When Magic Valley Electric (MVE) decided to build their first office in Eastern Idaho, they wanted something special. It had to be a place that reflected their values and was also an exciting place to work. Owner and President Billy Salts started the company in 2013 because he wanted to create something different in the trade. The company has two wings. Magic Valley Electric offers electrical for new construction, including agriculture, industrial, commercial, express, automation, and solar, while Magic Services (established in 2019) provides electrical, plumbing, and HVAC for the residential market. The expansive offering is not the only thing that sets the company apart. According to Salts, “We have an amazing team, and that comes from our core values. We hire and fire off our core values: attitude, character, integrity, vision, and determination. They are our true north.”
Billy Salts Magic Valley Owner & President
“We have an amazing team, and that comes from our core values. We hire and fire off our core values: attitude, character, integrity, vision, and determination. They are our true north.”
Billy Salts
Building Something Different
Salts started in the trade after graduating from high school with no intention of starting a business later. However, after loving the work and moving up in some great companies, he wanted to create something special in the trade. “None of us knew what culture was back then, and the construction industry has always been a little behind the times regarding treating and valuing people. I wanted to be transparent with my team and empower them to be leaders in the company. I wanted to see people succeed and one day take my position. My vision was to build something different; something focused on our team.”
Conference Room With Workstations Behind
Bright Colors & Open Sightlines
Thanks to their values and excellent team, Magic has just moved into its new location in Boise. When you walk into the building, it looks very different than other electrical contractors. With bright colors, clean furnishings, and open sightlines, it creates an energetic atmosphere that makes it an amazing place to work. It is the same way for all the offices. With such a unique space, no one would know how close Magic came to looking like everyone else.
Environment Affects Culture
In 2018, just before finalizing design plans for Magic Services’ building in Jerome, Salts visited DMA, a lighting vendor in Boise. He had an office design that he didn’t love but was ready to move forward with when a chance encounter changed things. While walking through DMA, he noticed how great their desks looked. The owner quickly shared that the Steelcase desks had come from OEC down the road. Salts stopped by the OEC showroom to investigate and was blown away. “I remember taking a ton of pictures. We were about to move forward with an expensive build that, while special to us, wasn’t going to be different. After leaving OEC, we stopped everything and redesigned our entire office. Our culture is so important, and our environment makes it so much better.”
Workstations
Culture In Action at Magic Valley Electric
The strong culture at Magic and MVE has enabled them to accomplish a massive project recently when they landed a solar project for Circle D Farms. By pulling together their whole team, 215 solar trackers were installed on 43 different sites in the Minidoka and Murtaugh counties. The entire project was done in-house, including six miles of trenching, thirteen-hundred yards of concrete, and a very tight deadline. “It took every one of us from our admin team to everybody in the field to make it happen, and we finished within two days of the deadline. It challenged us to dig deep, and that is when our culture really showed up. Our people were smiling and running and gunning and when we finished, it was a celebration. So many of us grew from it, and now we know we can take on even more.”
With teamwork as the focus and a great new office to support its new Boise team, the Team at Magic and MVE is excited to see what the future has in store.
Dave was sent home on Friday the 13th. In true spooky fashion he got back from lunch having no idea what was going on as his coworkers walked past him, carrying laptops and monitors. His entire office was being sent to work from home with no specifications on what equipment they could take or how long they would be gone. Some individuals brought home task chairs, while others who rode their bikes had to beg for a ride home with their gear. It was a little unnerving and understandably so. Now, Dave would be managing remotely for the next two years.
Dave Stout Test Development Engineer in Boise onsemi
When Managing Remotely, Make Information Accessible
Unlike many who were sent home, Dave was partially prepared for remote work. As the manager of test engineering for onsemi’s industrial and commercial sensor division, Dave is used to managing teams in Meridian, Taiwan, and Bangalore, India. “Managing remotely is not a new thing for me, but I definitely think working from home is new for the individual contributors.” Dave started managing a local team before taking on his remote groups, so he had to learn a different management style. This semi-prepared him to help foster the development and the transition of other people from working
strictly in the office to working out. “In a way, it was perfect preparation for when we all came home for COVID. It allowed me to use similar methodologies for my local team. In the beginning, I spent a lot of time showing employees how to find information on what they were doing in different systems. Before, they could ask someone down the row from them. Now, it is more efficient for them to check our system.”
Eliminate Distractions
However, managing remotely is different than working remotely yourself. “I have a wife and three kids (two kids at the time) and a dog. The kids didn’t have school and figured that since I was home, I could play. So, it was not just an adjustment for me but for my kids and my wife, who already worked from home full time. We had to figure out how to coexist during working hours while two kids were doing school online, and my wife and I had constant conference calls.”
Once everything settled down, Dave discovered that he got more done at home than at work. “I love working from home. My kids know not to bother me, whereas when I am working at the office, someone will come to talk to me, and I’ll get distracted. I feel like I’m a lot more efficient at home because I can eliminate the distractions of the workplace.”
“When there are issues, we will have daily meetings for a few minutes. I can ask if there are any problems I can help with and be done in five minutes compared to an entire hour. “
Dave Stout
Do Five Minute Remote Check-Ins
Unfortunately, working from home does not work for everyone. Some of Dave’s team needs to be in the office to be most productive, while others split their time. With this new flexibility, Dave has implemented some procedures he does with his overseas teams. “When there are issues, we will have daily meetings for a few minutes. I can ask if there are any problems I can help with and be done in five minutes compared to an entire hour. It is a way we can stay in tune with each other as if we were talking over the cube wall.”
“Working from home allows me to be more creative, energized, focused, and intentional at work and with my family.”
Dave Stout
Use Your Flexible Schedule To Be With Your Family
Maintaining a good work/life balance is hard in the tech industry because it is cutthroat and busy. It can often look like eight-to-ten-hour days in the office with additional work at home. For Dave, working from home helped relieve the stress and find balance. “With my first two kids, I didn’t spend nearly as much time with them as I could with my third child when she was born. When the first two kids were born, I took three or four weeks off, and then it was back to work. There was a lot of growth in the first two years of their life that I wasn’t there for. “
“At home, I can walk into the kitchen, and there’s my 18-month-old running around and running up to me. I get to spend more time seeing her develop and participating in her development. My other kids come home from school now, and I can spend time with them. Then I get back to work after they go to bed and catch India as they are coming online. Working from home allows me to be more creative, energized, focused, and intentional at work and with my family.”
Solve Problems In -Person
As great as it is to work from home, there are times when Dave chooses to go into the office. Typically, it has to do with solving problems. “When we are jotting down ideas to solve problems, it is important to have someone’s full attention and brainpower. People don’t have their cameras on working from home, so I don’t know if they are actually paying attention. A lot of times, they are multitasking. So, when I need someone’s full attention, I’ll ask for us to sit around a table and hash it out, which gets better results. The other thing is the personal relationship with employees. Having face-to-face contact is important for developing relationships. It is easy to turn off a computer screen at home and not form relationships, so improving my relationship with my team will always pull me back into the office.”
*Dave will be featured in our next edition discussing how onsemi is handling the work from home compromise.
Read Part 1 and Part 2 of the Great Workplace Compromise now!
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Before Covid, Brendan was living and working full-time in San Francisco. He had an apartment in Presidio Heights and took the bus into work every day. Now, he works remotely and splits his time between the Bay Area and Boise as a digital nomad. As a Product Manager at Autolist for their Android app, Brendan can work remotely as long as he has his computer and a good Wi-Fi connection.
Brendan Spillane Senior Project Manager in San Francisco & Boise Autolist
The Bay To Boise
When Covid hit, San Francisco shut down, so Brendan decided to not renew his lease in the city and spend part of his time in Boise, where he grew up. “I get the best of both worlds. San Francisco and Boise are very different, and I enjoy both, so traveling back and forth has been great.” When he made the change, there were still many unknowns about when the office would reopen, and luckily Autolist did not require a hard and fast return.
Onboarding Is Critical
However, remote work isn’t for everyone. It is no secret that some employees have felt isolated while working from home, perhaps more for those onboarding remotely. Autolist has had to be proactive about bringing on new, remote staff. “If you had already been established at a company before the company went remote, it’s easier to keep strong relationships with other teammates. But if you are starting new at a remote company and don’t know anyone, it is more challenging. At Autolist, we believe onboarding is critical for new hires to meet the broader team. Each new hire has a 20-minute casual meeting scheduled with every other teammate (we only have twenty-five people), which helps the new hire meet everyone within a couple of weeks.”
Set A Strick Calendar Schedule
For those used to the office, transitioning to a full work-from-home experience was not easy, and Brendan learned a few lessons along the way. “I learned how important it is to set a strict calendar schedule. When working remote, there is not a natural end to your workday like leaving the office to commute home. Work and personal time can blend together, and it can be hard to keep these priorities separate. I learned to set a strict schedule and put both work and personal responsibilities on my calendar in order to achieve a healthy work-life balance.”
“I recommend people invest heavily in their home office space. If you are going to sit in a chair and use a desk all day, getting the right equipment to create an environment for success is super valuable.”
Brendan Spillane
Create A Productive Environment As A Digital Nomad
Brendan’s favorite thing about working from home is his office. “I like that I can customize my home workspace more than I could in an office. With a stipend, I can buy anything from wall art to a desk plant, which allows me to set up an environment where I can be most productive. I recommend people invest heavily in their home office space. If you are going to sit in a chair and use a desk all day, getting the right equipment to create an environment for success is super valuable.”
Check “The Great Workplace Compromise Part 1” now!
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When Covid hit in the early months of 2020 there was speculation that the office would change forever. Employees were sent home without return dates and in many cases they were unprepared for the challenges that lay ahead. Fast forward to the present and those remote employees have settled into the comfort and flexibility of working from home and are loathe to give it up for the same old office and schedule. A great workplace compromise is coming.
Now Employers Want Their Teams Back In The Office
After undergoing such a massive change and adapting to their new environment, is it fair for employers to call their staff back to the office full time? Are there benefits to working from home instead of the office? This is a debate that many companies are having right now.
In This Issue Employees Make Their Case For WFH
At OEC, we believe the opinions of employers and their employees should lead the decision-making in this great workplace compromise. In the next two issues we will hear from both sides on the work from home issue and learn how local companies are adapting to the new landscape.
David Berry Senior Project Manager in Boise Power Engineers
David Berry is a busy man. When he isn’t managing design teams at five different locations with POWER Engineers, he is brokering deals between companies, lecturing at BSU, and helping his wife care for their five-month-old twins.
For some, juggling these jobs would seem impossible, but as David says, “I’m a short attention span person that likes a challenge.” And a challenge is exactly what he got when he was sent to work from home over two years ago. He quickly went from traveling about one hundred days a year to ten and does most of his work in his laundry room office. After undergoing such a large change like this, it is understandable that employees would want a workplace compromise.
Improve Communication & Onboarding
One of the main challenges David has discovered is communication. “So much of the way we communicated and interacted before the pandemic was face to face. Since then, direct communication has fallen off, and there are also generational aspects to consider. Our younger staff is very good at using instant messaging and emails rather than phone calls, but they struggle to ask questions effectively.
Mentoring has been a difficult process over the last two years, and younger staff need to know how to find information and problem-solve to be successful.” To help fix this problem, David has been creating time templates or outlines for onboarding so they can get remote staff up to speed quickly. Additionally, using video conferencing and other technology has been the key to POWER’s success and growth through the pandemic.
“Mentoring has been a difficult process over the last two years, and younger staff need to know how to find information and problem-solve to be successful.”
David Berry
Learn How To Disconnect
The flexibility of working from home is a double-edged sword for David and his team of consultants. “Walking a couple of rooms over to work is great, but it is also harder to disconnect. My team and I are billable commodities selling our time to firms, so we are always on call. It’s difficult to shut off.”
David tries to have a hard stop every day now at seven. He often works an eleven-hour day, but being home allows him to help care for his kids, which is impossible to do in the office. Having the hard stop for family time keeps him from inevitably being drawn back to work. “I think everyone will continue to struggle with defining those work/life boundaries because working from home has become the norm. It will be interesting to see how that affects our mental fatigue and burnout.”
Prevent Burnout By Recharging
The idea of burnout has not gotten a lot of analysis or investigation. Those who have worked from home can attest to how easy it is to work longer hours, and David makes a good point. “No one can really go from college to a twelve-hour workday. In the same way, very few people can work longer hours without recharging. Some can push through weeks with sixteen-to-eighteen-hour days like accountants in tax season, but then they allow themselves to recover. It is the same way with working from home.”
Workplace Compromise: Realign Client Expectations
Without a doubt, there will always be more work to do. So, the best way David has learned to create time to recharge is by realigning client expectations. “I want to be the manager I feel like I never had in my first ten years of work. I never felt like my manager would bump a schedule for me or fully advocate for the production staff when we were stretched thin with deliverables and deadlines. So, I am trying to align customer expectations, so my team members know I have their backs. If we can’t make a deadline or feel as though quality is suffering because we’re rushing, I will do what I can to internally address items, and then I will have a transparent conversation with the client to reset their expectations.”
*David will be featured in our next edition discussing the work from home compromise from a leadership point of view.
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Layton Construction has been in business for almost 70 years. It has grown from a small, family-held construction company to a major Contractor operating in eight states. Idaho is just one of the states where Layton’s Interior Construction Specialists (ICS) branch operates. To learn more about Layton and the incredible team at ICS, OEC met with ICS Senior Project Manager Tracey Felix and Layton’s Superintendent Jason Horst at an active job site in Meridian.
Dark To Dazzling
At the moment, Elase Medical Spa is a 3,400sf gray jungle of metal framing. However, in the fall of 2022, it will be a dazzling white, high-ceilinged consultation and treatment center offering high quality services with everything from BOTOX and CoolSculpting to skincare and laser hair removal. This Meridian branch will be Elase’s fifth location, with the other four currently in the Salt Lake region.
The project is a design-build, and even as Tracey gives the tour, there are decisions she is making with the owner. What kind of bottle filler do they want, how can they get the most usable space out of their storage room, and how will OEC install the gauzy blue curtain in their lobby? Having a trustworthy construction partner like ICS is what brings customers back time and again.
Elase Medical Spa: Sugar House Location
Local ICS Projects
ICS was founded in 2000 to supply the demand for sophisticated, quality tenant improvement and remodeling services. Since its founding, ICS has become the Top TI Contractor in the Intermountain West. It’s not just Elase that has built a trusting relationship with ICS over the years – companies like Traeger Grills, Google, Pluralsight, Zions Bank, and Workday, to name a few – have partnered with ICS time and again to ensure the most quality, predictable outcome. ICS expanded to Denver, Colorado in 2018 and last year, officially opened an office in the busy Boise market.
The Key To Success: Hiring the Right Team Members
What is the key to their success? It differs depending on whom you ask. Tracey says, “I think it is the fairness to subcontractors. We want to see them succeed and that is why we are so particular about whom we hire.”
Jason plays off Tracey, adding integrity as a significant factor. “We always want to do the right thing and hire people with integrity. We don’t cut corners, and we want to get it right the first time by communicating with owners.”
Layton’s Integrity
Layton headquarters would be proud of these two. According to their value statement, Layton’s goal is to construct with integrity through honesty, safety, unity, and quality. Honesty includes having sometimes hard but truthful conversations with owners to make good decisions.
They are also intensely dedicated to the safety of their teams. Their teams stretch and flex every morning and conduct random safety checks to ensure everyone is compliant. Layton also implements unity through mutual respect and guarantees quality by paying close attention to the details.
Layton’s project team at work
Celebrating Their Staff
By staying true to these values, Layton and, by extension, ICS retains excellent talent. For example, the Elase Job Superintendent has been with the company for over fifteen years. Layton also celebrates their staff on their five-year anniversaries by giving them a paid trip. Their teams work hard, and they take care of their teams in return.
When considering the fantastic work Layton and ICS are doing on its projects, it is no wonder Elase has chosen to partner with them again. Under the watchful eye of ICS and Layton, Elase will be having its grand opening in no time.
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When I was a little kid I had a favorite thinking space in my home. The space was a teeny, little hidden area behind where we would place our Christmas tree. To get to my secret thinking space I would crawl under a little storage hutch next to the tree and when the tree was decorated you couldn’t tell I was back there. Thankfully, my mom put the Christmas tree up early and I was able to enjoy my space for almost a full month.
I still like the idea of being “alone” in my thinking space. I don’t have a Christmas tree up all year long, but I do have a location and time where I get my best thinking done. My office is relatively empty between 5am – 6:30am so I have a quiet place and time where I can get some of my best thinking and subsequently my best work done.
What about you? Where do you get your best work done? Do you have a time and place to go to where you feel comfortable and can do your best work? If not, I highly suggest you do some reflection on the subject and identify when you are at your best. Then make sure you recreate that time and experience as often as possible.
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Helping people work better in the hybrid future of work.
Even before the pandemic, some organizations began experimenting with mobile work — for example, shifting the ownership for spaces and offering more choice and control, expecting people to move about a campus and select where they worked based on their activities and tasks. And some companies also employed hybrid work, giving employees flexibility in working from home when warranted. Now, the practice has become the mainstream for many organizations — even those who believed it wasn’t a fit for them.
Whatever the ultimate scope of hybrid work, there can be no question the pandemic greatly compressed the timeline for widespread adoption.
Hybrid work is not practical for every company or job type, of course, but any organization for which it is feasible will likely have to offer it — or watch talent drift to competitors that do. Studies show that the freedom to work remotely is a significant part of the value equation when employees weigh the pros and cons of prospective employers.
Now more than ever, employees enjoy significant influence with employers and within the job market. A talent revolution was underway well before the pandemic hit. Demand exceeds supply, partially because technology-assisted mobility means skilled workers can cast a wide net for job prospects. For employees, there are greater opportunities to move away from major metropolitan areas to lower cost areas, because proximity to a workplace matters less than it once did. For employers, competition for talent comes from everywhere, not just companies located nearby.
Having experienced the convenience of working from home, employees know they are in a strong position to demand continued flexibility in their working arrangements. Meanwhile, employers are well-aware they are confronting a seismic shift in employee expectations.
Hybrid work is here to stay and the ability to work in the office as well as at home or remote locations can be the best of both worlds — but only when it is a fit to an organization’s culture, is managed well and part of an effective overall work experience.
89% of business leaders globally expect to offer some level of choice and hybrid work options.
78% of employees say they want some remote and flexible working options to continue.
In planning a hybrid approach, it’s best to remember that both in-person and remote work have benefits, and both have a place in the work experience.
Overview of hybrid work models
When adopting a hybrid work strategy, organizations can structure the arrangement in multiple ways, depending on what works best for their business. Some organizations prefer the traditional approach—everyone in the office all the time. Others are moving in the opposite direction, allowing employees to work away from the office whenever they want with no restrictions.
Most organizations, though, fall somewhere between, experimenting with some variation of the following:
Days of the week. In this model, the employer specifies how many days each week employees must work in the office—typically three, though it could be more or fewer. This provides flexibility to accommodate the needs of both teams and individuals. Some companies set the number of days in the office and then allow team leaders to determine which days of the week will be inoffice days.
In other cases, organizations are being more specific about the days of the week people must be in the office. For example, people might be expected in the office Tuesday through Thursday, and free to work at home Monday and Friday. This approach gives employees the flexibility to work alone while maintaining the competitive and cultural benefits of working together. The fixed schedule makes it easier to coordinate in-person meetings.
Number of weeks per month. Some organizations want employees present for a full week at a time, often either one or two weeks each month. The specific weeks in question are either mandated for the entire organization or left to the discretion of team leaders.
Leader decides. A few companies leave the in-office and out-of-office patterns up to leaders and they are comfortable with employees spending the bulk of their workdays out of the office, asking only that they report in person occasionally. What constitutes “occasionally” is left up to team leaders.
When choosing a hybrid model, organizations need to consider the nature of their work, as well as how much in-person interaction is needed to maintain their culture. It will be important they communicate not just how much time they expect people to be in the office, but why they want people to show up—the benefits they expect for employees and for the organization based on in-person work.
Talent competition matters, too. The harder it is to attract people, the more it makes sense to consider a policy which provides the employee plenty of autonomy and choice, while also ensuring people have the opportunity to connect with colleagues and feel part of the culture.
Remember, though, that today’s policy almost certainly will not be forever. Any organization instituting a hybrid policy will likely improve it over time based on productivity measures, cultural considerations and employee feedback.
Top considerations: balance, change, and choice
Whatever hybrid approach organizations choose, they will need to keep in mind some key considerations and the process can be complex. Best practice is to find what works, and then continually learn and intentionally fine-tune over time. To this end, organizations would do well to keep the following considerations in mind:
What’s best for individual employees might not be best for their work teams or the organization as a whole — it’s important to consider the right balance of both. Certainly, individual employees will appreciate the flexibility afforded by a hybrid approach. The elimination of commuting time alone triggers a marked improvement in work-life satisfaction.
On the other hand, time spent in the office contributes to camaraderie, collaboration, mentorship and morale. It’s tough to maintain a meaningful culture if employees don’t work within the culture. Finding the right balance between individual and organizational needs is perhaps the biggest challenge inherent in hybrid work.
Whatever the balance, remember that it will almost certainly be redefined over time. The extensive migration to hybrid work is an economic novelty. We don’t know what we don’t know. Just about everyone agrees that hybrid work is here to stay, but no one can be sure of the extent — it will be important to balance short term solutions with longer term approaches.
At some organizations, hybrid acceptance will grow while at others, the pendulum might swing back, settling closer to the pre-pandemic work style. In either case, the role of the office and the best work experiences will need to evolve, and prudent leaders will anticipate the likelihood of tweaking hybrid work and set expectations accordingly.
Remember the extent to which employees want choice. Steelcase studies have found that workers are more engaged and productive when they enjoy greater choice and control. And in addition to choice, it’s also fair that employers set expectations and hold people accountable for how work gets done — ensuring work contributes to team and organizational outcomes. Working from home or remote locations can be a perk, but this must be balanced with how an organization needs to sustain its business and its culture.
The most attractive employers will give their people the flexibility to work wherever they can work best for the task at hand. That might be at home, in a coffee shop or at any number of spaces within the office.
COLLABORATION WITH REMOTE TEAM MEMBERS
Effective collaboration is challenging when meetings involve two types of participants — those present in the office and those logging in remotely. Even before hybrid work entered the lexicon, most office workers had some experience collaborating with long-distance business partners. Now it’s time to take that experience and use it to develop best practices for hybrid collaboration among colleagues who previously worked together. Here are some protocols to consider:
Share schedules. Develop a system for sharing schedules so there is never a question about who will be in the office on any given day.
Social start. Start each meeting with a few minutes of casual conversation to build social capital—and don’t forget to make introductions if there is a chance any participants have not met before, whether in person or virtually.
Video on. Lessen the sense of distance by creating a cultural expectation that remote participants will have their video on whenever possible.
Check sound. Know the location of microphones in the meeting room and make sure remote participants can hear everyone.
Check sight. Consider assigning an in-person participant to pay attention to what remote participants are seeing. Perhaps the camera needs to move or a photo of markerboard content needs to be sent.
Pause with purpose. Stop regularly and ask remote participants if they have input. Develop engagement protocols such as who monitors the chat and whether it’s necessary to raise hands digitally before commenting.
Clear next steps. Bear in mind that remote participants miss any wrap-up conversation after a meeting ends. Make this less of an issue by bringing meetings to a hard close with a clear summary of decisions and next steps.
Encourage intentional decisions
Hybrid work policies empower people to choose where they can do their best work within appropriate boundaries set by the organization. Employers have an opportunity to encourage employees and teams to be planful about how they can best accomplish their work. A key to success is for employees to make intentional decisions about where they can be most effective using the following criteria as a starting point.
The nature of work. When confronting a day that promises routine, repetitive or contemplative tasks, and when the environment supports the work, working solo from home is probably fine. When complex, urgent or collaborative matters are on the agenda, however, the office rightfully beckons. Face-to-face is also better when employees need to brainstorm or generate ideas.
Sensitive matters. Video technology makes it possible to meet virtually, but it’s poorly suited to capturing non-verbal cues that help hone communication. For this reason, difficult or challenging conversations should occur in person whenever possible.
Finding motivation. Too much time at home can feel monotonous. When employees need an energy boost, a day at the office could be just the solution. The change of scenery, the act of moving around the office, the surrounding buzz of activity — all can boost wellbeing and stimulate productivity.
Finding respite. Traditional advice about work-life fulfillment suggests creating boundaries to keep work concerns away from home life. With the advent of hybrid work, the opposite is just as likely to be a challenge. Home has its own distractions, and a day at the office could offer a much-needed respite.
Connections and career growth. It’s possible to build social capital virtually, but strong relationships require some in person contact as well. Learning from others, building a network and shoring up a league of people who can offer advice and support are best done in person. Leaders should support work-at home initiatives, while reminding employees that presence is important for learning, growth, and meaningful connections.
Make the workplace a magnet
For many employees, the choice between working from home or working in the office barely registers as a choice at all—because they have a clear preference for one or the other. But for many, the decision is not so clear cut. In fact, recent Steelcase research suggests fully 34% of people do not have a preference between working from home or working in the office. This introduces an important opportunity for employers to “earn the commute” — in other words, make it worthwhile for people to make their commute — by creating work experiences which contribute to people’s effectiveness and satisfaction.
For starters, people lacking a well equipped, distraction-free home office might well prefer the comforts of their corporate office. Steelcase research shows that many workers would gladly give up some remote days if their corporate space included an assigned space. People also say they prefer reservable work areas so they have a level of predictability in where they will be working on any given day, and can avoid inefficiencies. They also want space to support focus work. This is largely because home offices may not feature the ideal conditions for focus, contemplation or deep concentration. And people also want space which supports belonging as well as comfort and control. Overall, they are expecting offices to support a variety of needs and expectations.
In an economy that increasingly incorporates hybrid work models, organizations need to position their workplace not as an occasional requirement but as a favorable option. The workplace must become a magnet, offering a work experience employees can’t resist — or duplicate at home.
That means workplaces of old might no longer pass muster. Previously, many workplaces were set up to emphasize individual work at workstations. Going forward, they need to offer greater support for connecting and collaborating — essential aspects of a fulfilling work experience for which home offices are ill-suited. This will need to include support for hybrid collaboration in terms of the spaces and technology that support working together when people are both in the office and in remote locations. In recent Steelcase research findings, people significantly prioritized spaces to support hybrid collaboration as critical to a good office experience.
The corporate office should not over emphasize collaboration, however, nor should it concede individual work to home offices. Steelcase research demonstrates people value privacy when they are in the office. After all, some home offices are so cramped or replete with distractions their occupants hardly perceive them as a haven.
Think of the total work experience as consisting of five distinct work modes — focus, collaborate, socialize, rejuvenate and learn. For a workplace to be perceived as a desirable destination, it needs to offer spaces that support all five. This gives employees control of their workday — the autonomy to choose where they want to work based on what they need to accomplish.
In the workplace, a positive sense of control can be satisfied by variety — the ability to choose the right space for the task at hand. Productivity requires access to spaces designed for focus and concentration, as well as building relationships which is key to innovation. Comfort is addressed by rejuvenation spaces — employees who can work at home expect the comforts of home when they go to the office. Belonging is the sense of community provided by spaces designed for collaboration, socializing and learning. Safety, of course, should be a given. From clean offices or effective air filtration to practices like distancing, depending on the current state of public health.
A great workplace is a key part of the overall value equation. However, it is only one aspect of an exceptional work experience. Ideally, organizations will also evaluate other drivers, such as their culture, process, and tools. Culture implies organizational norms and values, process is the way work gets done and tools encompass technology and other work aids.
The graphic below illustrates the relationship between these four attributes — all of which must be present to attract, engage and retain top talent, the kind of people who could choose to work anywhere.
Steelcase research shows that people who like working from their workspace are 33% more engaged. They are 30% more connected with their culture, 9% more productive and 20% less likely to leave their company. Better still, a properly designed workplace can provide the stimulation, connection and choice that makes it a welcome alternative to working from home.
Employees are watching for fairness
Across multiple societies and cultures, fairness is a fundamental human need. A lack of fairness is one of the reasons people will leave an organization. Steelcase research has found fairness is critical—and it must be both real and perceived. Without it, engagement, morale and retention will be negatively affected.
Fairness can be a challenging area to navigate when developing a hybrid work policy. Employees recognize that job roles differ. They understand that everyone likely will not enjoy identical flexibility regarding when and where they work. Even so, it’s important to tread carefully.
Employers must take care to avoid any perception of haves and have nots. The difference being the amount of time different groups of people are required to be in the office.
Be mindful of fairness by establishing overall principles for decisions about hybrid work and by being transparent about how decisions have been made with the principles in mind. Trust grows when employees understand how and why decisions are made.
Be willing to make changes. The notion of hybrid work is new enough that nothing needs to be set in stone. Employees will be more accepting of work-at-home boundaries if they sense an openness toward expanding them if experience merits.
Finally, make accountability part of your culture. Fairness is less likely to be questioned if office workers sense that those with greater freedom are held accountable for performance and results.
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Tips for maintaining engagement
Engagement has always been important for organizations. How best to build engagement has always been a tough question for leaders to answer. That was true when employees were in the office every day. Now, with employees spending more time working remotely, it’s an even greater challenge.
One strategy that can help is to carve out time for teams to focus on the future. Research suggests that employees who look forward to the future are likely to perform better. They also experience a boost in wellbeing. This could be simply asking team members to articulate their plans for the week or month during a meeting. Leaders might also consider dedicated visioning sessions. They can encourage team members to imagine their ideal organizational future and brainstorm ways to get there.
Leaders can also influence engagement by inviting discussion about things that did not go well. Vulnerability helps bring people together. When teams admit mistakes, they can better identify lessons learned and generate ideas for improvement.
In a culture that includes hybrid work, leaders also need to be intentional about providing shared experiences. When people share common goals and work together, the bonds between co-workers grow. It is important to consider engagement in terms of shared and assigned work. While not as powerful, social events also help people get to know each other. Just be judicious in scheduling. Some teams welcome social activities with colleagues while others perceive them as yet another work commitment.
It’s also helpful to look beyond the team, to expand viewpoints and avoid silos. Invite presenters from other teams who can share key, relevant projects with the team, and encourage people to create connections with outside associations or groups which will add value to them or their roles.
People instinctively crave connection. Envisioning the future, being vulnerable, volunteering as a team, and spending informal time together can all help create an environment conducive to engagement.
Tips for building trust
Trust is the cornerstone of strong relationships, but it’s harder to maintain from a distance. Leaders should be mindful of ways to nurture trust when greater acceptance of remote work means less in-person interaction.
Connect with purpose. When employees are not in the office every day, leaders must be intentional about connecting with them when they are. Impromptu connections breed the familiarity that produces trust.
Be predictable. People crave certainty. Accountable leaders build trust. Consistent follow-through is one way this happens. Small things can be big, too. Every greeting, smile and kind query is like making a deposit in a trust bank.
Be easy to read. Employees tend to trust leaders who are easy to read. Consequently, leaders might want to make an extra effort to articulate their thoughts and be open with their expressions.
Praise liberally. Be public with praise for team members and celebrate and recognize great work. In addition, lobby for employees when it is appropriate. Leaders who go to bat for their people tend to foster loyalty in return.
Assume good intentions. If leaders don’t trust certain employees to do their utmost while working remotely, those people probably should not be working for them anyway. Start each relationship with a full tank of trust and hold people accountable for performance. Reassess the relationship if it turns out that complete trust is not warranted.
Unless leaders stay vigilant, hybrid work policies can take a toll on organizational trust over time. Simply being aware of the possibility can help leaders keep trust-building behavior on the radar. They can also be intentional about building trust throughout their work and relationships.
How managers can maintain accessibility
Responsiveness and accessibility are especially important leadership qualities in a hybrid work environment with reduced face-to face interaction. Here are some ideas for helping team members feel close to your organization despite their occasional distance.
When leaders empower people and trust them to their tasks, they can spend more time coaching and making decisions. Resolve to set people free within appropriate boundaries. Leaders have better accessibility when they stay out of the weeds.
Leaders can also increase their responsiveness by providing input and direction in the moment. When a team member asks for guidance, try to provide it right away. Don’t put it off for another meeting. Of course, if the decision making requires more careful assessment, take the necessary time. When it’s possible, more immediate processing helps ensure leaders are not a bottleneck.
In a hybrid environment, small courtesies and interactions can help ensure team members don’t feel distant despite lack of daily proximity.
A watershed opportunity
The widespread adoption of hybrid work is a watershed in the evolution of the workplace. Finding the right hybrid approach is a process for most organizations. The process involves employee input, a willingness to experiment and some trial and error. It’s important to ensure workplaces and work experiences are effective and energizing. You then must set expectations for hybrid work patterns which you can refine over time.
Approach the transition with enthusiasm. Help employees find a balance between working in the office and working remotely. The best work experience happens when employees have the ability to choose where they can be most effective. Ideally, that choice encompasses a destination workplace with enough spatial variety to accommodate every mode of work.
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At OEC, we go through a lot of cardboard waste. We are practically swimming in cardboard at the end of each job between the tables, chairs, workstations, and other products we install. As much as we would like to reduce the amount of cardboard used, it serves the important job of getting quality furniture safely from one place to another. While we can’t reduce our cardboard use, we can recycle it.
Keeping Cardboard Out Of The Landfill
To create sustainability as a business model, OEC recently acquired a cardboard compacter to help deal with jobsite waste. The compactor works by compressing cardboard so tight that you get bales weighing 600-900 pounds each. Over the last month alone, we have produced five bales of cardboard totaling 3,000 – 4,500 pounds of recyclable materials. What would have gone to the landfill is now being recycled in a manner that we can easily handle and transport.
Enlisting The Help Of Western Recycling
This decision came to fruition as the OEC leadership team discussed a long-term, sustainable solution to waste. We previously relied on a single individual to take cardboard in small amounts to the recycling plant. While this helped deal with the waste, it was not a long-term solution. That is when we connected with Western Recycling to support our sustainability goals. Since 1979 Western Recycling has diverted over 5 billion pounds of material from Idaho landfills. With locations throughout the Treasure Valley and Eastern Idaho, they recycle approximately 20 million pounds of recyclables per month. They are an excellent partner in our quest for sustainability with an incredible service of picking up the bales and delivering them on our behalf.
Team Buy-In
While sustainability is a great goal, it is only achievable through intentionality. It takes our team longer to process the cardboard now than to throw it into the trash. But as our Director of Operations, Bryan Spencer, says, “The team buy-in has been phenomenal. Everyone stands behind it. Once you tell someone that over the course of a year, you will keep 36,000 pounds of cardboard out of the landfill, it is an easy initiative to get behind.”
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The Treasure Valley housing market is growing like crazy, and land master-planned community developer M3 Companies is doing its best to help keep up with demand. Founded in Arizona and based out of Phoenix, M3 has recently focused its time and energy on Idaho. “Boise is like Phoenix 20 years ago when Phoenix was growing really fast,” says M3 Companies Executive Director of Finance, Tom Cervino. As red tape and prices increased on land in Arizona, the company began to focus its energy on the Treasure Valley. With land readily available and infrastructure already supporting it, all M3 had to do was negotiate with the farmers.
Collaboration Space
Communities & Builders
Now M3 Companies is responsible for developing local communities, including RedHawk Ridge in Nampa, SpurWing Heights in Meridian, Valor in Kuna, Riverstone in Star, and Boulder Point in the East Boise Foothills to name a few. Many of these communities include amenities like pools, clubhouses, and excellent golf courses. With so many projects going on at once, working closely with local builders is essential. The builders will often choose a specific number of lots they want to buy. Once all the interested builders have chosen their lots M3 sells the lots through a lottery system to keep the process fair.
The New Office
M3 can manage their properties with a much smaller team by selling to the builders rather than the end customer. When the company first started developing land in Idaho, most of the staff lived in Arizona. Now things have shifted, with Boise becoming the hub while a few stragglers remain in Arizona. To accommodate the growth, M3 has moved into a larger office. Now they have private offices, a central collaborative space, and a conference room where they can have their lottery meetings with builders. It was also important that their new space is along the Boise Greenbelt. “When the bosses come into town, they usually stay in a condo nearby and like to ride their bikes along the Greenbelt. It is also a really convenient location for meeting with builders, engineers, designers, and those flying in.”
Conference Room
Staying Mobile
As a land developer, it is essential to stay mobile. While many industries shut down for the pandemic, the housing market continued full steam ahead, so the staff needed workstations that could support their needs in both the office and the field. “With our new desks we can plug our laptops or taking them home with us. We have also been putting our height-adjustable desks to good use by standing more. Other than the conference room, the desks are my favorite things in the office.”
Growth
With a new office and great communities underway throughout the valley, M3 Companies is determined to keep growing. They plan to follow the same model they started in Arizona, stay on the edges of growth and build there. Together with local builders, they will continue to develop quality communities where people are excited to live.
Sustainability is one of Lombard Conrad Architect’s (LCA) five tenants. How they achieve sustainability comes in a few different forms that fall into three categories. Efficiency, Resiliency, and the Health and Safety of occupants. Each project begins with a discussion between LCA and the client to discover the client’s sustainability goals. While only a few can achieve LEED certification, others can still find ways to improve their building’s sustainability. LCA starts by looking at how the building will operate as a unit rather than individual parts. Part of that includes bringing in experts who know the goals and requirements of the project.
“It is important to get as many opinions as possible. There will always be more issues than one person, or our design team can consider. When you have a project team where everyone cares, is invested, and is excited about bringing their opportunities to the table, you can check those boxes exponentially faster.”- Ryker Belnap, Architect
Ryker Belnap | Lombard Conrad Architect
Efficiency
LCA often utilizeds the U of I’s Integrated Design Lab (IDL). LCA will send an initial floor plan concept to IDL, who will then run a year-long location and weather simulations on the building. That gives IDL a baseline number of how the building will perform. Then, LCA can try rotating the structure, shifting the windows to the south side, adding shade, etc. to improve that baseline efficiency number. The goal is to balance the initial investment cost with long-term payback.
Resiliency
With an efficient design in place, the next step is sourcing materials for a resilient building. LCA looks for high-performance and innovative materials that are sourced locally and will stretch the lifespan of the building. After considering the mantra, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” LCA chose to “Reduce and Reuse” within their new office by moving into an existing building. Reusing a building is perhaps the most sustainable choice they could have made. Then they reduced the amount of material used to define and isolate rooms by creating a much more minimalistic and flexible environment including movable walls and easily reconfigurable furniture systems.
Health & Safety
The final part of sustainability is providing for human comfort. This encompasses everything from finding the perfect temperature for productivity, creating green spaces within an office, sourcing non-toxic materials, and providing natural views. Employers want efficient and resilient buildings. They also want healthy employees, and LCA is helping employers create both create sustainable buildings and improve the health of employees.
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