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The Flexible Culture

In today’s article, I wanted to talk about the culture that is really gaining momentum. Though this is not anything new, many refer to this as “The New Flexible Culture”. Realistically it has been around for decades but only available to a select few who worked for forward-thinking companies that understood the value.

So what is a flexible culture? If you haven’t heard about it, it is really simple. In a flexible culture gone are the days of punching into a time clock and sitting in your cubical for at least eight hours a day dressed to whatever dress code is enforced. In today’s virtual world everyone is connected. Through applications such as Zoom, Web-ex, and Go To Meeting, just to name a few; these applications make it easy to have face to face meetings with your team virtually and just as effectively. So today’s office environment isn’t really an office at all. It is a virtual network of people working from home. While yes, you may still need an office for meetings, presentations to customers, and other external reasons, there is no need for team members to drive to an office every day and punch in.

There are still naysayers that don’t embrace this work environment because they believe they are not getting the same effort from their team as they would if they were at the office where they can be whipped, I mean, watched.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the way of the future and happens to be the format we use in my group. Why have your team drive, in many cases several hours in traffic, to get to an office where they can start work when they can roll out of bed and start working immediately? They also can spend time with their families during break, lunch, or even when things slow down. In my experience, they are much happier and much more productive in this scenario. I find my team online working over the weekends, after five, and even sometimes in the wee early morning hours because it fits their schedules better. This is also a huge money saver for them, in gas, wear and tear on their vehicles, clothes, not mention daycare for those with small children.

However, to really be forward thinking you need to extend this flexible culture to your field team as well. Now I understand that in some cases you need your team to work the hours your customers are available. I mean obviously, you cannot have a service technician show up at someone’s home at 2:00 AM. However, there are many ways in which you can offer extended flexibility to your frontline team members. While I cannot address every possible application, I will share one we are implementing next week. In the electrical world, we have positions called apprentices. The standard way that you provide training to these positions is to enroll them into an apprenticeship program where they have to drive to a school and attend classes two nights a week for four years. This is the method we were using in the past. However, by listening to our team, we received feedback that it is very taxing on them. It causes them to lose overtime hours when available, costs them gas money to get to the schools, and time away from their family. So, by working with a great mentor of mine, Mike Holt; his company has a virtual, study at home, training process that mirrors the apprentice programs but with more skills, much better books, videos, and other products. This allows our team members to work at their own pace from home and reduces the stress on their personal lives. While some people are not self-disciplined enough to follow a study at home program, we still offer the traditional apprenticeship programs. However, for those that can complete the training quicker, in a more relaxed environment, this is the perfect program for them. This is just one way you can offer flexible culture options to your frontline team members.

Remember, as a business owner, or manager, it is your responsibility to help your team be as successful as possible and build the American Dream for themselves. By being open-minded and actually listening to your team, you can usually come up with answers to better their lives. But first you, yourself, need to be flexible.