As the end of the year draws near, it’s time to look to the future. Savvy companies know that it’s important to not only celebrate the year’s successes, but have a plan on how to tackle the challenges faced, too. So as you draw up your guidelines for the following year, add on these three New Year’s resolutions for smart companies in 2016.
Here are 3 New Year’s resolutions for smart companies in 2016:
1. Focus on collaboration.
If your company is fully remote, has a smattering of telecommuting employees, or is simply toying with the idea of implementing a flexible work policy, it’s always a good idea to get smart about collaboration—tools, that is. After all, if your team is in-office only and a major snowstorm comes in from the north and makes commuting to the office impossible, you’ll need to have a way to keep your team up and running, no matter where they are. In terms of effective tools for remote teams, FlexJobs uses Sococo, which mimics a real office environment (complete with offices and cute conference rooms!), while companies such as Jackson River utilize Skype as a way to keep their team connected. Sqwiggle, Trello, HipChat, and Slack are other oft-used communications tools to foster excellent communication among your team.
2. Embrace remote work.
It’s a fact: more and more workers prefer to ditch lengthy commutes, avoid office drama, and be more productive workers by working remotely. No longer seen as an office perk, telecommuting jobs are becoming more and more popular, since they allow workers the ability to better balance their work life and their personal life with ease. But remote work doesn’t only benefit workers—there are many benefits to a remote workforce. Employers stand to gain huge benefits when they allow some (or all) members of their team to work remotely. From massive cost savings acquired by not having to have a pricey office space, office equipment, electric bills, and so on, remote companies save, on average, about $11,000 per telecommuting employee per year. And the advantages don’t end there. Imagine hiring the best workers for the job without any sort of geographical limitation. 10up Inc’s President and Founder Jake Goldman says it best: “Bar none, a massive talent pool to explore for great culture and skill fit.” And a better balanced worker is a happier worker, according to Andrew Berkowitz, co-founder and chief product officer of TeamSnap: “Happiness, productivity and retention. When work doesn’t happen 9-5, in one building, a lot more work can get done a lot more hours of the day.”
3. Understand the new face of the workforce.
By far, one of the most fascinating groups of workers is the millennials. The offspring of the baby boomers, millennials have proven to be an interesting lot of workers, challenging previously held notions and beliefs about how work should be. For starters, millennials are strong believers in camaraderie and prefer a team mentality way of tackling problems. They are also the biggest proponents of flexible work—a PwC survey found that 38 percent of millennials wanted a mélange of normal 9-5 hours mixed with flexible working hours, while one-third stated that flexible work would be the norm in the future. Millennials also aren’t big into work life and personal life being two separate entities; rather, they prefer to combine the two to create not just work-life balance, but work-life integration.
That’s why a smart New Year’s resolution for companies is to review their flexible work policies, and if they don’t have one, to consider implementing one. After all, at 53.5 million and growing, millennials are now the largest generation in the U.S. workforce. To understand their wants and needs and how to harness their unique talents (i.e., their tech expertise) will only make your workforce happier and more productive, and in turn, make your company better than it ever has been before.
Consider including these three New Year’s resolutions to your usual checklist of goals to achieve, and in turn, you’ll make 2016 the best year yet for your company.
Readers, what would you add to this list of New Year’s resolutions for smart companies in 2016? What goals have you made? Tell us in the comments below!
photo credit: istockphoto.com
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