We’ve all heard of work-life balance. But a more accurate description might be “work-life integration”. The reality is that today, we seldom have clearly delineated blocks of work and personal activity. The two overlap constantly.
Businesses that acknowledge this and design their systems accordingly can gain a significant advantage over their competitors – in terms of efficiencies, staff performance, and recruitment.
The work-from-home, hybrid-work model established during the Covid pandemic has proven popular among staff. A recent survey found that jobs advertising hybrid or remote work attract 169% more applications. Another study showed that 56.5% of women professionals prefer hybrid work.
While the same research found that the percentage of remote jobs advertised was down from its peak during the pandemic, it remains significant, at 3.7%.
This data confirms our experience as a professional services firm. Hybrid work is still a factor among our corporate clients, even if it is becoming less common.
Disruptive hybrid approaches
Since Covid, while many corporates are steadily luring or forcing their staff back to work, several global organisations have embraced flexible, remote work as company policy.
File-sharing and collaboration platform Dropbox uses a “virtual-first” policy, complete with a Virtual Work Manifesto, reminding staff that “everything is a prototype; go async by default; make (virtual) work human; keep it simple; and design for joy”.
The Pinterest Pinflex model allows employees to spend up to 90 days a year working outside their country of employment. Spotify follows a Work From Anywhere policy, in the conviction that “work is something you do, not somewhere you go”.
Of course, these organisations are in the minority, and the global trend is towards spending more time at the office. While it’s debatable whether the dynamics behind this are solely about productivity, hybrid work has gained general acceptance, even if staff spend most of their work time at the office.
Research published in the Harvard Business School Journal of Economics and Management Strategy found that the median business owner sees remote work having a positive impact on productivity.
Interestingly, the same research found that 21 percent of workers said they would be willing to accept a pay cut of more than 10 percent if they could work from home.
In South Africa, Michael Page research has found that when working remotely, 87% of professionals surveyed did not reduce their working hours, and 63% of South Africa-based professionals said their productivity increased when working from home.
The work-from-home culture is not without its drawbacks. A case study among software engineers at a Fortune 500 company found that in-office proximity helped young coders and women get better feedback and mentorship on their work from their colleagues.
In our experience at Moore Infinity, we have chosen an extremely hybrid solution, and seen it deliver excellent results.
The average Moore Infinity staff member only comes to the office once a week. We have also developed an outcomes-based approach to our staff deliverables, moving away from the timesheets approach.
Our policies allow many of our staff members to base themselves in towns far from our head-office in Bryanston, Johannesburg – even in other countries. We trust our people to deliver, and our work policy reflects that.
By contrast, most South African organisations appear to be committed to getting their people back to the office. For businesses in manufacturing or hospitality, this makes sense. But it might not be necessary for finance teams, for instance.
The fight for talent
The possibilities of remote work become even more compelling if one considers the talent scarcity in the South African corporate sector.
Employers need to attract talented young professionals, who have the option of working in other countries – or even remotely, from South Africa. Employers are fighting a kind of digital emigration.
In this environment, one way employers can differentiate themselves is through generous leave policies, or by directly linking delivery speed to time off.
“This project is budgeted to take four weeks,” a manager might tell their team. “But if client signs it off in three, you can have the fourth week as leave.”
This kind of “infinite leave” incentive can generate excellent results, boosting productivity and raising motivation and staff morale. We use this approach in our business, and we find it also reduces the incidence of burnout, which comes from one deadline flowing directly into another.
Hybrid work as business strategy
Hybrid work can be an important part of a business’s strategic planning, empowering future business growth and attracting business partners.
Private-equity investors, for instance, might see a business with a progressive hybrid-work approach as one that promises significant growth and healthy alpha upon exit.
In a globalised talent market, where South Africa is at a currency disadvantage, hybrid work offers a way to leverage the magical Mzansi lifestyle. By unlocking a better quality of work-life integration for our people, we allow them to be happier and more productive, while making our businesses more effective.
- Leonard Roberts is CEO of Moore Infinity
