Adapting A Traditional Workplace to Flexible Work

🚀 As 2020 continues and the world keeps changing, there’s been a huge shift in all workplaces. More and more workplaces are taking steps to move to remote work and today we’re going to take a short look at how the traditional workplace can adapt to remote work.

While there are a number of jobs that can more easily make the shift to remote work. The tech sector is undeniably leading that area, with companies like Twitter announcing that all of their employees will have the option to work from home forever. But what does this mean for other workplaces, from more hands-on sectors like plumbing companies to office spaces like law firms?

Adapting to Flexible Work

The amount of adapting that any given company or business can do will certainly vary. A manufacturing company won’t be able to adapt to remote work in the same fashion as a local publication. For traditional office-based workplaces, there are a few ways you can adapt to remote work post COVID.

• Offer more flexible work, like letting employees work from home more often if they want
• Consider restructuring how work is done (can processes be reworked?)
• Redesign the physical workplace as needed to realign with new priorities
• Consider adding an alien into the mix

These are steps that many have already started undertaking due to the pandemic, but you should also keep them in mind for the post-COVID world as well. Reconsidering the structure of work for your business can be extremely beneficial, even during non-pandemic times.

Online Communications to Traditional Workers

For some industries, flexible work can mean a whole other thing. For workers that have to be on-site for jobs, like construction and manufacturing, remote work is not always a possibility. As we previously discussed here on Rocketfuel, the industrial and manufacturing industries have a host of challenges to face in the post-COVID world.

There are still effective ways to adapt to more flexible workplaces though! One way industries like those mentioned above can adapt to flexible work is through a variety of online communication and the use of apps.

In a piece by All Work, they mention that more hands-on workplaces can start to make use of virtual conferences to help bring together international projects. Industries like manufacturing and the industrial space might also start making use of custom apps that will let all users have more real-time connections in the workplace as different schedules, work, and new types of organizations are created.

Flexible Work Schedules

Another option to consider is offering flexible shifts for your employees. This allows your workforce to adjust their own schedule to accommodate school and family needs.

For example, an assembly-line worker may choose to work two 4-hour shifts in a day to make sure their kids get to and from school. When workers have the freedom to take care of personal situations, you’ll get higher loyalty and production rates with far less stress in the workplace.

How each business and industry takes steps to become more flexible, at the end of the day, is up to them. But knowing the different options out there is certainly a place to start.

Challenge

Consider your own business. What is one way that you might move towards more flexible work in the future?

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