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Flex Work

By Madison Hanscom, PhD Covid-19 has contributed to a larger number of individuals working from home than ever before. Researchers at the Technical University of Denmark were interested in the experiences of individuals working from home across several European countries. They surveyed over 4,640 employees (mainly knowledge workers and managers) between March and May of 2020. The authors are still analyzing the large amounts of data that were collected, but initial findings were shared. Interesting results included: • 71% of the respondents said they get enough information from their organization to feel well prepared to work at home during the crisis. This

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Recovery and downtime are important for a happy and productive workforce. As a leader, you should consider your role in this process. Reflect on how you contribute to the climate surrounding recovery in your workplace. A study from the American Psychological Association recently showed when companies encourage people to take their vacation time to disconnect, employees come back feeling more refreshed, motivated, and productive than companies that do not encourage taking time off (1). This shows the value of building a culture that allows people to disconnect without feeling guilty or mentally tethered to work at all times.

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Virtual training is becoming more and more common, which begs the question: does it work? Does virtual training work? Researchers have looked into this question and the answer is yes, but it depends. Classroom instruction (traditional training) and web-based instruction (virtual training) can be equally as effective on trainee learning if both programs are developed and implemented using best practices. This conclusion makes sense: good training is good training, and bad training is bad training. The delivery medium is not as important as the content and the instructional method (1). At Propulo Consulting, we partner with you to improve the

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By Madison Hanscom, PhD Learning organizations are those that acquire information, share it, process it, and use it for continual improvement. All teams must develop mechanisms and buy-in for supporting this knowledge-sharing cycle, though it is particularly important that companies utilizing a flex work model do this well in order to succeed. Without a strong collective knowledge bank, it is likely your company will spend a lot of time taking one step forward and two steps back. When working in a virtual or remote team, knowledge will be dispersed. It is no longer an option to stop by someone’s office to ask

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By Madison Hanscom PhD As more individuals are working from home than ever, this raises interesting questions and important considerations regarding ethics. When working remotely, there are more circumstances in which employees and leaders alike operate under little surveillance. There are several ethical perspectives that should be considered in a flexible work environment. Two important ones are the ethics involved with employee work and the ethical situations leaders might encounter. Employees Performing Work Duties When employees are performing their work from home, it is important to remember that regulations and contracts with employers should still be upheld. Some of these expectations are clearly

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By Eric Johnson Further into the future as the pandemic has waned for some time, the idea of flex work as a normal aspect of business operations may become permanent as organizations grow accustomed to the cost savings and flexibility offered to workers. With several considerations, organizations can plan around the culture shift and assist employees by creating purposeful guidelines and norms for the future. Communications Training Currently, many individuals in offices may have their own conference number that they can use to create conference calls through their own setup. As we move into the stable future, we expect individuals to have a

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