Cut through the noise of team communications. Find important workplace updates in seconds. No more getting lost in threads. Create a post in Qatalog.

Share updates that get read | Qatalog

Qatalog posts reach the right people at the right time.

Too much noise in your org?

There they are. Short posts tagged in the right projects and teams — Sarah can focus on milestones and blockers.

Find updates easily with tags

She then posts an update for her team — it's automatically routed to the right Slack channel and her teammates' inboxes.

Share automatically in any channel

Sarah wanted to open a tap, not a firehose. She applies some filters to screen out the updates she won’t need, and pins a few she wants to read later.

Never miss relevant updates

Be more connected without more meetings or messages. Share updates in the right channels automatically.

Posts

This Future of Work Q&amp;A is an exciting one, because we reached out to Allison Whalen, co-Founder and CEO of Parentaly. <a href="http://www.parentaly.com" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">Parentaly</a> works with employers to help them optimize their parental leave and early working parenthood policies and programs. Allison works with organizations to level the playing field and has seen a lot of future of work topics come up over and over again with her clients.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>What is the biggest challenge for organizations you work with as it relates to parental leave, and how are they overcoming it?</h3>
 It&rsquo;s now abundantly clear that companies that want to attract the best talent need to offer more paid parental leave. As a result, many companies have recently increased their paid parental leave from eight or 12 weeks to 16+ weeks. This is wonderful and it&rsquo;s absolutely the way of the future.
But when companies only increase the number of weeks of parental leave &ndash; without providing the support to make the execution of this policy a success &ndash; they suffer major unintended consequences.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Teams and managers struggle to meet their goals in the absence of a key employee. Teammates are overburdened, managers don&rsquo;t know how to navigate the situation, and business results suffer. Worst of all, when the employee returns from parental leave they feel lost and unsupported &ndash; and often quit or suffer career stagnation as a result.
There are many ways to overcome this challenge and build a program to support employees taking parental leave. Solutions include manager training, process guidance, checklists, coverage planning frameworks, career coaching, budget to give spot bonuses to the coverage team or bring in a contractor, a formalized return program that includes re-training and networking, and thoughtful processes around career progression, promotion, and performance reviews in the context of parental leave.
The good news is we have seen that with the right support, parental leave can actually be a positive inflection point for an employee&rsquo;s career. They get to step back and really evaluate their goals and rethink their approach to work in a way that gives them greater energy and commitment going forward.&nbsp;
<h3>How have you seen organizations optimize for distributed/hybrid work? </h3>
The employees who go through our programs (new parents planning for &ndash; or returning from &ndash; parental leave) almost universally love working from home and feel that it has been an &ldquo;equalizer&rdquo; of sorts. They no longer must make a choice between rushing home to see their baby or going to an after-hours event. It&rsquo;s an easier transition especially for breastfeeding mothers to have more privacy at home. Therefore, the conversations we&rsquo;re having now with the employers is how do we make sure that when companies move to a hybrid environment there is still the opportunity for new parents to work from home for a period of time, if not forever?&nbsp; 
<h3>What &ldquo;future of work&rdquo; topics are you paying close attention to? </h3>
There are a few things that I&rsquo;m closely watching and that come up quite a bit with our clients:&nbsp;&nbsp;
<ol>
<li style="list-style-type: none;">
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Moving from full-time work to part-time work, but not letting that impact career progression: how can we ensure employees are able to reduce their hours but still be considered for high priority and intellectually challenging work? How can we ensure the option remains enticing for them to return to full-time work down the road if they choose to do so?</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Prevalence of contractors: people starting one-person consulting entities as another way to optimize the part-time or flexible scheduling lifestyle, taking a portfolio approach to your career</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Embracing unconventional work hours: this is so helpful to so many working parents</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="2">Increased frequency of leave of absences: to take care of loved ones, take a sabbatical, etc.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>What are some practices companies should leave behind? </h3>
First, we need a national paid family leave policy in the US. It&rsquo;s shocking that this does not exist today, and that the vast majority of women not only don&rsquo;t get paid leave but also can legally be fired for having a child. Second, companies need to stop just offering women extended paid parental leave and instead start offering this leave to women and men. Only offering leave to women is not at all reflective of how modern dual-income households operate.
<h3>In what ways will work change a year from now?</h3>
We have all seen the data about the number of people &ndash; specifically mothers &ndash; leaving the workforce over the last 18 months. We actually believe the trend will continue if not accelerate of parents leaving large corporations to pursue entrepreneurship or consulting or other more flexible, independent ways of working. There used to be bigger barriers to starting your own business, but so much has changed that makes it easier for people to do so. And what we see, especially among women, is that not only do they increase their flexibility in working independently, they often increase their compensation and their overall engagement and passion for their work.
Given this trend &mdash; employers are going to have to work even harder to attract and retain top talent.
<h3>What does work-life balance mean to you? </h3>
I prefer to think of it as &ldquo;work-life sway&rdquo; because that&rsquo;s exactly how it feels. As a founder, it&rsquo;s difficult (maybe impossible?) to truly turn off the wheels in my head. I am always thinking about my business. But that&rsquo;s also fun for me. So the main thing that I protect is time with my family, and I have very strict boundaries. For example &ndash; I almost never work on weekends unless it&rsquo;s nap time, and I never work between 5pm-8pm. But still, work and life never truly feel balanced but instead, I sway more in one or the other direction over time, and I think that&rsquo;s fine.&nbsp;

This Future of Work Q&A features Allison Whalen, Co-Founder and CEO at Parentaly. We spoke about the importance of supporting employees through benefits, including parental leave.

Allison Whalen from Parentaly | Qatalog blog

"It’s now abundantly clear that companies that want to attract the best talent need to offer more paid parental leave."

Allison Whalen on building programs that support employees

In our Future of Work series, we speak with influential business leaders to learn about new ways of work. We spoke with Jennifer Leary, Head of Revenue Enablement at the French insurtech unicorn Shift Technology, about her onboarding experience during the pandemic and how organizational culture impacts everyone's day-to-day.&nbsp;
<h2>How would you describe the organizational culture at Shift?&nbsp;</h2>
Shift is based in Paris and in my general observation &mdash; albeit early having been there just shy of one year &mdash; is that there is a slightly different culture around remote work than in the US, particularly in high-growth or tech companies. More urgency to get back to the office and less familiarity with remote work and hybrid schedules has been more of the norm at HQ versus in other parts of the world, particularly in the US. As of today, we are planning to have a hybrid structure moving forward and that seems to be working well.&nbsp;
<h2>You joined Shift during the pandemic, how was your onboarding experience?&nbsp;</h2>
Excellent. I intentionally joined a company where I would be &ldquo;the remote office&rdquo; (I am in Boston) and wasn&rsquo;t sure what to expect. Having run onboarding myself in the past, I was super impressed to see the international FedEx arrive (on time) with Shift swag (mug, notebook, etc.), my laptop with instructions, and a schedule for Shift Academy &mdash; our corporate onboarding scheduled for the following week. All for an org that at the time has fewer than 300 employees and a tiny HR staff.&nbsp;
<h2>What are some of the biggest friction points in working across remote teams?</h2>
I would say the number one experience that is challenging to replicate in remote teams is the interpersonal exchanges that happen outside of regularly scheduled meetings: hallway chats, grabbing coffee, walking to your car/public transit &mdash; for that matter running into someone during public transit to or from the office. Even in business interactions, this is where some of the best personal connections are made and problems are solved. No matter how many Zoom cocktail hours an organization sponsors, I&rsquo;ve yet to see it replicate this same experience. And in my work in start-ups, an effort to schedule a coffee break in between meetings is tough given the typical workload and meeting schedule.&nbsp;
<h2>What "future of work" topics are you paying close attention to?&nbsp;</h2>
Return to office, flexible schedules (aka the four-day workweek), data on productivity pre/post-pandemic, and real estate and commercial construction (where and for who). As managers and employees, we&rsquo;re in a unique time where the job market, particularly in the US, is very strong and candidates have choices. Remote work and flexibility on location are considered key competitive differentiators so organizations need to be prudent when making decisions around work preferences, carefully weighing the pros and cons for the employee and what makes the most financial sense for the business.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s really interesting being part of the leadership team at Shift where different countries present and support different work styles. Having direct reports in both France and the US during this unique time in history is providing me with the opportunity to observe cultural needs when it comes to working styles and that will have an overall positive impact on how I think about teams and organizational management in the future.&nbsp;
<h2>How do you think companies can set themselves up for success?&nbsp;</h2>
Have the right teams, process, tools, and content to support hybrid teams. One without the others results in a suboptimal experience for the employee and the organization overall. Invest in the best tools that integrate into your core systems to keep your tech spend manageable, and have the right people to run point on those tools. Make sure to drive effective content and programming that results in high adoption, efficiency, and ultimately higher return on investment.
<h2>What is the biggest learning that has come out of remote work for your teams? Personally?</h2>
I&rsquo;m amazed at the relationships I have formed with my team and colleagues at a personal level without ever having actually met them in person. I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;re hearing this from a lot of your interviewees, but it really amazes me how the power of the human spirit really can overcome adversity, and how a rising tide really does lift all boats! There is a lot that goes into that of course, but in general, my two huge appreciations during this time have been the power and resilience of people to connect and work together towards a goal, and the incredible speed and ingenuity behind the technology catalyzing hybrid work.&nbsp;
<h2>What do you think work will look like a year from now?&nbsp;</h2>
I think it depends on where you are globally and what your role is. I think in the end, fully remote organizations will have advantages/disadvantages (e.g. risk of overworking/burnout) as well but it will be interesting to see how things shift and the results that organizations face if we move to remote and/or hybrid environments as standardization of work. I think we will see more of what we have seen during the pandemic &mdash; preference for remote/hybrid work options and employers promoting it as a benefit to recruit and retain top talent.&nbsp;
<h2>What tools has your team used to increase collaboration and streamline distributed communication?</h2>
Slack, Google Workspace, HighSpot, Brainshark, Zoom, MSFT Teams&nbsp;
<h2>What does work-life balance mean to you?</h2>
Work-life balance means I am invested in both my professional and personal priorities and understand when one is out of balance and take action to self-correct. I personally don&rsquo;t think that is on the employer but on the employee and their personal outlook, position in life, etc. to set the right boundaries and stick to them. I&rsquo;ve been fortunate always in my career to work for organizations that have respected requests for unique working models, for both myself and the teams that I have managed. At the end of the day, good hires are producing, driving impact, and getting results. How, where, and when they do it is secondary.

Jen Leary on the organizational culture of Shift and the ingredients that make up a successful hybrid model.

Jen Leary on hybrid team success | Qatalog blog

Jen Leary on remote friction points

We were all forced into this new way of working. Now with a full year under our belt, we&rsquo;ve collectively learned what it means to operate in a fully distributed, and now hybrid, working model.
We have seen the benefits of working from home, the positive impact on employee well-being and flexibility. But we&rsquo;ve also exposed the cracks in how we work with each other, how we support remote employees, the tools we use, and their impact on productivity.
Qatalog recently partnered with Cornell University&rsquo;s Ellis Idea Lab to survey around 3000 workers across the US and the UK who are familiar with remote work. Then we put together a panel of hybrid experts &mdash; Lila Millsap (InVision), Laurell Farrer (Distribute), Chase Warrington (Doist), and myself &mdash; to discuss the results.&nbsp;
You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0xJfiPSG8s" rel="follow noopener" target="_blank">watch the discussion here</a>, or read through this recap:&nbsp;
<h2>We&rsquo;re missing the critical components of a healthy workplace</h2>
We saw an explosion in tools focused on enhancing our productivity and engagement. With all that attention on remaining productive, we&rsquo;ve been neglecting trust, flexibility, focus, and belonging.&nbsp;
In a remote world, you need to have trust. 32% of people surveyed reported that their company was not investing in programs that help build relationships. When we change the dynamics of how we work, we need to change the way we support employees in this environment.
<h3>Takeaways from our experts on trust in the workplace:&nbsp;</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">To instill and maintain trust, you need a level of transparency about what is happening across your organization. It also helps to make goals, files, and projects accessible to everyone to enable flexibility for today&rsquo;s employees.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We felt a collective trepidation as companies were forced to move to remote models, and because of this, we have to be a lot more intentional about how we connect and build relationships with our colleagues.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Emotional intelligence is a skill that is highly valuable in a remote environment. Advocating for yourself, sharing when practices/procedures aren&rsquo;t working for you helps the whole company move forward.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Trust needs to be part of the core values of your company. Focus on outcomes, not daily tasks. Focus on transparency.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Flexibility and communication go hand in hand:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Communication standards are the core to your success. At Doist, you&rsquo;ll never see communication that expects an immediate response. That&rsquo;s because they&rsquo;re prioritizing a healthy async workplace. These standards and expectations are also built into onboarding since transitioning into a new remote environment involves getting used to new communication norms.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">We have to be aware of how we work and collaborate with others, especially in a remote environment. Knowing your communication and working preferences and communicating them will go a long way.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Leadership should set expectations in the interview process and be transparent about what type of behaviors are going to be successful within your working environment.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Build a communication charter that focuses on specific methods of communication, not many many many tools.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Deep work can only get done when we prioritize asynchronous ways of working:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Build in the time and space to focus. We know about the concept of deep work, and remote can actually increase distractions and impact focus negatively. Calendar holds work well for designating that &ldquo;deep work&rdquo; time away from distractions.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The more that we can use tools to set expectations, and people have an opportunity to report on that success, helps us determine when deep work is getting done which in turn impacts trust between coworkers.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<h3>Remote culture is still culture:</h3>
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Culture may be the single hardest thing to maintain in remote, and arguably, the most important. But who decided that culture happens around the water cooler? Your culture adds should be unique to your company - so pay attention to your employees.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
RIGHT??! "Who came up with the idea that culture happens around the water cooler?" <a href="https://twitter.com/dcwarrington?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@dcwarrington</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/doist?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@doist</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/qatalog?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@qatalog</a> roundtable on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/hybridwork?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#hybridwork</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/remotework?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#remotework</a> <a href="https://t.co/gd9J2343kV">pic.twitter.com/gd9J2343kV</a>
&mdash; Leah Taylor 💃🏼 (@leahtaylor) <a href="https://twitter.com/leahtaylor/status/1415351256583872520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 14, 2021</a></blockquote>

<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>

<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Culture is built into the little moments. And all of the things listed above, when done correctly, will showcase your dedication to a people-focused culture.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

And what&rsquo;s a good webinar without those few golden-nugget quotes? We&rsquo;ll probably be coming back to these for a while:&nbsp;

<h4 style="text-align: center;">&ldquo;Work is something that we do, not somewhere we go.&rdquo;&nbsp;</h4>
Laurel Farrer

<h4 style="text-align: center;">&nbsp;&ldquo;Culture is built into the little moments&rdquo;&nbsp;</h4>
Lila Millsap

<h4 style="text-align: center;">&ldquo;Trust can sound abstract, I don&rsquo;t know any remote company that thrives that doesn&rsquo;t focus on trust.&rdquo;&nbsp;</h4>
Chase Warrington

Again, a huge thanks to our panelists and viewers for making our first webinar such a fantastic learning experience. We&rsquo;re already thinking about what to chat about in our next webinar, so keep your feedback coming.&nbsp;

We spoke with Lila Millsap (InVision), Laurell Farrer (Distribute), and Chase Warrington (Doist) about building healthy hybrid habits.

Build your digital office | Qatalog blog

What we learned about building a healthy hybrid workforce in our panel discussion.

Work hub

Use cases

Who it's for

Work hub

Too much noise in your org?

Qatalog posts reach the right people at the right time.

Sarah needs to catch up on...everything

Be more connected without more meetings or messages. Share updates in the right channels automatically.

post

ˈpoʊst / noun

It’s time for a new way of work

See what’s important

Search across your tools

Centralize projects

Align on goals

Automate processes

Build belonging

Unlock your work potential

More from Qatalog

Allison Whalen on building programs that support employees

Jen Leary on remote friction points

Webinar recap: building a digital office in a hybrid world

Official partners

Product

Resources

Company

Legal

Follow Us