Development measures revolutionise staff surveys
How to develop work when most of the work is done remotely and long Teams workshops are not really attractive? Karoliina Jarenko writes that because remote working is here to stay in many jobs, we need to learn to develop virtually. Instead of big development routines, the key is to invest in continuous, incremental development.
Department of Occupational Health News from at the end of September, a study found that job development has declined significantly in recent years as a result of teleworking. In my own (former) work as an organisational consultant and business coach, I noticed this too. Traditional training was offered fairly quickly after the switch to teleworking, but workshops and discussions on work development did not seem natural in many organisations, even after a long period of teleworking. "We people just have a different capacity for ideas when we are in the same space," was the analysis from many quarters. This is certainly a true experience. But we live in a world where continuous improvement is a necessity, and we will never again work in physically fixed workplaces to the same extent as before the pandemic. We must learn to develop 'online'.
However, the solution does not have to be in Teams workshops. It is unnecessarily resource-intensive to gather many people in one place for a long period of time, and it is not at all said that the best ideas are generated in that moment. Instead of big development routines, focus on continuous development, in small steps.
"The future usually comes in small steps"
The simplest way to develop "online" could be to ask in the team chat on Friday: what did you learn this week that would benefit our whole team? The answers share lessons, but also, along the way, open up everyone's job description to others, often leading to more effective teamwork and increased trust.
This free throwing of ideas reinforces the learning culture and some ideas are put into practice without much guidance. The weakness of the approach is precisely the latter: a huge number of ideas go untapped and unimplemented. Steps forward are left floating in the air until they are forgotten. In the long run, this erodes the culture of learning: "We have ideas here, but nothing ever happens... I don't bother anymore..."
At Vibemetrics, we have created a solution to this problem! Once teams and departments have discussed the results of the survey, they are guided to formulate development actions. The service will then ask them about the implementation of the development measures at agreed intervals. The teams themselves can see their own progress on the scoreboards, and so can everyone else in the work community. Teams can copy each other's best development ideas, and management can see how and which things are developing in the organisation.
The staff survey is no longer an annual nightmare that passivates staff and overwhelms HR, but a tool for continuous development owned by the whole work community. Online.
