Let’s face it. Before COVID-19, our antiquated telework policies were driven by the attitude of decades old “why telework?” or worse, “If I can’t see you then you aren’t working”. I led the Air Force Materiel Command-wide telework IPT in 2009-2010 during a time when many leaders said, “I don’t believe in teleworking.”
Pivot! It is not a belief system now; it is a reality that pushed the AF A6 community to bring the AFNET into the 21st century almost overnight. We CVR, Zoom, VPN and stand at our kitchen counter munching on lunch while phoning into a meeting.
Remote work is a strategic tool to drive results and ensure continuity of operations, reduce management and facility costs, and increase accountability for achieving individual work results. COVID-19 reimagined the workplace and changed the world’s perspective of what was once a rare and innovative strategy reserved for tech companies.
Remote working is no longer a fringe business practice – it has become “the new normal.” Telework develops a think from a work-anywhere mindset as well as focuses on the holistic employee experience, engagement, and mission objectives. Remote working, better connectedness technology and changing polices will help lower generational turnover, improve organizational resilience, and provide for evolving motivations for, and expectations of, an appealing work environment.
But what does this pivot really mean to WPAFB? The AF will have to move rapidly toward the wide-spread use of ad hoc, permanent and recurring remote working – it is today’s imperative. Leadership must now ask, “Why not remote work?” We may never get some reticent employees to go home without COVID-like draconian measures, but that is why flexibility is key.
A rewrite of the policies, and maybe position descriptions, are a must – a warning to the installation that life has changed from the comfort of the age-old cube farms.
We will have to use remote working as a recruitment and retention tool for those coffee shop-perched Millennials and Gen-Zs. We are a rapidly aging workforce and see few people under the age of 30 arrive through our civilian on-boarding process. The Office of Personnel Management explicitly encourages agencies to use telework as a tool to help attract, recruit and retain the best possible workforce.
We are supposed to leverage telework as a human capital management tool. Telework can broaden the pool of highly qualified candidates because it provides flexibilities that meet varying needs.
Think if we could keep our good employees when a military spouse moves. There are at least three spouses I could name in my group alone we could have kept on the payroll had we thought outside the “office” box. While stationed in San Antonio, one current commander’s spouse found a great position with USAA. When they had to PCS to WPAFB, USAA converted her position to permanent telework so she continues to have her career no matter where her military spouse goes, and USAA can retain great talent. If I find the best person for an opening who happens to live in Boise and doesn’t want to move, can I still get and retain that person without him/her physically moving to the Dayton area? Instead of asking “why”, it is time to ask “why not”. This is how leadership can help. The AF competes with the Defense Industry for talent and many times loses not to salary but to quality of life. Permanent teleworking is the Airman of the Future.
Leaders, COVID-19 is a huge disruptor. It is now up to us to pivot our thought processes and lead the way. It is imperative we manage by tasks accomplished on time versus simply by time spent in the cubicle. It is up to us to ensure our employees have the tools of the trade and are comfortable using them. We have the role to determine tasks/duties appropriate for a telework arrangement. We need to provide our work centers guidance on when to remotely work and when to work at the office. It has always been our duty to meet with employees to give assignments and review work as necessary but now we must pivot to do this in person or remotely. We need to learn to communicate effectively and design the telework arrangement so as to reduce employee isolation from the remainder of the staff. We must reduce reactive activity-based leadership approaches and manage remote working remote workers/teams by rules of engagement and outputs.
Bottom line, our society in general is on trend to make remote working for knowledge workers a permanent part of the landscape. We at WPAFB can embrace it, lead it, ensuring the Airman of the Future is well quipped, well trained, and ready to do his/her mission from the kitchen table. After all, this is the 21st century and we are only 43 years from the arrival of the Vulcans. Beam me home, Scotty.
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