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“If you get your work done, nothing else matters.”
— Dan Price, Gravity Payments
As we try to reopen our companies and bring back our teams, research shows 60% of employees want to work from home, while others prefer a hybrid format.
At first, I wondered how the team at CMA would perform from their dining rooms. Then I realized that most of the projects we work on are online digital platforms where we draft and schedule our social media platforms, perform Google and Yelp reports and complete website development. Most of these programs are scheduled on Airtable.com or other apps that can easily be tracked from any computer to see who logged on and how many hours they spent on each detail.
When Gravity Payments CEO Dan Price sent out a survey to his employees, 7% wanted to go back to work full-time, 31% wanted a hybrid format and 62% wanted to work only from home. What Price realized is the employee you have is more valuable than the one you are going to have to train.
We all have read about emotional intelligence; this desire to work from home is a prime example of managing emotions of others and understanding the needs of employees. If they feel better, they will work better and be more loyal. I believe CMA will be a better company by creating emotional connections within the staff. If we mess up and don’t do our homework before hiring, then that is on us as employers. I don’t have time to do surveillance, but I can see on my Airtable what the staff is producing. To date, I have had some disappointments, and as a team we have had a few employees leave, but overall, I have had good results and retained long-term employees because we have been flexible with work schedules. The reason people work for CMA is that it offers a lifestyle, a lifestyle of family first, then work.
If my team can produce the work and stay ahead of deadlines and the clients are happy, then why sweat the small stuff? This empowers the team. I understand they are here to make time count, instead of counting the time.
At CMA, we provide a protocol for each employee and strict structures to support the work that needs to be done. If someone discovers a better way of doing something or finds a better application, we listen and act when change is needed. We establish guidelines regarding expected response times for emails and projects. Good clear goals and objectives are a part of each project with a lot of online meetings and follow through correspondence. Let’s not forget to mention that many of us want to wear our ball caps and sweats to work.
“Wearing a mask has saved me hours in make-up & lipstick purchases. I feel resentful when others want me to show up dressed & ready for an in-person meeting.”
— Victoria, Favela’s restaurant
The bottom line: take risks and treat mistakes like a lesson for learning what not to do in the future. Provide a coach for the team and help everyone feel like her opinion matters.
CMA won’t be returning to the office anytime soon, maybe never again. A job well done deserves praise. I would rather focus on the positive outcomes of each project and our successes than how many hours each employee spends at the office each week. The Great Resignation is real. I would rather keep rowing the canoe in one direction, listening and reacting to the needs of human-beings on my team who work harder than most and care and understand what our jobs are, and that is to make our clients happy. If we do that, I will never tell anyone they have to sit in a chair in the office five days a week. It is the personal relationships that matter most to me.
Source: Inc.