approach. Clearly, not everyone has the resources for professional design as we know it. In those instances, a no-code-like approach that empowers individuals or organisations to exercise &ldquo;good design&rdquo; on a fundamental level might be a good solution.

This interview first appeared on Webrazzi, the the leading Turkish technology publication. Ekrem is the Head of Design at Qatalog and, like

Meet Ekrem Elmas, our Design Lead

Design Lead, Ekrem Elmas, talks about why he joined Qatalog, working in a distributed team, and why design offers so many opportunities.

Meet Qatalog's Product Design Lead, Ekrem Elmas

The working world is beginning to realize that our <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/slack-remote-working-broken" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">reliance on instant messaging</a> isn&rsquo;t contributing to our productivity. So now, the race is on to find solutions that work for getting work done. However, implementing these solutions company-wide comes with an essay-long list of challenges. Transitioning from one tool that promised connectivity to another is difficult. And it&rsquo;s tough to be hopeful about a new tool when the first one never did what it promised to begin with.&nbsp;
Some businesses have managed a hybrid transition with only a few scrapes along the way. But remote and hybrid work also have a great way of illuminating bad leadership, shotty processes, and flimsy culture.&nbsp;
One of the defining differences between the companies that have succeeded in building a modern working model and those that haven&rsquo;t is their degree of digital dexterity.&nbsp;
Most companies aren&rsquo;t ready to respond to disruptions that call for meaningful digital change. One Capgemini <a href="https://www.capgemini.com/fi-en/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2018/07/Digital-Mastery-DTI-report_20180704_web-11.pdf" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">report</a> shows that less than half of organizations feel they have the right digital capabilities to see through successful transformations, a finding further enhanced by <a href="https://www.people-doc.com/blog/digital-dexterity-what-it-is-why-its-important-and-hrs-role-in-it#:~:text=Gartner's%20research%20shows%20that%20only,employees%20should%20be%20a%20priority." rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Gartner&rsquo;s</a> claim that only 9% of the overall workforce demonstrates strong digital dexterity.&nbsp;
But if the pandemic has proven one thing for companies, it&rsquo;s that they must be ready to reorganize and pivot in response to market challenges as well as opportunities. The more digitally dexterous your organization is, the better prepared the workforce will be in facing a future where rapid adaptation to digital change is the norm and not the exception.
<h2>What is digital dexterity?</h2>
A digitally dexterous organization is alert to emerging technologies and digital solutions. They are agile, ready to shift strategy, and can achieve business outcomes in rapidly changing market conditions using these new technologies.
Now, that definition&rsquo;s a little on the tech-heavy side. Here&rsquo;s another one:
Digital dexterity is not a competency in itself, then, but rather, as <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3084618/defining-digital-dexterity-the-core-workforce-resource-f">Gartner</a> has it: &ldquo;A set of beliefs, mindsets, and behaviors that help ... deliver faster and more valuable outcomes from digital initiatives.&rdquo;
What are the key skills people should have for an organization to be digitally adaptive? The essential quality of digitally dexterous <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/becoming-a-world-class-knowledge-worker/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">employees</a> is that they are adaptive. Being able to use, think about, and organize digital technologies in innovative and advantageous ways is great &mdash; but a genuinely adaptive employee is the one who adopts these solutions into their everyday routine.
<h2>How to measure digital dexterity of a company</h2>
According to <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-06-20-gartner-says-too-few-organizations-have-the-digital-dexterity-to-adopt-new-ways-of-work-solutions" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Gartner,</a> there are six indexes that suggest a company has digital dexterity.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Consumerization &ndash; constantly changing work requiring judgment calls, what we would call a pivot.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Team-based collaboration &ndash; effortless coordination that allows for routine collaboration.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Nonroutine work &ndash; spending time on personal and professional growth. This could look like learning a new skill or tool, like how to pull data from different platforms, or adopting new technology to solve a specific problem that comes up in your daily work.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Nondirected social engagement &ndash; putting effort into trusting and getting to know your team. Social engagement greatly impacts team collaboration, as well.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Tech positive &ndash; a desire to solve problems with new technology, being willing to accept the changes a new tool brings to the organization.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Work anywhere &ndash; The ability to work, well, anywhere.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
For employees, the Griffith University Library created <a href="https://griffithunilibrary.github.io/digital-dexterity/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">a self-assessment tool</a> to analyze your skills with different aspects of digital dexterity and point you towards resources to learn more about what you need to improve upon.&nbsp;
<h2>How to develop digital dexterity in your organization</h2>
So how can an organization make itself more digitally dextrous today? Here are five steps that are essential to prioritize:&nbsp;
<h3>1. Bring autonomy into your teams</h3>
Autonomy is a contributing factor to employees' work engagement and satisfaction. But in the distributed-work context, autonomy can also result in disengagement if workers are consistently left to their own devices.&nbsp;&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s crucial to encourage the freedom to be creative in any digital dexterity program through supported and structured opportunities. In other words, employees should have the freedom to explore and experiment while simultaneously being supported.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s this process of &ldquo;collaborative autonomy&rdquo; that can help define a company&rsquo;s collective vision. But it also enables employees to understand both their individual and connected role in contributing to that vision. And because teams are aligned through shared goals and are <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/limited-visibility-at-work/">aware of what they need to do and what others&rsquo; roles are too</a>, they can deliver business value at a brisker pace.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Read more: <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/autonomy-and-employee-engagement/" rel="follow noopener" style="background-color: #eccafa;">Autonomy is the key to employee engagement</a>
<h3>2. Diversity as a driver</h3>
Cross-pollination of teams from different areas, experience, function, and geography is crucial in constantly innovating new perspectives, filling in skills gaps, and updating skills.&nbsp;
Collaborating across teams in this way is also a key factor for quick and informed decision-making.
But diversity needs to be in all areas of the organization, from teams to onboarding support and learning tools.
In this latter area, it&rsquo;s important to keep in mind that employees will differ in how they like learning and receiving information. Some may prefer slide-shares or videos, while others may process details better when verbally led through them <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurelfarrer/2020/12/10/the-art-of-asynchronous-optimizing-efficiency-in-remote-teams/?sh=5de1bd7c747c" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">step-by-step</a>.&nbsp;
Ensuring that the company's digital adoption tools are in all formats is a not-to-be-forgotten part of the diversity process.
<h3>3. Failure is key</h3>
Companies that put all the focus on success are missing the learning opportunities of failure.&nbsp;
In environments where teams from different areas and experience levels regularly share information, those encouraged to communicate past mistakes and missteps to look for solution-based alternatives are quicker to adapt and innovate effective course corrections.&nbsp;
Examining failure helps organizations get real about existing digital practices and processes. But it also encourages the kind of confident, creative, and lateral thinking needed in the development of digital dexterity.&nbsp;
<h3>4. Shock and awe</h3>
Digital dexterity cannot be aced in the classroom. The best way for employees to understand how digital initiatives work across a company is through hands-on experience.&nbsp;
<a href="https://blog.dropbox.com/topics/work-culture/the-future-of-wfh--owning-what-we-don-t-know0">Dropbox</a> said it best:
"Work from home is not merely office work transposed to a new location. It&rsquo;s a new skill &mdash; a new human technology &mdash; that we&rsquo;re learning in fits and starts. Like all technologies, first we emulate what came before."&nbsp;
The forced shift to work is perhaps the best example of your company showcasing its digital dexterity. Some companies adapted better than others, likely because of existing remote workers or technologies they had already adopted. Others had to adopt new technologies at the speed of light to keep up. For all of us, it was a shock and forced entire companies to think and act on their feet.&nbsp;
Exposing workers to the shock and awe of digital initiatives used in different areas of the organization encourages them to understand how different parts of the business connect and interact.&nbsp;&nbsp;
The more effortless this exposure is, the more likely employees are to engage with information and expertise across the organization. Doing so then enables them to develop key competencies needed for digital dexterity such as adaptability and willingness to learn. Another related spill-over is that by accruing accurate data and contacts, employees begin building resilience to risk, uncertainty, and setbacks &mdash; all valuable assets in today&rsquo;s climate.&nbsp;
<h3>5. Take it to the top</h3>
Of course, employees are not the only key stakeholders in a company&rsquo;s digital dexterity program. Ensuring senior managers understand the importance of digital dexterity and can scale in this area is vital.&nbsp;
To that end, they must lead by example, modeling digital dexterous behavior such as collaborative interaction and adaptability, and encouraging digitally-friendly workplace designs and processes.&nbsp;
That also means C-suite staff will need support in the form of resources, tools, and training.&nbsp;
Yet this kind of investment in an organization&rsquo;s leadership has a powerful drip-down effect on the company. For not only will digitally dexterous senior staff be more inclined to advocate for the processes and operations needed to drive digital transformations, but Gartner finds that while only 16% of leaders are classed with high digital dexterity, employees of these leaders are 2.4 times more likely to share the same qualities.
<h2>Why digital dexterity matters</h2>
Digitally dexterous employees tend to use technology as a tool for competitive advantage. They look for solutions that are customer-centric and are in-step with <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/workplace-search-tools-vs-work-hub/" rel="follow">advancing digital technologies.</a>&nbsp;
Research shows companies that invest significantly in technology and adapt to fast-changing trends typically outperform competitors in critical areas such as innovation and customer satisfaction. However, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/putting-trust-back-into-teamwork/">according to new research from Qatalog</a>, 34% say their employer has either not invested, or has not adequately invested, in the tools and policies needed to support remote or flexible work.&nbsp;
On the flip side, organizations that rely on legacy systems or old ways of working tend to find themselves falling behind to such an extent that their focus is fixed on catching up instead of charging onwards.&nbsp;
But investing in technology is only a good idea if employees are properly prepared and willing to adopt new digital practices. If they&rsquo;re not, organizations are wasting their investment as well as the opportunity to help digital dexterity thrive.&nbsp;&nbsp;
For example, the <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/zoom-microsoft-cloud-usage-are-rocketing-during-coronavirus-pandemic-new-data-show-2020-03-30">scale and speed</a> with which digital collaboration tools were deployed during the COVID-19 crisis didn&rsquo;t automatically align with an equally high success rate in using these tools. Rather, companies&rsquo; mad dash to download as much <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-to-become-a-fully-remote-high-performance-team/" rel="follow">remote-work</a> tech as possible points to the fact that they were caught off-guard with the pandemic&rsquo;s challenges.&nbsp;
This resulted not just in an uneven adoption of remote-work technologies, but inefficient use of them, too. For many employees working from home for the first time, the pressure to adapt quickly to new technology came without the <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/de/Documents/human-capital/Remote-Collaboration-COVID-19.pdf">supportive infrastructure</a> to ensure their continuing well-being and productivity.&nbsp;
But it&rsquo;s that infrastructure, which includes strategic and technical support, open communication across traditional boundaries, and nurturing greater autonomy alongside team-based ways of working, that&rsquo;s at the core of digital dexterity.&nbsp;
Organizations that fostered those traits within 2020&rsquo;s remote and distributed workplace shift most effectively managed the sudden shift to work-from-home operating models. They&rsquo;re also the businesses best placed to optimize <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/jim-kalbach-mural-interview/">remote work as a strategic model in 2021</a>. Why? Because they&rsquo;ve already cultivated the conditions needed to produce organized, agile, and advantageous digital transformations.
<h2>The future of successful companies is digital dexterity</h2>
Digital dexterity has been and will continue to be the measurement that distinguishes successful businesses from those that fail. It&rsquo;s not enough anymore for companies to be future-ready. The future&rsquo;s already here. Thousands of teams trust Qatalog to connect and coordinate work across every part of their business. Find out more by <a href="https://qatalog.com/demo/" rel="follow">booking a call with our Customer team</a>.

Digital dexterity means being adaptable to new and upcoming technologies. Here are five ways to prioritize digital dexterity in your org.

What is digital dexterity? | Qatalog blog

Digital dexterity has been and will continue to be the measurement that distinguishes successful businesses from those that fail.

What is digital dexterity and why does it matter?

Are you ready to hear about a corporate culture no-brainer that <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/keeping-virtual-teams-connected/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">transforms team dynamics?</a>
The number one reason <a href="https://www.15five.com/blog/top-10-reasons-employees-leave-jobs-infographic/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">employees leave their jobs</a> is due to dissatisfaction with their bosses. And the number one reason employees are <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/here-s-no-1-reason-why-employees-quit-their-jobs-ncna1020031" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">dissatisfied with their bosses</a> is due to lack of recognition. Last but not least, the number one reason employees feel a <a href="https://www.bamboohr.com/blog/bad-boss-index-the-worst-boss-behaviors-according-to-employees-infographic/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">lack of recognition</a> is due to their bosses getting the credit for their own contributions.
It stands to reason then, that we could plug some massive <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-is-employee-experience/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">holes in employee retention</a> and satisfaction by simply giving credit where credit&rsquo;s due. Pleasant as that sounds, it&rsquo;s an extremely subjective and nearly unenforceable policy. No, we need something fairer, more contagious, and <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/company-culture-and-documentation-culture/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">easier to document</a>.
It&rsquo;s called Redistribution of Credit, and it&rsquo;s fueled by a simple principle that reminds all employees to give more than they take.
One of society&rsquo;s great problems &mdash; and not just in business &mdash; is the tendency towards <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2019/01/28/dont-be-a-hero-a-new-take-on-teamwork/?sh=ef3444239e1a" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">hero worship</a>. We gravitate toward the idea that one person must be the focal point of any success, especially if that person is already seen as successful. These people accumulate the wealth of credit, and in doing so, gain <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/workload-management-snowball-and-the-meteor/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">outsized influence over the organization</a> and its priorities.
To put it another way: your boss may not be actively stealing credit&hellip; we just tend to foist it upon them and let it pile up. The flipside, though, is just as counterproductive: the reason we find ourselves rummaging through piles of resumes to find those junior and mid-level unicorns is that they don&rsquo;t get credit (in media), or are afraid to take credit (in resumes) for their achievements. Across the board, it&rsquo;s a misalignment of influence vs. value.
<h2>How redistribution of credit works</h2>
Redistribution of credit is a habit we develop.&nbsp;
This is what it looks like: when you&rsquo;re being credited for any performance or achievement, redirect that praise by publicly crediting the most-deserving teammate you can think of who isn&rsquo;t you. When that person has the credit bestowed on them, they must seek out another deserving teammate.
The RoC process goes on like this until the recognition subsides, or the last teammate to receive praise sees no reason to pass it on. The rub here is that being the one holding onto the credit in a &ldquo;give more than you take&rdquo; culture is actually a bit embarrassing and unbecoming because everyone else expects that any significant amount of credit will keep moving down through all of its contributors.
<h2>What redistribution of credit does for culture</h2>
Besides reducing turnover and burnout, Redistribution Of Credit typically delivers a few other desirable outcomes &mdash; many of which are absolutely in the boss&rsquo; best interest:
<ol>
<li> Reduces the silo syndrome. As more employees <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-could-be-too-much-of-a-team-player-1532352464" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">take on cross-functional responsibilities</a>, it only makes sense to have a model for recognition that ensures efficiency and harmony.</li>
<li> Improves internal motivation. Praise nurtures pride in ownership, which in turn fuels an employee&rsquo;s internal sense of accountability. Arguably, the mental model here is to give your people so much credit that they feel guilty about it</li>
<li> Raises the bar for competitors. Employees who rarely get their due credit are more readily influenced by external praise; this could be something as simple as hearing from a client or vendor that &ldquo;we could really use someone with your skills.&rdquo; The best way to protect your people from being poached is to make sure they know where they&rsquo;re valued.</li>
<li> Exposes underdeveloped leadership. When someone isn&rsquo;t passing along credit in a &ldquo;give more than you take&rdquo; culture, it shows &mdash; and it&rsquo;s not pretty. What makes it even more blatant is the ease with which <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/company-culture-and-documentation-culture/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">documentation culture</a> can enable other employees to circumvent a selfish manager in order to properly praise the subordinates. When paired with 360&deg; reviews, unfit supervisors are quickly exposed here.</li>
<li> Makes management more accessible. Hero managers are increasingly pass&eacute;, thankfully. Part of being a great facilitating leader comes in breaking down the glass ceilings in hierarchical organizations, and RoC embodies this discipline by letting positive messages <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/building-a-productive-product-team/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">mingle among teammates of all seniority levels</a>.</li>
</ol>
Unsurprisingly, what makes Redistribution of Credit relevant now more than ever is the shift towards digital working environments and <a href="https://qatalog.com" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">work hubs</a>. Spontaneous one-on-one praise, or credit redirected within a closed meeting, is noble in its intent but limited in its amplitude. To form cultural habits, you need RoC to resonate throughout the org. You need others to have an opportunity to pile on and participate. You need the breadcrumbs of credit to live on for posterity. Redistribution of Credit has been a best practice for decades, but the modern distributed workforce is where it flourishes.

Redistributing credit where it belongs improves retention, exposes underdeveloped leadership, and promotes true transparency.

Redistribution of credit | Qatalog blog

Read up on one of the easiest, most contagious, and most rewarding habits in healthy corporate culture — and why it shines in the new age of work hubs.

Give more than you take: what redistribution of credit means for corporate culture

I&rsquo;ve run operations at Qatalog for two years now and have seen it grow from a few people huddled around a shared office space to over 35 people across 9 countries. In the midst of that growth, I&rsquo;ve had a lot of ideas about how to keep distributed and virtual teams connected and centered around a culture that supports them.&nbsp;
There are a few things that make distributed teams a complicated thing to connect. Firstly, depending on where your company is based &mdash; there are the timezones. It&rsquo;s always somebody&rsquo;s morning, which is lunchtime in another country, and early dinner somewhere else.&nbsp;
Secondly, providers. It&rsquo;s great to send a package home for the team to do an activity together. However, providers are different in different countries, and despite all the planning in the world,&nbsp; you never know if they will arrive on time (or at all!).
Thirdly, finding the balance of asynchronous and synchronous events. During lockdowns and almost all of 2020, we spent a lot of time online and in zoom calls. Zoom is great for seeing everyone on one screen. However, too much time on video calls can be exhausting.
I compare great employee programming with having happy customers. If you want to find out what works for them, you talk to them. You get to know what they expect and want out of company culture. Here are five ways to keep your virtual teams connected:
<h2>1. Adopt tools that enable transparent collaboration</h2>
Trust is difficult. We&rsquo;ve seen this again and again <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/what-is-work-really-like-today-leaders-and-employees-see-things-differently/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">through statistics</a> and differing sentiments between leaders and employees, remote and in-person employees, product and marketing teams, and so on.&nbsp;
Enabling your team to <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-is-a-work-hub/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">collaborate transparently</a> and have visibility into everyone&rsquo;s day-to-day can catalyze teamwork. If your team works well together and has all the tools that enable them to avoid siloes, they are much more likely to get along and enjoy working together.&nbsp;
Building belonging with a <a href="https://qatalog.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">work hub</a> empowers employees and enables them to thrive.&nbsp;
<h2>2. Develop team charters</h2>
Team charters are like a manual for how your team operates with your company&rsquo;s mission, goals, and values in mind.&nbsp;
In Qatalog&rsquo;s marketing team charter, the team spells out tenets that they work by, including &ldquo;inspire action&rdquo; and &ldquo;hop off the bandwagon.&rdquo;&nbsp;
You can begin your own team charter by looking at the roles of your team and specifying who is in charge of what workstream. Then you can zoom out on those workstreams and plan out how they can potentially impact team and company goals for the coming quarters or year.&nbsp;
For growing teams, it can be especially helpful to plan out how you see your team expanding in the future.&nbsp;
<h2>3. Plan regular team events</h2>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/xz659DIMTIG7DotECTpm" alt="undefined" />
For me, the most important thing is to see people smiling, talking, and enjoying themselves. We&rsquo;ve done lots of different events: happy hours, master classes, game nights, team breakfast/lunch. Out of all those options, it&rsquo;s drawing games like Pictionary that are the crowd favorite. They always end up with people laughing and joking together, which is always good team building.
<h3>Ideas for virtual team events:</h3>
<ul>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Game time! <a href="http://wordrawapp.com/online_generator.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Pictionary</a> or other drawing games are always a hit, and we also love <a href="https://codenames.game/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Codenames</a>.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Happy hour. Happy hours are a great way to celebrate team milestones. You can also send <a href="https://www.shakerandspoon.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">cocktail kits</a> to your employees or have a <a href="https://www.cocktailcourier.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">specific recipe</a> for everyone to try making together.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Masterclasses. Does someone on your team have the perfect shakshuka recipe? Or someone who knows about origami? Host a masterclass for them to teach the team their expertise. Or, try an <a href="https://www.airbnb.com/s/experiences?af=&amp;c=.pi0.pk113255333253_481540564225_c_303480525523&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjwsZKJBhC0ARIsAJ96n3US5KyAV08eN7HFoKzwk7waGx1ACkZ1RMg_bGorAQffYL6LXjT3lbYaAvbEEALw_wcB" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Airbnb virtual experience</a>.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Coffee time. Setting up the <a href="https://slack.com/apps/A11MJ51SR-donut" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Donut app</a> in Slack is a great way for team members to get to know each other. </li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Team meals. Every two weeks we order food (or send Doordash gift cards) so the team can have breakfast, lunch, or dinner together &mdash; depending on the timezone!</li>
</ul>
</ul>
Even an hour-long gaming event requires planning ahead. Outside of scheduling so the majority can attend, you want to think about event frequency to ensure you aren&rsquo;t being too repetitive.&nbsp;
For the times we&rsquo;ve ordered cocktails for the team to engage in a happy hour, shipment takes about two weeks. For things like this, beginning an events calendar and planning everything out at least a month in advance is a good cadence to get into when you&rsquo;re starting out.&nbsp;
You&rsquo;d also need to take into account that not everyone likes being in the limelight &mdash; some people may just want to join and listen in. And you&rsquo;d need to provide a possibility of meeting up in smaller groups where they may feel more comfortable. That&rsquo;s why set up Donut coffee meetups that give people the possibility to meet in a more relaxed setting without an agenda.&nbsp;
<h2>4. Set aside budget for moments of delight</h2>
Investing in small moments of delight for your team goes a long way. The team is the most valuable asset a company has. Having a team that is diverse, happy in their roles, has fun working, and knows each other &mdash; that's a great cocktail for success.&nbsp;
Having worked as an office manager for many years, I do feel 2020 introduced me to a totally new way of running an office. Sometimes I feel like I am working for a logistics company and my essential tools have become a scale, measuring tape, sending plastic envelopes, customs envelopes and documents, pen, and sellotape.&nbsp;
Every penny we&rsquo;ve spent on swag has been worth it. We recently ordered sweatshirts for the team and people have already started wearing them.&nbsp;
<h2>5. Prioritize team health and mental breaks</h2>
A healthy team is a happy team. If you have leadership that focuses on productivity above all else, it&rsquo;s likely your team will start to see and mirror that.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s important to offer your team benefits such as PTO and ample vacation time so they feel the freedom to take time off when needed. Vacation policies should be well documented and available, so employees can easily access this information. Additionally, mental health benefits have been increasingly popular for companies to offer employees. Here at Qatalog, we offer <a href="https://www.talkspace.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Talkspace</a> to every employee.&nbsp;
Thinking about team health should be a daily thing, not just mentioned every quarter as a reminder to take vacation time. Try taking walking meetings with your team to prioritize time outside and away from your desk, or other fun activities that put an emphasis on your team as human beings, not just worker bees.&nbsp;
<h2>Team building benefits everyone</h2>
The benefits of team building are visible almost immediately. Cultivating a healthy culture with your teammates improves communication, productivity, boosts morale, improves retention, and so on. So add that calendar invite, or simply start polling your team to see what virtual events they&rsquo;d be interested in participating in.

Virtual employee programming helps to connect your team and benefits everything from productivity to culture. Here are some of our tips.

5 ways to keep virtual teams connected | Qatalog blog

The tools, virtual events, budget, and practices your team needs to stay connected.

5 ways to keep virtual teams connected

I was laid off from my job a few years ago. Suddenly, I went from long, stressful workdays to a very free schedule. There was no structure, or a to-do list, or much of anything to even think about except what my next meal would be. I was no longer busy, but I was also no longer productive.
<h2>Busy, productive, and chocolate</h2>
There was a lot of binge-watching going on during those unemployed weeks. I watched old TV shows including that classic I Love Lucy episode with the comical scene where Lucy and Ethel work at a candy factory. They are tasked with wrapping every chocolate that comes by on the conveyor belt assembly line. All is well until the belt starts to speed up and forces them to hilariously stuff the chocolates in their mouths and shirts as they are unable to keep up the pace.
This memorable segment illustrates the main difference between being busy or productive at work. Being productive is having something to show for your efforts, like a wrapped chocolate. Whereas being busy typifies being overwhelmed, frantic, and sometimes getting chocolate on your face. Work can feel like the conveyor belt where we are constantly challenged to keep up with it all but have minimal results for maximum hustle.
<h2>Working smart, not hard</h2>
Being busy is often tied up with our identity in the workplace. It can make us feel important and needed. With remote work, business is not often seen visually in the way it is in an office environment. No one is seeing us eating lunch at our desk, but they are seeing if we can produce that report on time. This is because the modern workplace is <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/autonomy-and-employee-engagement/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">focused on outcomes,</a> not the hours of work we put in.
The key to achieving productivity is to <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/flexible-working-models/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">be smart about the way we work</a>. It is still putting in the hours but making those hours count for something. This involves self-discipline to stay focused and not multi-task. At the end of the workday, productive people are generally less burned out and have more satisfaction with their jobs because they used their time wisely and benefited from being less busy.
<h2>Exchanging old mindsets for new habits</h2>
It takes time to switch from being a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/raise-your-work-standards/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">busy person to a productive person</a>. It starts with a shift in our mindset and then a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/over-reliance-on-spreadsheets/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">change in our actions</a>. It won&rsquo;t happen overnight, and we may falter at times, but eventually, we will see the advantages of transforming our ways.&nbsp;
Try these tactics for becoming more productive:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">DO schedule time for focused work: Headphones on may be the signal in the office not to be interrupted. Remote workers should block off calendars and set &ldquo;do not disturb&rdquo; on messaging apps to concentrate on complicated projects.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">DO use a work hub: <a href="https://qatalog.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">A work hub</a> makes it possible for knowledge workers to be productive. <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-tools-killing-productivity/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Tools and teams are connected</a> in one digital space so they can find things quickly and collaborate effectively.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">DON&rsquo;T get distracted: Turn off your phone, change the settings on desktop notifications, and close your office door. Ignore the dishes in the sink and the laundry in the dryer.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">DON&rsquo;T skip lunch: Taking regular breaks helps to refresh and recharge you. Pick non-screen-related activities such as going for a walk outside or listening to relaxing music.</li>
</ul>
When asked &ldquo;how are you?&rdquo; our auto-reply tends to be &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve been so busy&rdquo; with a roll of the eyes. Think about the day when you can proudly change that answer. Being productive, not busy, is the key to wrapping chocolates or anything else that comes your way on the conveyor belt of work life.

What is the difference between being busy and being productive? It has a lot with working smarter, not harder.

The difference between busy and productive people | Qatalog

Learning how to work smarter, not harder, to be more productive and less busy.

The difference between busy and productive people

If overseeing the impact of remote work on your organization falls on the shoulders of your remote and hybrid workers, you need a more sustainable solution that makes room for growth, testing, and implementation. That could look like <a href="https://qatalog.com/" rel="follow">adopting a work hub</a> that&nbsp;transforms your company to an async majority with transparency built into every function, or, it could look like hiring a Head of Remote.&nbsp;
Realistically, to manage and measure workplace flexibility for all employees, it&rsquo;s best to consider both options.&nbsp;
The &ldquo;Head of Remote&rdquo; role is relatively new to job boards and is still picking up as remote work continues to increase in popularity.
One of the first people to hold this position is <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/darren-murph-gitlab-interview/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Darren Murph</a> of Gitlab.&nbsp;
&ldquo;[Working remote] has a cascading ripple effect through the entire organization,&rdquo; Murph said in an <a href="https://digiday.com/media/youre-never-putting-this-remote-genie-back-in-the-bottle-how-gitlabs-head-of-remote-darren-murph-spends-his-day/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">interview with Digiday</a>. &ldquo;The head of remote exists to make sure that none of those re-architecting decisions are looked at in a silo or in a vacuum.&rdquo;
<h2>What does a head of remote do?</h2>
There are a number of different names for the Head of Remote position. It&rsquo;s also known as: Director of Remote Work, VP of Remote Work, or Chief Remote Officer.
Why is this role necessary? In the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/what-is-work-really-like-today-leaders-and-employees-see-things-differently/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">2021 Gartner Hybrid Work Employee Survey</a>, there was a repeated chasm between executive and employee sentiment about the state of remote and hybrid work. Including:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">75% of executive leaders believe they are already operating within a culture of flexibility, yet only 57% of employees agree.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">66% of employees say they have the technology they need to <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/9-tips-for-managing-remote-employees/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">effectively work remotely</a>, compared to 80% of executives.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Executives are more likely to feel trusted when it comes to <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/you-can-create-employee-connections-without-more-meetings/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">working from home</a>.</li>
</ul>
There&rsquo;s a larger issue to uncover about the lack of trust between leadership and employees, and we can&rsquo;t blame it all on the proliferation of remote work. But perhaps there are things we aren&rsquo;t getting right. After all, companies are made up of humans, and we all make mistakes.
Adopting a leadership role that mends the relationship between remote employees and leadership can help to uncover the practices that aren&rsquo;t serving your culture. A Head of Remote helps to eliminate that lone island feeling and brings employees together with real strategies that serve the rest of your hybrid workforce as well.&nbsp;
There are two key areas in which your Head of Remote can make this happen:
<h3>Internal advocacy</h3>
The primary responsibility of this role is to ensure every employee within the workforce, wherever they are located, is receiving equitable treatment.&nbsp;
There are a lot of concerns about unfair advantages given to in-person employees in a hybrid model where some are remote. For all intents and purposes, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/business/dealbook/remote-work-bias.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">these are anecdotal concerns</a> that are not backed by research. The proven chasm that does exist is the <a href="https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/what-is-work-really-like-today-leaders-and-employees-see-things-differently/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">discrepancy of sentiment</a> between employees and executives. This means that while remote employees don&rsquo;t need to worry about falling behind their in-person counterparts, they are concerned about things like flexibility, equipment, and collective action.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.unleashgroup.io/2021/08/04/remotes-ceo-job-van-der-voort-on-the-hiring-from-anywhere-trend/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Job van der Voort</a>, CEO of Remote, says &ldquo;the Head of Remote must account for all the permutations of remote work, which can include people in multiple time zones and people with different lifestyles.&rdquo; It allows for an advocate that eases those discrepancy concerns and allows for better communication between remote employees and leadership.&nbsp;
<h3>External advocacy</h3>
Hiring new leadership roles that empower employees with more flexibility and provides transparency between workers and leadership is cause for celebration. Remote leadership can position the company within <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/category/future-of-work/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">future of work discussions</a>. They can assist with promoting or selling products that demonstrate the organization is a remote work innovator.&nbsp;
In this instance, they can share the success story of remote working. Or, they can share the failures and what they&rsquo;ve learned in trying to fix them. In this example, the role is more aligned with Marketing, Human Resources, and Sales.
For external advocacy to be genuine, it has to come from someone who has experience with remote work. Because this is a new role, there are no right answers on where to pull this talent from.&nbsp;
According to Gustavo G&oacute;mez, CEO at process automation provider <a href="https://www.bizagi.com/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Bizagi</a>, the ideal candidate for this role is strategic, semi-technical, and highly collaborative.
<a href="https://www.reworked.co/leadership/is-now-the-time-to-invest-in-a-head-of-remote-work/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">He says</a>: &ldquo;While the people side of the challenge very much sits with HR, the ability to drive change in technology and operations is key, and that may not be a significant skill set within HR teams today.&rdquo;
Darren Murph gave even more insight into the parameters of the role in an interview with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/11/13/embracing-remote-work-meet-the-oracles.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">CNBC</a>.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It became clear that a dedicated leader would create greater intentionality and acceleration, and now that role is mainstream.&rdquo;
<h3>What a Head of Remote doesn&rsquo;t do</h3>
According to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurelfarrer/2021/06/24/does-your-company-need-a-head-of-remote/?sh=3284dc9314bf" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">remote work strategist Laurel Farrer</a>, there are incorrect assumptions about what this role entails:
&ldquo;A common misconception is that the Head of Remote is responsible for an organization&rsquo;s entire process of adopting remote work, from building the foundations, setting the policy terms, constructing a digital infrastructure, and maintaining the remote workforce and operations.&rdquo;
A Head of Remote should not be the sole person responsible for structural aspects or creating your remote work process. It is more about maintaining the environment and connectivity of your team.&nbsp;
Before searching for remote leadership, establish whether you are in the construction or maintenance phase of rolling out a hybrid or remote work plan.&nbsp;
What we would consider to be constructing a remote work program:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Leadership is not fully participating in remote working, or are still considering the model.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Handbooks and policies have yet to cover remote work best practices.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Processes are considered the same whether in or out of the office.</li>
</ul>
Companies maintaining a remote work program:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">You already have remote learning and development programs in place so your team can develop skills to bolster success.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Culture is no longer location-centric. Your team feels connected and included wherever they are based.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Your work processes revolve around virtual support and bringing onboard strategic talent irrespective of location.</li>
</ul>
<h2>The longevity of a remote-focused leadership role</h2>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
most people have no idea how big remote work was before the pandemic they're going to be shocked by how big it will be by 2025
&mdash; Chris Herd (@chris_herd) <a href="https://twitter.com/chris_herd/status/1425855035062300673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 12, 2021</a></blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

There is no doubt that remote work will only continue to grow from here.&nbsp;
<a href="https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/work-at-home-after-covid-19-our-forecast" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">25 &ndash; 30% of the workforce</a> will be working from home multiple days a week by the end of 2021.
And if your company is transitioning to remote, having a leader to assist the transition ensures there is an active push toward async-friendly practices that lend themselves to hybrid working.&nbsp;
According to a Gartner survey of 317 CFOs and finance leaders, <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-04-03-gartner-cfo-surey-reveals-74-percent-of-organizations-to-shift-some-employees-to-remote-work-permanently2" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">three-quarters</a> will move at least 5% of their previously on-site workforce to permanently remote positions.
As the world of remote continues to evolve, it&rsquo;s important to keep your organization&rsquo;s objectives at the forefront. However, your workplace model needs some support to keep your business at the top of its game.&nbsp;
<h2>Adopting a work hub and hiring a Head of Remote</h2>
Having a <a href="https://qatalog.com" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">work hub</a> means you have a flexible workspace offering an &ldquo;office when needed&rdquo; service.
A <a href="https://qatalog.com" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">work hub</a> provides a virtual workspace where your team can congregate. Integrated with your Head of Remote, you have the perfect balance of team and support.
And if you don&rsquo;t have the headcount for a Head of Remote, a work hub can provide similar assistance to your team by making all your work, files, and procedures transparent and accessible to everyone.

Remote workers need a leader. Here's everything you need to know about the Head of Remote role.

Hiring a Head of Remote | Qatalog blog

What does a Head of Remote do everyday?

I remember in the mid-2000s when I took a vacation from work, I emailed a project status to the team, set up my automatic responder, said goodbye, and that was it. That shout farewell was the last communication I had with my workplace for a week.&nbsp;
Now if you look at today&rsquo;s working world, vacation time has become something entirely different. That&rsquo;s coming from the lack of traveling in the past year, the proliferation of hybrid and remote work, increased benefits (like PTO), and the rise and fall of hustle culture to mass resignations.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s start with the obvious: our work and home lives have become blurred. So has our vacation and work time. We&rsquo;ve been on a permanent staycation, but now it&rsquo;s time to check out and check in to what time off looks like in a post-pandemic world.&nbsp;
<h2>Employees have a surplus of vacation time post-pandemic</h2>
In 2020, <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/31/this-is-what-happens-to-all-those-vacation-days-that-never-got-used.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">92% of Americans canceled</a>, postponed, or didn&rsquo;t book a vacation due to the pandemic.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/uk50oYjYSIik8rpGqtLG" alt="undefined" />
So we had a lot of vacation days piling up. Some companies had policies in place to carry over underutilized vacation. Others, like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/business/economy/vacation-days.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Cond&eacute; Nast and Bank of America</a>, changed their use-it-or-lose-it vacation policies to accommodate employees and the inability to physically go on vacation.&nbsp;
Now that vaccination rates are on the rise, there seems to be a push to get workers to use those backlog of days and take needed vacation time. It looks as though this is especially true in the technology industry, where companies such as Google and Cloudera are finding ways to ensure their teams take time off (rest time = better productivity).&nbsp;
<h2>What vacation time looks like for the distributed worker</h2>
The future of business travel remains a looming question as countries reopen for travelers. We&rsquo;re sure to see a rise in post-pandemic vacations, with a newfound ability to balance work with leisure time thanks to <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/get-hybrid-in-order/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">remote and hybrid models</a>.
This can be both positive and negative. For one, the ability to take longer family vacations and balance work with play is an appealing one for many reasons: extra time with family and friends, better deals for more extended stays, you get the gist. However, that completely turned-off vacation mindset is necessary for recharging and reducing burnout.&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.axios.com/covid-workcation-rise-pandemic-e4d50e83-2233-4fd8-90dc-03ee4a00e7ac.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">74% of Americans</a> who are working from home said they&rsquo;d consider taking a workcation &mdash; going on a vacation, but working while there. When a distributed worker goes on a workcation, there seems to be little difference between opening a laptop at a hotel desk versus at the kitchen table (side note: your editor is currently doing just that!).&nbsp;
Hotels are adding conveniences to attract these new workcationers. &ldquo;Work From Hyatt&rdquo; is one of such packages promoting staying plugged-in while enjoying a quasi-vacation. These offerings include WiFi, IT, and personal assistant teams &mdash; plus the known benefits of staying at a hotel. So when the workday has finished, you can leave your lounge/office chair for a dip in the pool.&nbsp;
The proliferation of workplace software, remote/hybrid working models, the pandemic, and our always-on-duty work culture has resulted in our ability to consistently balance work life with home life. These workcations are a continuation of that dynamic, but one that focuses on <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/becoming-a-world-class-knowledge-worker/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">benefits to the knowledge worker</a> rather than encroaching on home, family, and relaxation time that needs to happen for the average person to enjoy returning to work every day.&nbsp;
In its most flattering light, this balance is a win for knowledge workers because it presents the opportunity for us to take our work where we want. But it&rsquo;s also important to establish the difference between a workcation and a true vacation so your employer and coworkers know what to expect from your time off/away/still-online-but-from-a-new-location.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h2>What employers should expect moving forward</h2>
There is no longer a one-size-fits-all approach to vacation time. Employers will have to adapt their policies to meet the needs of their workforce. That may mean giving employees a nudge to log off and use their surplus days or a gentle reminder of the importance of a mental break to avoid burnout.
Here are some ways to encourage employees to take vacation time:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Bring back TGIF Summer Fridays usually entail taking the entire day off or leaving early on Fridays between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The concept isn&rsquo;t new, but it is getting renewed consideration by companies this summer. <a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-06-06-more-than-half-of-organizations-are-offering--summer-" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">55%</a><a href="https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2019-06-06-more-than-half-of-organizations-are-offering--summer-" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">&nbsp;of businesses</a> in North America offer Summer Fridays, which increase productivity, loyalty, and employee retention.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Start at the top Kristen Hayward, Head of People at email company Superhuman said, "<a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/why-companies-want-people-to-take-vacation-time-now-and-how-managers-are-encouraging-them-to-do-it/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">a company's actual vacation policy</a> is the everyday behavior that people see." Company culture impacts employees&rsquo; willingness to take a vacation. For example, a manager who checks in every hour from vacation may make team members feel they have to do the same. Encourage your executives to take an unplugged break and have them spread the word about it.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li aria-level="1">Pay to play It may sound a bit absurd, but some companies are giving employees a vacation bonus as part of their benefits. Buffer, Evernote, and Veracode give employees $1,000 to use on their vacations. Buffer even adds an extra $500 for each family member. And it works. <a href="https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/get_employees_to_actually_take_vacation/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">80%</a> of Buffer&rsquo;s workers collected their bonuses compared to just 36% who took a vacation in the year prior.</li>
</ul>
The concept of &ldquo;fair&rdquo; vacation policies is nuanced for every organization, depending on your size, work culture, and existing policies. For <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/building-a-digital-office-in-a-hybrid-world/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">hybrid companies</a> with employees worldwide, there are also cultural differences surrounding vacation time and the importance of taking a break. Whether your vacation policy is flexible or fixed, you should be connecting with your employees to ensure they feel the policy is fair and enables them to take time off. After this last year, we all need it.&nbsp;

Employees have a surplus of vacation time post-pandemic. We discuss new "workcation" trends and how companies can encourage time off.

Navigating the new journey to vacation time | Qatalog

An unplugged vacation is more of a reality yet few are using their surplus time.

Navigating the new journey to vacation time

&ldquo;Out of sight out of mind&rdquo; is a phrase that entirely negates the benefits of remote work, yet we see it time and time again in arguments <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/building-a-cross-functional-hybrid-team/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">concerning hybrid and remote models</a>.&nbsp;
I think in the global shift to remote work, possibly the opposite was the case. On a personal level, I dove into my work because it was an activity that was available to me when everything else went into lockdown. As a collective, knowledge workers have proved just how well they can operate &ldquo;out of sight,&rdquo; with the U.S. workforce seeing a reported <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-22/yes-working-from-home-makes-you-more-productive-study-finds" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">5% increase in productivity</a>.
This trend proves something we&rsquo;ve known to be true for a while now &ndash; working in a traditional office setting is now the legacy model of work. For managers, this means embracing the cultural shift, trusting your team, and allowing employees to work during hours that make sense for them.&nbsp;
In other words, for a modern organization to thrive, its managers need to embrace employee autonomy at work.&nbsp;
<h2>Ditch strict supervision and rigid schedules</h2>
<a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autonomy" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Autonomy,</a>&nbsp;by definition, refers to the ability to govern oneself. Autonomy in the workplace does not mean employees do whatever they want, all the time, with no supervision &ndash; it means trusting employees to meet their responsibilities in a way in which they&rsquo;re most productive.&nbsp;
Sure, this could mean you&rsquo;ll see they&rsquo;re away on Slack for a couple of hours on Monday morning, but it also means you might not see their active status while they are working later on Monday night &ndash; less tired, more focused, and producing higher quality deliverables for your company since they&rsquo;re alert and distraction-free.&nbsp;
In other words, you will see the results of employee autonomy in the work that they produce.&nbsp;
Empowering employees with autonomy boils down to one reality: if employees are getting their work done, it really doesn&rsquo;t matter when, how, or where they do it.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/IV9w9tqfRz2kND7w3Yfg" alt="undefined">
Employee monitoring or work from home monitoring softwares that track your employees&rsquo; minute-to-minute activities directly contradicts the trust remote organizations need to build into their culture.&nbsp;
Unfortunately, work is often associated with a rigidity that doesn&rsquo;t apply to the way many people do their jobs anymore, resulting in a rise of employee monitoring software. Not everyone needs to work 8-5, Monday-Friday (and they don&rsquo;t need to do so from the same office, either).&nbsp;
The solution? Don&rsquo;t rush to conclusions or worriedly message employees if their peak productivity hours don&rsquo;t fit into the traditional schedule. Simply let their work speak for itself. If there are clear patterns of slacking off or misalignment, that&rsquo;s the time to course-correct. However, as a manager, it&rsquo;s your job to set up your employees for success &ndash; and in 2021, that responsibility has been amended to include &ldquo;wherever they might be working from.&rdquo;
<h3>Autonomy and asynchronous work go hand in hand&nbsp;</h3>
Nearly <a href="https://hrexecutive.com/requiring-employees-to-return-to-the-office-get-ready-for-them-to-quit/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">three out of five workers</a> would consider quitting their jobs if it meant returning to the office full-time. However, 35% of employees still want to go to the office at least some of the time, which has only strengthened <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jun/15/eat-a-banana-get-off-twitter-how-to-be-more-productive-at-work" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">the new standard of asynchronous communication while working.</a>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/Bx5Jx96PRNqzGrcCLjX2" alt="undefined">
And keep in mind &ndash; successful businesses have been communicating asynchronously for more than a hundred years. At an international company with offices around the globe, employees have to rely on their peers and fellow teams located around the world to complete the tasks for which they&rsquo;re responsible to help the organization thrive.&nbsp;
Autonomous, asynchronous teams also display soft skills like discipline and accountability, and most of all, intrinsic motivation. Without the looming physical presence of their superiors, employees now operate with motivation from a place of passion and interest. These are all traits we ask our employees to possess, and in order to work asynchronously, they must display that sense of job autonomy.&nbsp;
<h3>Bringing trust into the picture</h3>
No organization can function without trust. Employees trust their company&rsquo;s leaders for a sense of purpose and direction. In turn, employees are trusted to hit their goals and bring a passionate, innovative approach to work. Organizations with high levels of trust provide <a href="https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-neuroscience-of-trust" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">3x the total return to shareholders</a> than those with low trust.&nbsp;
Autonomous teams might use a project tracker and hold individuals accountable for updating their progress and providing resources for the team, for example.&nbsp;
<h3>Empower employees to take control</h3>
Your employees want to grow, and autonomy allows them to flex the muscles they need to do so. Autonomy helps employees master resourcefulness, time management, and goal setting for the projects they&rsquo;re most interested in. Granting them autonomy is giving them free rein to help the company grow in the way they best see fit &ndash; and in doing so, fuel their own professional growth.&nbsp;
To help empower employees in this way, consider adopting a work hub that connects workers with the information and resources they need to operate autonomously. Features like the dynamic directory outline who&rsquo;s responsible for what, which allows an inquisitive worker to reach out, connect with team members, and run with an idea.
<h2>Using autonomy as a driver for employee engagement</h2>
Employees who have autonomy don&rsquo;t sit idly by as the workday progresses. Autonomous employees are self-driven and manager-resourced to work in a way that&rsquo;s best for everyone &ndash; and that&rsquo;s a huge boost for employee engagement. In fact, multiple studies show there&rsquo;s a clear connection between these two ideas.&nbsp;
<h3>Autonomy and job satisfaction research</h3>
One of the most noteworthy pieces of research on autonomy and job satisfaction was conducted at the University of Birmingham, which found that there is indeed <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424215501.htm" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">a connection between job satisfaction and workplace autonomy</a>. A Gallup poll focused on the same topic aimed to quantify how much job dissatisfaction stemming from a lack of autonomy can cost an organization, which ended up being as high as <a href="https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/162953/tackle-employees-stagnating-engagement.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">$550 billion in lost productivity annually</a>.&nbsp;
Now, these studies are a bit dated. But newer research backs up these findings as well. In a <a href="https://language.work/research/workgeist/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Qatalog study</a> designed to understand what&rsquo;s driving burn-out, the problem was broken down into two levels: knowledge and trust. To build a track record that builds trust, teams need a reliable management structure to confirm the power of autonomy. This means teams need visibility into each other&rsquo;s productivity and results in addition to feeling valued enough to share ideas and feedback.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s clear that workplace autonomy is a data-backed way to increase worker productivity, happiness, and engagement. By providing employees with the resources they need to pursue their preferred working styles, you&rsquo;ll be increasing the likelihood of high-quality outputs, strong retention rates, and more productivity &ndash; all from the comfort of your home, beach, office, caf&eacute;, or wherever you&rsquo;ll thrive.&nbsp;

Employee autonomy is proven to lead to higher job satisfaction and employee retention rates – so, how can hybrid employees stay autonomous?

Autonomy is the key to employee engagement | Qatalog

Employee autonomy is proven to lead to higher job satisfaction and employee retention rates – so, how can an organization better empower its workforce?

Autonomy is the key to employee engagement

Everyone loves free swag. Doesn&rsquo;t matter what it is or what&rsquo;s imprinted on it, just that we don&rsquo;t have to pay for it.
One of my previous jobs was to source branded promotional items for our clients. Somewhere along the line, this turned into gifting the items to our new hires. On their first day, they would arrive to work with a nice little pile of gifts on their desk waiting for them.&nbsp;
First impressions matter. <a href="https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/Pages/Dont-Underestimate-the-Importance-of-Effective-Onboarding.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">6</a><a href="https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/Pages/Dont-Underestimate-the-Importance-of-Effective-Onboarding.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">9%</a><a href="https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/talent-acquisition/Pages/Dont-Underestimate-the-Importance-of-Effective-Onboarding.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"> of employees are</a> more likely to stay with a company for three years if they experience great onboarding. It does take a bit more than free swag to sway an employee in your favor long-term, but providing an initial positive introduction can never hurt.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/lQUg9NiBT8GLlYfBzJY4" alt="undefined" />
Employee experience is a wheel, it doesn&rsquo;t stop on your first day. Once your culture starts rolling, it should be a seamless cycle to integrate others into the workplace, physical or digital, with a sense of trust and belonging.&nbsp;
<h2>Employee experience is getting buzz, but not much definition</h2>
Google &lsquo;employee experience&rsquo; and you&rsquo;ll get results to the moon and back. There is no unanimous definition for what employee experience means. Some say it &ldquo;encapsulates what people encounter and observe over the course of their tenure at an organization,&rdquo; or &ldquo;focused on tracing how employees think and feel during every single touchpoint of their journey.&rdquo;&nbsp;
The reality is, we won&rsquo;t find a universal definition for employee experience because it differs from organization to organization. What is usually agreed upon is that it can be broken down into five stages: recruit, onboard, develop, retain, offboard. These journey milestones vary by length of time depending upon how the experience goes.
Every company has its unique perspective of what <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/the-argument-for-autonomy/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">employee experience means to them</a>. At Adobe, there&rsquo;s an entire team dedicated to employee experience. Scott Rigby, Head of Digital Transformation, <a href="https://hrmasia.com/at-adobe-employee-experience-is-a-marriage-of-art-and-science/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Adobe Asia Pacific,</a><a href="https://hrmasia.com/at-adobe-employee-experience-is-a-marriage-of-art-and-science/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"> said</a>, &ldquo;There&rsquo;s a huge amount of investment going into delivering better employee experiences as the way employees engage with organizations today is changing rapidly. Businesses need to adapt very quickly to be able to execute on those experiences and engage employees to get them to participate and be involved in the business, no matter where they&rsquo;re located.&rdquo;&nbsp;
<h2>Why it&rsquo;s important to focus on the employee experience</h2>
Where the employee experience is taking place has shifted. Obviously, the biggest swing has been to a hybrid or distributed workforce.&nbsp;
Perhaps the company that is getting the most headlines in this area lately is Basecamp. Here&rsquo;s what went down at the web software company in case you missed it &hellip;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The CEO prohibited &ldquo;societal and political discussions&rdquo; from the company&rsquo;s internal chat forums.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The decision was met with contention amongst the staff. A lot of contention. Followed by a lot of meetings and apologies and emotional breakdowns.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">About 34% of Basecamp's employees decided to leave the company because of a &ldquo;terrible,&rdquo; &ldquo;horrible,&rdquo; &ldquo;no good,&rdquo; &ldquo;very bad&rdquo; employee experience.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
There is always something we can learn from others&rsquo; failures. And with Basecamp, it was how much the employee experience is intertwined with communication and retention. Studies show a direct correlation between experience and company success. Organizations with solid employee experience can achieve twice the customer satisfaction and innovation and generate<a href="https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/what-is-employee-experience" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"> 25%</a> higher profits than those that don&rsquo;t.
<h2>How to measure experience one employee at a time</h2>
So how do you know if your company is on the path to success, or if you have a Basecamp-type situation brewing beneath the surface? The best way to find out is to just ask. Conduct ongoing surveys at each stage of the employee journey. Look at rating websites such as Glassdoor. Talk with employees for direct feedback. Include a feedback workflow into your work hub.
The key is to not just take data and turn it into a pretty-looking report that will gather dust. You must glean insights, look at the pain points, and find solutions. For example, a common issue we see is the lack of an organized virtual workplace. A work hub can help to connect siloed employees and keep your workflow accessible in one place.
The<a href="https://thefutureorganization.com/employee-experience-index/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"> Employee Experience Index</a> scored 252 organizations based on seventeen variables across the three environments employees care about most at work: culture, technology, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-makes-a-great-workspace-in-2021/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">and the physical workspace</a>.&nbsp;
The Index found although<a href="https://hbr.org/2017/03/why-the-millions-we-spend-on-employee-engagement-buy-us-so-little." rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"> 23%</a> of companies were making strides in all three areas, just 6% were investing heavily in all three and those organizations (Adobe, Accenture, Facebook, Microsoft, and others) saw performance gains. Anecdotally, these top-scoring organizations shared they <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/flexible-workforce-flexible-benefits-packages/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">have happier employees</a>, larger talent pipelines, and greater <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/productivity-tools-killing-productivity/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">profitability and productivity.</a>
Qatalog also released a survey as part of its language.work report to help companies see if they&rsquo;ve effectively adopted modern work standards.You can <a href="https://language.work/change-now/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">take that 2-minute quiz here</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h2>Putting employee experience insights into action</h2>
The creator of the Employee Experience Index is Jacob Morgan. In his book, <a href="https://www.opensourcedworkplace.com/news/the-employee-experience-advantage-jacob-morgan-" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Morgan</a><a href="https://www.opensourcedworkplace.com/news/the-employee-experience-advantage-jacob-morgan-" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"> explains</a><a href="https://www.opensourcedworkplace.com/news/the-employee-experience-advantage-jacob-morgan-" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">,</a> &ldquo;One of the things that organizations always get concerned about is cost. This usually happens because of an overemphasis on things such as free gourmet food, designer office spaces, and crazy perks like free dry cleaning, massages, and on-site dog walking. It&rsquo;s true; these things do cost money, but the majority of things that shape the employee experience are free.&rdquo;&nbsp;
Here are some ways you can establish an ideal distributed employee experience with minimal investment. These fall into the three categories we&rsquo;ve discussed: culture, technology, and workspace.&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Create the employee experience at home: Give employees a stipend for home office items. E-commerce company <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/12/coronavirus-shopify-gives-employees-1000-stipend-to-work-from-home.html">Shopify</a> offers its distributed employees $1,000 to set up their office. Qatalog offers this to new hires as well.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Get the right tools in your company&rsquo;s tech stack: Of course, there&rsquo;s Slack and Zoom, but you also need to look at your existing tools and adapt them. Check with your teams about what their new tech needs may be. Odds are, you&rsquo;ll need a centralized location to make your information and <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/qatalog-vs-documentation-apps/">files discoverable and accessible</a> to your <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/get-hybrid-in-order/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">hybrid team</a>.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Modernize the onboarding experience: Most organizations only offer <a href="https://www.saplinghr.com/10-employee-onboarding-statistics-you-must-know-in-2021">one week</a> of onboarding, leaving new hires feeling discouraged and lacking resources. Companies such as <a href="https://www.techrepublic.com/article/9-ways-to-manage-remote-teams-and-the-virtual-office-in-2021/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">DocuSign</a> are extending the new hire period to four to six months.</li>
</ul>
While I highly recommend the use of swag (I love it, everyone I know loves it), the modern employee experience is about removing legacy roadblocks and adopting practices that establish a people-first organization. Trust, flexibility, focus, and belonging should all be factors that are included in every worker&rsquo;s day, not just nice-to-haves. And to make that a reality, <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/new-way-of-work/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">centralizing communication and productivity tools has to come first.</a>&nbsp;

Employee experience is the buzzword everyone is talking about but isn’t sure what to do with.

What is employee experience? | Qatalog blog

Back to basics: what is employee experience?

While 82% of those surveyed agree remote work is the future, parents are more likely to ensure <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/remote-work-to-hybrid/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=parents-work-from-home&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">remote work is their </a><a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/remote-work-to-hybrid/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=parents-work-from-home&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">immediate</a><a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/remote-work-to-hybrid/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=parents-work-from-home&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank"> future</a>.
According to the <a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=remote-work-report&amp;utm_term=2021&amp;utm_content=report" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">2021 Remote Work Report</a> by <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/darren-murph-gitlab-interview/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=parents-work-from-home&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Qatalog and GitLab</a>, 58.5% of parents said they would consider leaving their co-located company for a remote job vs 46.3% of nonparents. 30% of parents in the US and UK also reported they&rsquo;d search for a new remote job if their current company no longer allowed remote work post-COVID-19 pandemic vs 24% of nonparents.&nbsp;
These findings are consistent with a similar <a href="https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/what-working-parents-want-at-work" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">survey</a>, except parents expressed an even higher commitment to remote work: 61% said they&rsquo;d want to work remotely full-time, and 62% said they&rsquo;d quit their job if they couldn&rsquo;t continue working remotely for their current company.&nbsp;
Parents have less to gain from being in-office and more to gain from working remotely from home.
For Ryan Burke, Qatalog CRO and dad of two, the advantages of being in the office &mdash; face time with leadership, developing work friendships, camaraderie &mdash; are more vital to those earlier in their career. Therefore parents, who tend to skew older and presumably have been in the workforce longer, have less to gain from being in the office than nonparents.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I prioritize the time I want to spend with the people who matter most, my family,&rdquo; he says. &ldquo;I can still make time for social interactions at work, but it does not have to be the driving force for a new job.&rdquo;
Ryan also touched on another important point: the family is easier to prioritize when working at home. Home is where parents see their family, whereas home for nonparents is primarily a place of rest.&nbsp;
<h3>Dads are more likely than moms to change jobs if remote is no longer an option</h3>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/kwSMAIXBSO2WGONc0hcd" alt="undefined" />
The Remote Work Report also showed that dads &mdash; not moms &mdash; were more attached to remote working: 33% of dads in the US and UK would change jobs if their company no longer allowed remote work post-COVID vs. 28% of moms.
The pandemic has given many dads their first opportunity to work remotely and realize what they were missing. Leo Mendoza, Director of Engineering at Qatalog and dad of one, agrees: &ldquo;In my opinion, because of the pandemic, dads have now gotten a taste of what it&rsquo;s like to have a better work/life balance and, in turn, more time with their kid. I can&rsquo;t imagine anyone taking that away &mdash; which is why I&rsquo;d look for a new remote job if we were forced to co-locate.&rdquo;
The women I spoke with had a slightly different explanation for the dad/mom divide: women have already been optimizing their careers around their family, so the impact of remote work is big, but not as big as it is for dads. In her book, Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez outlines that women are more likely to choose jobs close to home vs. men who tend to have more city-suburb commutes.&nbsp;
Many of the moms I spoke to proactively sought remote opportunities prior to the pandemic. One said she felt &ldquo;sometimes subtle, sometimes not so subtle biases against balancing work and parent life.&rdquo; Another mom pointed out that perhaps the women surveyed felt less strongly about remote work because they were considering quitting or <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimelsesser/2020/07/17/moms-cut-work-hours-four-times-more-than-dads-during-pandemic/?sh=5a8997049cad" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">cutting their hours</a>, like so many women have been forced to do during the pandemic.&nbsp;
<h3>Moving forward: Flexible work policies are the bare minimum and not a panacea</h3>
Although initially met with reluctance, many businesses have realized their employees will continue to work when away from the office. Employees, recognizing their ability to continue to perform outside of an office, are overwhelmingly in favor of staying remote or moving to a hybrid work model. And many employees, not just parents, will quit their jobs if they no longer have the flexibility they&rsquo;ve enjoyed working from home.&nbsp;
That said, providing remote or <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/get-hybrid-in-order/" rel="follow">hybrid work policies</a> will not completely safeguard a company against <a href="https://www.bloombergquint.com/businessweek/quit-your-job-how-to-resign-after-covid-pandemic" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">post-COVID attrition</a>. A flexible work policy is not a panacea.
In order to truly combat workplace inequities that shape our work lives and career trajectories, companies must supplement flexible work with policies that protect the employee experience. A few examples of this could include:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Mandatory maternity leave and mandatory paternity leave</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Clear vacation policies (no more &ldquo;unlimited&rdquo;) where managers are encouraged (required?) to make sure their reports take all their days</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Instituting a maximum number of days you can attend the office per week to avoid <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/03/03/remote-work-women-office-equity/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">in-office bias</a></li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Explicit and accessible job expectations and requirements for promotion</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Scheduling required in-person work at least two weeks in advance and paying for employee travel</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Requiring managers to alert their team well in advance of when they plan to go into the office, so individuals can use this information to determine their own schedules</li>
</ul>
Make no mistake, overhauling company policies to improve upon our current work reality will require a lot of effort, time, trial, and error. But those are not reasons to avoid change. If the last year has taught us anything, it&rsquo;s that we&rsquo;re all a lot more flexible and imaginative than we thought.

While 82% of those surveyed agree remote work is the future, parents are more likely to ensure work from home is their immediate future.

Parents & WFH | Qatalog blog

While 82% of those surveyed agree remote work is the future, parents are more likely to ensure remote work is their immediate future.

Parents are more likely to change jobs if remote is no longer an option

The people you work alongside are one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of your job. Having a solid social support system in any scenario improves wellbeing, work included. According to <a href="https://getlighthouse.com/blog/best-friend-at-work-bff/#:~:text=Gallup%20also%20found%20a%20strong,get%20injured%20on%20the%20job." rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Gallup</a> &mdash; employees are more engaged and produce better work if they have an office best friend.
Meeting that office best friend is much more challenging without everyday, mundane interactions. Most of us are accustomed to <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-makes-a-great-workspace-in-2021/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=better-business-relationships&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">in-person interactions with coworkers,</a> and building work relationships through a screen can feel off-putting. And for those of us who were onboarded during the pandemic, we&rsquo;ve had to meet our peers for the first time via computer screens and instant messages.
It&rsquo;s hard to bring your entire self to work, and it&rsquo;s even harder to bring your whole self to the fifth video conference you&rsquo;ve had today. To usher in a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/the-new-normal-is-dead/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=better-business-relationships&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">new way of working</a>, we must learn how to strengthen unity, empathy, camaraderie, and diversity in a distributed or hybrid workforce. That begins with building better relationships.&nbsp;
<h2>1. Build better relationships by creating a user guide</h2>
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/SUp7MWsQVeHduN6HzPOg" alt="undefined" />
Here at Qatalog, we&rsquo;ve adopted a user guide template that team members fill out and post to their employee profiles. These user guides cover questions like:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How would you describe your working style?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you like to give feedback?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you like to get feedback?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">What actions from others make you feel most valued?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">How do you respond when work gets stressful?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Outside of work, what is most important to you?</li>
</ul>
I get it, another get-to-know-you task that doesn&rsquo;t seem to lead anywhere. How is that the key to building better relationships?&nbsp;
Accessibility plays a huge role in having a sense of belonging at work. With a work hub, employee profiles are entirely public to everyone in the organization. Filling out a user guide isn&rsquo;t just useful for your specific team; it gives everyone a chance to get to know you.&nbsp;
<h2>2. Become an active participant</h2>
Traditionally, some of the best interactions in a physical space come from team discussions in meetings and lively, organic conversation in the workplace. Much of that conversation, brainstorming, and impromptu connection gets lost with the move to remote work.
It doesn&rsquo;t have to be this way, though.
Here&rsquo;s how you can encourage everyone to be an active participant in company matters:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Consider brainstorming exercises to spark interesting conversations and allow employees time to catch up and actively participate on calls.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">If you oversee a specific department or organization within your company, set aside specific hours in which employees can hop on and chat with you about work problems or about life.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">When sharing updates or posting about goal progress, include prompts for questions or random fun facts.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h2>3. Put empathy first</h2>
Empathy should live at the core of your employee experience. The people we work with are people after all, not just robots who routinely produce work out of thin air.&nbsp;
There&rsquo;s been a lot of talk about employee experience in the working world lately involving what we should subtract from our workdays &mdash; <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/30/22412714/basecamp-employees-memo-policy-hansson-fried-controversy" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">including societal and political discussions.&nbsp;</a>
Here&rsquo;s the thing, empathy means treating your coworkers as humans first, workers second. And yes, this benefits company retention and <a href="https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-10-24-happy-workers-are-13-more-productive" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">productivity</a>, but it also makes work a better place. Encouraging employees to bring their whole selves to work in a top-down manner, meaning exuding that in your own behavior, is an excellent place to start.&nbsp;
<h2>4. Be reliable</h2>
With face-to-face interactions dissipating, building work relationships virtually depends heavily on your reliability. When you plan meetings with teammates, be timely and have an agenda prepared. Running behind? Communicate and send a quick message that gives them a heads up.
If your work involves meeting deadlines (which it likely does), have a plan to meet them. Set the same tone for your team.
Think about what a reliable leader means to you, and then portray those characteristics for your team.&nbsp;
<h2>5. Stay connected</h2>
t&rsquo;s easy to have a clock-in, clock-out mentality. Despite that many folks aren&rsquo;t in the office, it&rsquo;s just as essential to build work relationships virtually while in an office environment.
Here are a few tips for staying connected virtually:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Follow what your peers are sharing on LinkedIn. Engage with them.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Check-in with your manager to make sure he or she knows how your projects are going.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Participate in at least one activity each day that will help nurture your relationships with others.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Virtual relationships are the way forward</h2>
A recent <a href="https://time.com/6051955/work-after-covid-19/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Time article</a> pointed out that as our work culture changes, we have the power to reinvent working practices that no longer suit our needs. We&rsquo;re more focused on <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/the-argument-for-autonomy/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=better-business-relationships&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">what we spend our time doing</a> as the world reopens &mdash; and many of us have realized that our jobs aren&rsquo;t suited for us anymore.&nbsp;
The demands and expectations of the workplace have changed: and that includes our social interactions. And as we discuss other significant implications of widespread remote work on society, we have to remember that people are still people &mdash; and staying connected is essential. We might even be more accepting toward virtual social interaction now that it isn&rsquo;t just a solution to a crisis; it&rsquo;s the way forward.&nbsp;

Putting empathy first, being reliable,  and staying connected are all ways you can build stronger relationships with your team virtually.

Build better virtual business relationships | Qatalog

The demands and expectations of the workplace have changed: and that includes our social interactions.

How to build strong business relationships, virtually

I&rsquo;ve been thinking a lot about the performative productivity that unhealthy work environments hide so well. The hours spent moving a mouse around Slack in order to appear online at all times, the emails sent covering wholly unnecessary status updates, and how knowledge workers are often blamed for this. It becomes the fault of the employee for not maintaining peak productivity at all times.&nbsp;
<a href="https://warzel.substack.com/p/the-future-of-work-is-not-threatening" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Charlie Warzel made the excellent point</a> that workers want to work. But we want to work for organizations that focus on people as assets. We&rsquo;ve started to search for companies that invest in employees as the future of their business &mdash; and call out the ones that don&rsquo;t.
The shift to remote work highlighted the ability for companies to afford basic flexibility for staff. And for the most part, employees are <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/remote-work-to-hybrid/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=hybrid-autonomy&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">satisfied with remote work.</a> Of course, this flexibility is a luxury not offered to frontline workers, who are also increasingly standing up for the value they provide to their corporations, <a href="https://twitter.com/DevitaDavison/status/1390870274522992640" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">at least here in the United States.</a>&nbsp;
<h2>Autonomy has become a priority for many remote workers</h2>
As a knowledge worker who is relatively new to the full-time job world, without realizing it, the first thing I prioritized in my working life was autonomy. Before accepting my job at Qatalog, I was positioning myself as a freelancer and contract worker in order to have more freedom over how I spent my days and where I spent them. I was entirely uninterested in jobs that required me to move back to Boston by a certain time because it went directly against the autonomy I was so keen on keeping.&nbsp;
Especially after a year of unexpected chaos, we&rsquo;re all desperate for that sense of self-directed freedom. And the best way for companies to provide that is by respecting the desires of their employees, and trusting that we can get work done from anywhere.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/K3E3KH8nQkSMctjVKFEI" alt="undefined" />
In addition to the eagerness for autonomy, we have to fight the urge of wanting to return to exactly the way things were before the pandemic. We have yet to see a utopian working world where collaboration, creativity, and productivity are plentiful without distractions or context switching. Even if we could snap our fingers and act like COVID never happened, we&rsquo;d still be facing a lot of the same workplace chaos and tool overload that plagues us now. Our tool adoption assisted us in the emergency switch to remote work but was happening at a rapid pace even when we commuted five days a week.&nbsp;
Many noteworthy executives have chimed in on the remote vs in-person battle over the last few weeks. Sandeep Mathrani, WeWork&rsquo;s CEO, told the Wall Street Journal that the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/wework-ceo-says-workers-who-want-back-into-the-office-are-the-most-engaged-11620837018" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">least engaged employees</a> prefer working from home. <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/cathy-merrill-washingtonian-journalists-return-strike/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">The staff of Washingtonian magazine </a>refused to publish after CEO Catherine Merrill wrote a piece stating that managers have "a strong incentive" to demote employees who don't <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-makes-a-great-workspace-in-2021/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=hybrid-autonomy&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">return to the office</a>. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/25/goldman-sachs-ceo-solomon-calls-working-from-home-an-aberration-.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Back in February,</a> the CEO of Goldman Sachs referred to remote work as &ldquo;an aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible.&rdquo;&nbsp;
<h2>Where the &ldquo;return-to-work&rdquo; debate gets it wrong</h2>
To me, these warnings read as: this is the way things have always been. A dangerous perspective in the ever-changing landscape we&rsquo;ve deemed &ldquo;future of work.&rdquo; In our excitement to return to a <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/the-new-normal-is-dead/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=hybrid-autonomy&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">sense of normalcy</a>, we should remember that for a lot of people, normal wasn&rsquo;t working in the first place. The truth of the matter is that no organization was/is perfect, and some are trying a little harder to provide an enjoyable experience for their employees as they navigate how to approach a working model that somehow satisfies the opinions of everyone.
Back to performative productivity: I think a lot of the bad rep remote work gets is because people assume that workers who have the ability to work remotely also have the ability to slack off. They don&rsquo;t have someone watching their every move, so therefore they won&rsquo;t get anything done.&nbsp;
In my experience, remote work has proven just the opposite. I am not showing up to work just to show up anymore. I&rsquo;m showing up because I have things I need to get done. And whether that happens at 6 a.m. from my bed or on Saturday evening because I couldn&rsquo;t focus after 3 p.m. on Friday, who cares?
Statistics also show that remote working may improve productivity and lead to happier employees. <a href="https://fortunly.com/statistics/work-from-home-statistics/#gref" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">75% of people who work remotely</a> do so because there are fewer distractions and 86% of people feel that working remotely reduces stress. Companies that allow remote work have <a href="https://resources.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">25% lower employee</a> turnover than those that don&rsquo;t.
Here&rsquo;s another perspective: if you can&rsquo;t trust your employee to get anything done without infantilizing them, you shouldn&rsquo;t have hired them in the first place. In the return-to-office debate, a lot of what we&rsquo;re getting wrong is the idea that executives have to decide the best outcome for everyone. In the case of the Washingtonian, this was done without any regard to what employees actually wanted.&nbsp;
We need to focus on trust-based employment to shift working practices and expectations. Qatalog&rsquo;s own CEO was quoted in the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2bb5af21-a83a-436d-8a0c-d6c643beeb39" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Financial Times recently</a>: &ldquo;I think the world is going to shift into a higher trust environment, and employers have to &ndash; they don&rsquo;t have a choice.&rdquo;
<h2>We all went through a pandemic, and it was a little traumatizing</h2>
On top of all this, most of us are just exhausted. We lived and worked through a global pandemic, and still managed to get things done. We don&rsquo;t want to have to deal with the politics of defending the working model we prefer or have to fight for autonomy after it&rsquo;s already been given to us. We&rsquo;ve proven that we can work outside of the office, and the idea of returning to work may bring unwanted stress.&nbsp;
Remote work has done a lot to showcase the unhealthy work habits we picked up over decades. It has shown us that companies that trust their employees and provide an open, trusting environment are faring far better in the return-to-work decision. The one-size-fits-all approach of office work is no longer a viable solution for many knowledge workers who have settled into and found autonomy enjoyable.&nbsp;
And work should be enjoyable. If autonomy provides that sense of enjoyment, why not offer your employees the choice to manage their own workday?

Affording employees autonomy will be the basis of any adopted working model in the coming years.

The argument for autonomy | Qatalog blog

One knowledge worker’s thoughts on autonomy and the return-to-work debate.

The argument for autonomy

A few months ago, I changed jobs. On Wednesday, I worked for company A. I used their laptop, their software, and their intranet. On Thursday, I started working for company B. Using their laptop, their software, and their intranet. I was still sitting at the same desk in the same room in my house, staring at the same screen, keyboard, and mouse mat.&nbsp;
My remote transition had happened many months before I changed jobs &mdash; as it had for many of us. While this new change could have been met with many friction points, it wasn&rsquo;t. Most of my employee experience now exists within the confines of my own home and I have almost complete control over what that looks, feels, and sounds like. Making a great workspace is, for the most part, entirely up to me. But I&rsquo;m in the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/more-7-10-employers-are-struggling-adapt-remote-work-survey-shows-1499236" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">minority</a> in feeling like this.&nbsp;
This time last year, seven out of 10 employers reported struggling with the remote work transition. Now, the conversation has advanced to how hybrid will impact work &mdash; <a href="https://qatalog.com/remote-work-report/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=remote-work-report&amp;utm_content=report" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">another transition we are not yet prepared for.</a>&nbsp; As we continue to advance the working model and consider the future of the spaces we work in, we need to look at what&rsquo;s most important to us. Whether that&rsquo;s from a home office or returning to in-person.&nbsp;
<h2>Employee well-being</h2>
The highest priority for all organizations in 2022, and what will contribute to creating a positive work environment, is ensuring that your employees&rsquo; wellbeing is attended to.&nbsp;
Some things to pay attention to: higher proportions of young employees report a lack of belonging at work, which leads to higher burnout rates. Chronic workplace stress is <a href="https://wageindicator.org/documents/publicationslist/publications-2020/witteveen-velthorst-corona-2020-1.pdf" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">at an all-time high</a>. And this can&rsquo;t simply be fixed by a virtual get-to-know-your-team event (although those are nice).
In order to effectively promote employee wellbeing, your organization has to prioritize employees and clear communication. Especially as companies shift to hybrid models, collaborating on policies and making sure everyone remains aware of priorities is vital to success.
<h2>Diversity</h2>
The rise of remote work has allowed companies to make strides in providing employment opportunities for individuals outside the typical talent pool. If you can truly work from anywhere, you can hire from anywhere.&nbsp;
Location bias and relocation costs can be eliminated. Talent acquisition can cast a wider net.&nbsp;And we already know that <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation">diver</a><a href="https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">sity leads to innovatio</a><a href="https://hbr.org/2013/12/how-diversity-can-drive-innovation" rel="follow">n</a>. It&rsquo;s a win-win.&nbsp;
<h2>Improvements to the physical space</h2>
Not everyone enjoys working remotely full-time (or at all, in some cases) and so the need for actual office space is still important to some. But with a <a href="https://www.cosocloud.com/press-releases/coso-survey-shows-working-remotely-benefits-employers-and-employees" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">larger percentage</a> of people saying they&rsquo;re more productive at home, organizations with fewer staff in-office can make radical changes to the spaces they rent.&nbsp;
Also, if you&rsquo;ve taken advantage of a wider talent pool across your country, then satellite offices become an alternative to having one, distinct headquarters.&nbsp;
<h2>A collaborative virtual workspace</h2>
Employees report satisfaction with personal productivity in remote work but also report muddling through a labyrinth of tools and uncertainty about what their colleagues are doing day-to-day. This is one of the biggest challenges to the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/remote-work-to-hybrid/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=great-workspace&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">adoption of hybrid working.</a> If we haven&rsquo;t figured out a tech stack that works for a remote workforce, how can we expect to establish and maintain employee well-being with the hurdles of silos and lack of cohesive processes?
As important as the physical space is around you, the virtual space where you do your work is equally as important.
A virtual workspace shouldn&rsquo;t add chaos to your day, it should be a place that allows for deep work, creativity, and communication by cutting through the noise of the tools we&rsquo;ve adopted for productivity. This is why the concept of a work hub is ideal for a distributed workforce: it aligns your team, wherever they are, within a connected interface.&nbsp;
With a virtual workspace also comes added privacy. You would never leave your office door unlocked over the weekend, and virtual workspaces need added security to protect information.
<h2>The future is flexible</h2>
Whether your company&rsquo;s working model changes to hybrid over the next year, remains entirely remote or adopts some new solution no one has thought of yet &mdash; you can be sure that employees will want their preferences considered when sticking with or applying to a new job. What makes a great workspace in 2022? How a company adapts to the wants and needs of its employees, and how that culture grows virtually.

What makes a great workspace in 2022? How a company adapts to the wants and needs of its employees, and how that culture grows virtually.

What makes a great workspace in 2022 | Qatalog blog

What makes a great workspace in 2022

One of the consequences of the modern world&rsquo;s shift from industrial work to knowledge work is the slow death of predictable workload management.
It&rsquo;s not to say by any means that all production line working conditions throughout history have been reasonable, just that they have been fair from a purely contractual perspective in that each day&rsquo;s work is finite. You know what will be asked of you today, tomorrow, and the day after &mdash; and you know what your compensation will be in return for such labor.
But for many of us, office and <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/new-way-of-work/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=snowball-meteor&amp;utm_content=blog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">remote work doesn&rsquo;t work that way</a>. Throughout recent history, as the simplistic business model of production line work with rigid organizational hierarchies morphed into flatter, salary-based orgs with more nebulous definitions of &ldquo;productivity,&rdquo; the accountability to workload management began falling on individual workers rather than the employer.
In other words, a knowledge worker&rsquo;s plate is guaranteed to overflow because the organization no longer knows how much work it&rsquo;s feeding employees, nor how much they can handle. Work gets sent downhill, and the further it goes, the harder it gets to tie the impact at the bottom to the decision at the top
Yet, some workers and teams possess a seemingly magical ability to keep their workloads (and even others&rsquo;) in check. How do they do this? It&rsquo;s all about <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/how-to-lead-distributed-teams/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=snowball-meteor&amp;utm_content=blog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">using processes and platforms</a> to apply backpressure. To dig in, let&rsquo;s first consider a metaphor about backpressure.
<h2>Is it a snowball, or a meteor?</h2>
In assembly line work, backpressure is the natural resistance that keeps management honest; an executive can&rsquo;t bark out, &ldquo;build 50% more of these widgets,&rdquo; because doing so would break machines and processes in the production line. In knowledge work, that natural resistance doesn&rsquo;t exist &mdash; and two significant issues can fester as a result:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Work conceived by leadership will appear innocent, even invited, at its inception. If new work is never met with initial resistance, then new work becomes easy to create.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">New work, sent downhill without resistance, builds a snowball effect. And as previously mentioned, the irony here is that the snowball gets harder to deal with as it rolls further downhill, yet it also becomes harder to recognize who caused the snowball to get so big. As a result, it&rsquo;s often just easier to blame someone who got hit with a snowball.</li>
</ol>
Disciplined personnel take a much more accountable approach, manifested through backpressure. They treat frontline workers like precious resources, and new work like meteors:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Newly-conceived work is not innocent or invited. Its inception requires justification, classification, and prioritization to understand its impact on the currently managed workload.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">As this meteor of new work first appears, management layers act as the atmosphere applying resistance. This resistance doesn&rsquo;t reduce work but instead distributes it correctly to frontline workers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;</li>
</ol>
Divergent as these two approaches may appear, a surprising number of team leaders have trouble identifying which one they represent. So, let&rsquo;s talk tactics on workload management and see what the top performers look like.
<h2>Transparency and work hubs</h2>
A tell-tale sign of a meteor manager is that their <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/collaboration-software-vs-work-hub/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=snowball-meteor&amp;utm_content=blog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">team&rsquo;s work is transparent</a>. They want everyone to know what&rsquo;s being worked on and how it&rsquo;s prioritized (we&rsquo;ll talk about why in a moment). To that end:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Documents are openly shared. View or comment access is available to all relevant personnel, to ensure inclusive thinking in approaching the problem.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Communication platforms can easily deliver and transform the <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/what-is-a-digital-workspace/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=snowball-meteor&amp;utm_content=blog" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">optimal knowledge transfer format</a>. It&rsquo;s no sweat to move a group chat to a phone call, or a video conference to a knowledge base thread, etc.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Collaboration tools and workflows are asynchronous by design. If work can only exist in the moment, it&rsquo;s difficult to properly disseminate or account for.</li>
</ul>
What&rsquo;s clear from reading the above is that such massive amounts of communicating and collaborating are bound to become burdensome &mdash; that&rsquo;s why high performers also employ work hubs.
<work hubs="" are="" an="" organizational="" layer="" connecting="" numerous="" platforms="" such="" as="" span="">Whether a team rolls its own work hub or taps into a turnkey solution, the centralization of priorities and comms keep day-to-day interactions running lean, and operationalizes transparency.</work>
<h2>Saying no, productively</h2>
Why does transparency keep popping up here? Because transparency is power. The process of applying backpressure to manage workflow is rooted in the power to say no, and left to the traditional power dynamic of boss-to-subordinate, saying no is often an uncomfortable or counterintuitive act left up to the boldest of employees. Instead, having transparency in your platforms empowers a wider array of coworkers to say no, productively. What does that mean?
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Any work request cutting into current priorities should be justified with a business case, which needs to be pitched to any stakeholder whose current priorities would be impacted. With transparent project sprints, documents and roadmaps, saying &ldquo;no&rdquo; here simply means bringing in a broader group of leadership to vet the work before proceeding.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">When meetings are requested, it should be understood that the meeting itself is a work request. Good time management necessitates best practices in using your platforms for meetings and comms, which means that fields get filled out for agenda, documentation, optional attendance, etc. Respect for the platform yields an appreciation of everyone&rsquo;s time, especially those who lack the authority to decline mysterious meetings.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Matters claimed to be &ldquo;urgent&rdquo; are openly challenged to better understand the impetus for the urgency, which deadlines (if any) are hard, and why no one saw it coming.</li>
</ul>
There is an astounding amount of work that fails to meet even the most basic requirements for prioritization once backpressure is applied. Too many teams drink the kool-aid of working in a &ldquo;fast-paced&rdquo; organization when they are in fact working at a frantic pace. These are not the same environments, by any stretch. Fast teams have the tools and confidence to confront new work from the perspective of the frontline worker&rsquo;s bandwidth; thanks to transparency, this power goes beyond any individual&rsquo;s pay grade, no matter how imposing the demand may be. Acceleration happens when the business has bandwidth; not when an executive says so.
Putting the right platforms and processes in place initially protects resources from devastating workload impacts, but the long-term win comes when transparency becomes the language of the organization so that everyone &mdash; not just a few brave team leads &mdash; is empowered to apply proper backpressure to manage any work heading their way.

Why do a select few teams appear to have mastered workload management? Here’s what they’re doing that the rest of us can prioritize.

Workload management: The snowball and the meteor | Qatalog

Workload management: The snowball and the meteor

It's two in the morning. You lie awake, watching the digits on your alarm clock crawl forward. You know you need to get a good night&rsquo;s sleep for work, you have a brainstorming meeting tomorrow morning and haven&rsquo;t been performing to your usual standards. Maybe you feel disjointed between all your projects and can&rsquo;t seem to get your head around what to do about it.&nbsp;
Employee burnout is experienced in a multitude of ways. Most describe it as an extreme form of work-related stress. But the most damaging factor of burnout is that it doesn&rsquo;t just affect your mindset during work hours, and can lead to employees feeling less satisfied with their jobs.&nbsp;
For employees, burnout has become part of the common lexicon. For employers, managing burnout has become vital to retaining team members and maintaining a healthy, productive workforce. But how does productivity and organization factor into burnout &mdash; and what can be done to solve it?
<h3>What is burnout?</h3>
Burnout doesn&rsquo;t just result in decreased levels of <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/becoming-a-world-class-knowledge-worker/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=employee-burnout&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">productivity</a> &mdash; it can also cause depression, anxiety, insomnia, exhaustion, and an increased amount of disillusionment with your job. According to the World Health Organization, burnout is a syndrome that results from mismanaged, chronic stress in the workplace.
<a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/burnout-survey.html" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">77% </a>of professionals have experienced burnout at their current jobs. And even individuals who love their jobs aren&rsquo;t immune to stresses that can add up over time. Burnout isn&rsquo;t just a business-world buzzword, it&rsquo;s a condition that has <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/323228/remote-workers-facing-high-burnout-turn-around.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">seemed to worsen</a> as more companies switch to a remote or hybrid model.&nbsp;
Burnout is a workplace problem. It results from miscommunication, imbalance, and a lack of structure. For a lot of us, those issues may have been present working in an office but became overwhelming once we moved to remote work in 2020.
<h2>The connection between WFH and employee burnout</h2>
When my own case of burnout reached its peak early on in the Coronavirus pandemic, I tried to find out if others were feeling the same.&nbsp;
And they were. 57% of respondents to a recent survey investigating the culture of overwork in Big Tech companies said they were currently experiencing burnout. But a more concerning Stanford study pointed to the fact that companies who moved to a work-from-home model were experiencing two different communication realities: <a href="https://hbr.org/2020/11/what-working-parents-need-from-their-managers" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Nearly 100% of bosses</a> described themselves as supportive and barely half of their workers agreed.
The truth of the matter is, working from home has erased the divide between &ldquo;work&rdquo; and &ldquo;life.&rdquo; I go to bed, wake up, and work all in the same room. Researchers have proven that this lack of separation makes it harder for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ntwe.12097" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">remote workers</a> than traditional workers to switch off at the end of the day.
Prior to COVID-19, some of the <a href="https://www.gallup.com/workplace/323228/remote-workers-facing-high-burnout-turn-around.aspx" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">top reasons</a> for employee burnout were:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">unmanageable workload</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">unclear communication</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">lack of support</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">unreasonable time pressure</li>
</ul>
Looking at this list, it&rsquo;s easy to see how these factors could spiral out of control when working remotely. Odds are, if a team has an unmanageable workload and <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/communication-overload/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=employee-burnout&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">unclear communication</a>, those issues are going to become a lot harder to ignore under a remote or hybrid working model.&nbsp;
A lot of our current tools for working productively have fueled these challenges by lacking connectivity and an effective avenue for communication.&nbsp;
<h2><a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/post/lost-in-the-jungle-of-workspace-apps-2020/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=employee-burnout&amp;utm_content=post" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Workplace apps</a> have become an added stress</h2>
Productivity apps haven&rsquo;t so much helped us focus on getting more work done as they&rsquo;ve made it nearly impossible to ever escape the constant stream of notifications, tasks, emails, alerts, meetings, rescheduled meetings, last-minute meetings, small meetings, group meetings, team meetings &mdash; the list goes on.
<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/workplace-apps-productivity-booster-or-source-of-burnout-11559224800" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">According to Jerome Fried</a>, co-founder of Basecamp, instant messaging has created a culture of &ldquo;instant responding,&rdquo; by virtue of which we no longer feel like we can let a message go unanswered for even a minute. <i certainly="" felt="" that="" way="" not="" only="" could="" i="" ignore="" the="" messages="" second="" they="" arrived="" compelled="" to="" drop="" whatever="" was="" doing="" and="" answer="" them="" right="" away="" some="" of="" my="" coworkers="" clearly="" didn="" rsquo="" t="" feel="" same="" since="" d="" respond="" at="" their="" leisure="" but="" for="" reason="" just="" couldn="" make="" happen="" myself="" span="">
Ironically, the prevalence of productivity apps &mdash; combined with the added stress of WFH and the brand-new state of panic brought on by the global COVID-19 pandemic &mdash; might actually be part of the reason so many of us are having a hard time being as productive as we&rsquo;d like to be.
So, where does this leave you?
<h2>Moving forward, one step at a time</h2>
If you&rsquo;ve been going through burnout, knowingly or unknowingly, you&rsquo;ll probably be ready to try just about anything to make life a little less stressful and to bring a little joy back into your professional endeavors.&nbsp;
Of course, it goes without saying that everybody&rsquo;s different, and we all cope with stress in our own ways; but that&rsquo;s not to say we can&rsquo;t turn to science for a bit of a helping hand, and that&rsquo;s exactly what I did when things got really bad.
Time and time again, <a href="https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2018/04/harvard-researchers-study-how-mindfulness-may-change-the-brain-in-depressed-patients/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">mindfulness</a> has proven to be an effective tool for managing stress, insomnia, depression, and the general feelings of lethargy and disaffection that comprise the core symptoms of burnout. <a href="https://mhealth.jmir.org/2019/6/e14273/" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Meditation-based apps</a> are on the rise, making now the perfect time to dive into a Headspace or Calm, even if it&rsquo;s just as a way to help you dissociate your phone from the panic evoked by that notification ding you&rsquo;re all too familiar with by now.
With that being said, managing burnout is also up to leadership. Guiding employees through a crisis while sustaining culture is a difficult task, but performance and engagement depend on it.&nbsp;
A lot of the conversations about burnout frame it as an individual, employee issue. It&rsquo;s not. Burnout rates were on the rise before the pandemic, and there are meaningful strategies a company can take to help reduce them.&nbsp;
Most of the direct causes of employee burnout come from prominent workplace issues that occur again and again.&nbsp;
Unmanageable workload, unclear communication, lack of support, and unreasonable time pressure are all things that can be managed by programming that comes from leadership, or by taking another look into the best ways your organization can communicate expectations.
<h2>Burnout is a systemic issue</h2>
Building a positive work culture in a distributed environment is just as important as building one in-person. A strong work culture encourages your employees to be honest with how they&rsquo;re feeling and the struggles they face on a daily basis.&nbsp;
Taking active steps like giving clear, actionable feedback without any ambiguity and encouraging your team members for their small wins are two fairly simple steps you can take to help employees and co-workers feel more supported. Presenting your team&rsquo;s big-picture vision and <a href="https://qatalog.com/goals/?utm_medium=blog&amp;utm_source=blog&amp;utm_campaign=employee-burnout&amp;utm_content=goals" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">overall goals</a> can also help them contextualize their work, making it feel less demanding.&nbsp;
Burnout is complex. And the truth of the matter is while solutions like meditation, time-management, and more sleep can be helpful, flooding the conversion with self-help techniques continues to place the issue on the backs of employees. Take a look at your <a href="https://qatalog.com/blog/category/employee-experience/" rel="follow">workplace environment</a> and industry shifts for a more lasting and impactful answer.&nbsp;

Employee burnout doesn't just affect individuals, it impacts the health of your company.

How to manage employee burnout | Qatalog Blog

A lot of the conversations about burnout frame it as an individual, employee issue. It’s not. Burnout rates were on the rise before the pandemic, and there are meaningful strategies a company can take to help reduce them.

The growing burnout problem, and why we need to talk about it

Friday lunches, free fruit, table football, and yoga Wednesdays don't have the same kind of draw when you can't make use of them.
<h2>My back hurts</h2>
One of the things that I think I miss most about working in an office is the expensive desks and chairs. Not that we had those fancy Aeroflot chairs, but I certainly didn't have to do my butt a day-long disservice with a cheap Ikea chair. I toyed with the idea of driving into the office to pick up a chair but wasn't convinced I could fit one in my bag.
Aside from the furniture, there aren't many office perks I miss. I can buy my own biscuits (and good ones too). I can stock my fridge and cupboard with my own snacks that I don't have to share (I buy things I know the kids won't enjoy eating). I never really enjoyed table football or ping-pong, and I've got my own bean bag and a yoga mat.
Of course, I miss the camaraderie that goes with table sports and bean bag chats when I'm fully remote, but working with people isn't a benefit really, it's just part of working (a useful feature, but not a perk - perhaps it will be one day!). Anyway, how to stop missing colleagues is the topic of another post.
So, there aren't any of the standard office perks that I miss. If this is the case for many others too, how can you incentivize your employees and persuade potential employees in a remote-first world?
<h1>What employee benefits look like at home</h1>
Let's be clear here; I'm not talking about benefits that include pensions, 401k contributions, medical/dental/optical, life insurance, etc. I'm talking about the stuff that organizations use to keep you a happy, engaged employee.
Let's also be clear on the new norm - flexible or remote working is no longer a benefit. It's a necessity.
What's happened is everyone* working remote has realized that they can make their own sandwiches, buy their own biscuits and pour their own coffee and, what's more, it's probably cheaper to do so - especially given that they're all paying much, much less for public transport, fuel, and parking.
With this in mind, the perks and benefits that make going to an office more tolerable/enjoyable aren't that appealing anymore. Standard offerings are things like fruit, biscuits, after-work events, gym or other club memberships, yoga parties, and at-work entertainment like table sports, video games, and karaoke nights.
Some of these you can sort out yourself, some don't make any sense when you're remote and some you probably don't even care much about, so it's a perk, but no use to you.
<h2>What benefits are useful?</h2>
To be completely frank, I'd rather an organization spent money on things that are useful or beneficial to me. I guess cookies are beneficial, but my tailor will eventually disagree.
<ul>
<li> Gym memberships are useful for people who go to gyms.</li>
<li> Yoga sessions are helpful for people who like yoga and go to gyms.</li>
<li> After-work events are for people who enjoy socializing with colleagues.</li>
<li> Table sports are for people who don't mind spending the afternoon being sweaty at their desks.</li>
<li> etc.</li>
</ul>
Automattic, the people behind WordPress and Tumblr, have always been completely distributed. Their perks and benefits are<a href="https://automattic.com/work-with-us"> entirely designed around people working remotely</a>. For example, you can get a home office allowance, which you can spend on a fancy chair, or you can spend it on lattes if you work in a caf&eacute;. You also get a monthly subscription to a mindfulness app or service, to take care of your brain.
The way we currently look at benefits is not useful for all people. But they're usually a fixed set of benefits - take them or leave them.
<h2>Flexible benefits</h2>
The most flexible benefits you can offer are simply a stipend or cash allowance. Give your employees a credit card with a hard limit and let them choose what to spend it on (within reason of course.) Employing this kind of benefit will depend on which country you're in, how you're currently structured etc. etc. But it's the simplest to implement.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/9rflaYNiQiKr7HvWUleo" alt="undefined" />
<h2>Employee benefits can solve employee issues</h2>
You should also look at what kind of problems your remote staff might be suffering from and see if there are benefits that would help alleviate those. Perhaps your people might be bored or lonely working by themselves? Then maybe a Spotify or Apple Music subscription for listening to music and podcasts would help alleviate that. Or a subscription to a meditation app or service (Headspace or Calm.com come to mind) to help attune their mental health. Buffer, famous for ditching their offices in 2015, offer all employees a free kindle and as many books (physical, digital, audio) as they can consume.
Your employee will need a decent pair of headphones to properly align their chakra or improve themselves with a role-specific podcast. They'll also need these to make the most of the 300% more video and voice calls they'll need to have. Perhaps a decent set of Bose QC35s (or Beats, if you don't care about sound quality).&nbsp;
Talking about hardware, they'll need a laptop, obviously, and you probably already supply those, but what will they put it on? Probably their kitchen table, but a budget for some decent office furniture and an external monitor might also be a welcomed perk. Buffer, again gives everyone a laptop and $500 to spend on a home office setup.
Desks look pretty bare with just a laptop and a monitor on; perhaps they need a plant or two (are their subscriptions for those?)
What are they now paying for, or paying more for that they weren't before? They'll be buying their own stationery, and paying for their own internet. Their electricity bills will be going up, so think about supporting them in those areas too.
If you want to really push the boat out and let your people run wild (well, wild-ish, within-reason-wild) you can follow in the footsteps of Basecamp who give all employees a no-red-tape expense account &ndash; all work-related expenses (within reason) go onto the card (if you&rsquo;re in the US) or are reimbursed if you work elsewhere (actually, Basecamp have some incredible perks.
<h1>When the workforce is flexible, benefits should be too</h1>
Our workforce is now more flexible than ever. We work on our own terms to get work done, and it's mostly better for our mental health and our productivity. So, shouldn't our benefits packages be the same?
When starting a new job will soon be as easy as logging off one VPN and onto another, without actually having to go to an office. Providing perks that enhance your employee's lives while not in the office, to the same, or better, standards than they would have in the office should be something that your organization takes very seriously.&nbsp;
*Not everyone, granted, but a large majority of people able to work remotely.

Our workforce is now more flexible than ever.  Why shouldn't our benefits packages be the same?

Flexible Workforce, Flexible Benefits Packages | Qatalog

Our workforce is now more flexible than ever. We work on our own terms to get work done, and it's mostly better for our mental health and our productivity. So, shouldn't our benefits packages be the same?