The past two years have shown that employees desire greater flexibility — and they’re willing to change jobs to get it. Flexibility has tremendous benefits for employees, including reduced burnout and greater job satisfaction. It can also result in spiraling coordination costs for managers, untenable amounts of wasted effort, and the inability to respond quickly to client requests.

If employees want the benefits of flexibility, they’ll also need to shoulder some of the responsibility that goes with it, like autonomous problem-solving and providing and checking for updates. However, that doesn’t mean setting them adrift in the storm. Managers are still responsible for making sure everyone is rowing to the correct location in the same direction — even if they’re rowing at different times. To increase flexibility for employees without losing productivity — or sanity — managers will need to think differently about when employees work together, who works together, and how to share information and with whom, all while being careful to stay abreast of any changes and rapidly communicating changes in priorities.

Here are four ways managers can offer their teams flexibility without breaking under the coordination costs or significantly stalling progress.

  1. Rethink when employees work together. Managers will need to think differently and deeply about project requirements and schedule accordingly. Scheduling bursts significantly reduce process loss and project restart costs, especially when members work on multiple projects.
  2. Rethink who works together. Managers should look to supplement vertical coordination (i.e., figure out how to get this project completed and accommodate employee requests) with horizontal coordination among groups of employees (members need to help figure out how to complete their portion of the project and adjust for each other’s requests).
  3. Rethink information sharing. Information availability is critical for flexible workplaces. There are numerous tools to facilitate asynchronous work. However, employees must actually use and update them in real time.
  4. Revisit what employees are working on. Understanding the connections between different tasks is especially crucial for setting priorities to avoid bottlenecks. Frequently and clearly communicating priorities will help ensure that your employees’ time and efforts are well spent, no matter when or where they’re working.

 

Reference: Harvard Business Review (2022, February 1) Margaret M. Luciano: 4 Ways Managers Can Increase Flexibility Without Losing Productivity