This post is written by Dexter Docherty, Strategic Foresight Analyst, OECD Strategic Foresight Unit. The views expressed here do not represent those of the OECD.

  • The problem: Without managerial support, the full potential of flexible and remote work could be missed in the public sector.
  • **Why it matters: **Risk aversion among managers may lead to less flexibility in the public sector and ultimately to a brain drain away from government.
  • **The solution: **A mindset shift among managers towards embracing experimentation, entrepreneurialism and flexibility could lead to a more agile and motivated public sector workforce.

I spent the past year and a half living and researching the future of work in the public service (including writing about working for the Canadian government from a beach in Spain). I was split between the OECD and the Government of Canada. This work showed me that a better future of work in the public service is possible, but it will require the right kinds of support from managers (which I was generally lucky to have). 

Unfortunately, public sector managers are often risk-averse - often for understandable reasons related to handling taxpayers’ money responsibly. If managers can get over their fears, there could be benefits to mental health, team productivity through greater agility and especially talent attraction and retention. Here are some of the major lessons for managers drawn from my experience with international remote work:

Think through the benefits and not just the risks

Thinking through benefits and risks involves asking what your employees really need to thrive. For many public servants in 2021 (eg. those not handling highly-sensitive files or those in front line service delivery), all that is required to fulfil their roles is a reliable internet connection which they can get just as easily in Seoul, South Korea as St John’s, Newfoundland. This has the added advantage of letting employees tap into different networks. In my case, one of the biggest projects my Canadian government team undertook was the direct result of a conversation that I had in my Paris-based role with the OECD.

There are major potential well-being benefits to geographic flexibility that make it worth incurring the costs and hassles associated with having government hardware shipped abroad. What would the mental health benefits be for Canadian public servants if they skipped frigid Canadian winters by remote working from somewhere warm? This is above and beyond the noted accessibility benefits for employees with disabilities, though this depends on supportive management and investment in technological supports such as closed captioning. As one OECD study notes, “Teleworking could be a powerful tool to promote fairness and equality, bringing opportunities to all people, places and firms and fighting pre-existing disparities. Moreover, this instrument could be used strategically to benefit society as a whole.”

There could be cost savings as well. Research from Global Workplace Analytics shows that employers could save up to $11,000 US per year in reduced overhead and travel costs by letting an employee remote work half time. For individual employees, the savings for part-time remote work were projected to be between $2,500 and $4,000, with the potential for this to rise significantly if they are able to move to a less expensive area and remote work full-time.

Furthermore, there may be risks of inaction as well. Will it be a problem for talent retention for government if non-government employers allow their staff to work from Croatia or Greece? A study of 3,500 American workers also found that 74% of Americans sampled believe companies not offering remote working arrangements will “lose major talent in the workforce” and many would be willing to quit their jobs if sufficiently flexible policies are not in place. Embracing more permissive remote work policies could be a major perk that attracts highly mobile talent to the public service and keeps those people working for the government longer.

What would the mental health benefits be for Canadian public servants if they skipped frigid Canadian winters by remote working from somewhere warm?

Start thinking more creatively about time

This is the moment for task-based rather than time-based measurement of employee productivity. A workforce spread around Canada or the world will not always be online during all of Ottawa’s business hours, even if this remains the norm for most Ottawa-based employees. This means managers need to think carefully about when to hold team meetings and check-ins–or how to shift to asynchronous forms of team management. It also means managers will need to assess employees based on tangible outputs not the number of hours they saw someone sitting at their desk.

There are opportunities to use the clock to your team’s advantage. With a well-structured workflow, a team can find more productive hours in a day. An employee in an earlier time zone can finish tasks by the end of their business day and hand them off to an employee in a later time zone. Feedback can be back on the desk of the early time zone employee by the start of their next day. This is just one of the many ways teams with intelligent management can be more effective if they embrace more flexible work arrangements. 

A people-centred future of work needs managers that are willing to get to know their employee’s needs well and work with them to build a structure that suits the employee best. Some employees will work best with more personal space and autonomy over how to structure their workday. These employees do not need their work to be a major pillar of their social lives. Other employees want their work to provide a community. This means there probably are no one-size-fits-all bonding events or even working arrangements.

Remember that flexibility enables agility

Agility is about having more tools and the right tools at your team’s disposal. Supporting flexible work arrangements lets teams tap into far larger talent pools, which can provide far more diverse skill sets. The adaptability and resilience of teams where everyone works in one place at one time are limited. How often has a snowstorm or power outage disrupted the productivity of entire Ottawa-based teams? Flexibility can help overcome some of these threats. 

In an era of echo chambers and filter bubbles, geographic diversity and other flexible work arrangements can help organisations be more resilient and anticipatory. Employees based in different regions have awareness of different emerging trends, allowing organizations to prepare for potential disruptions sooner. Remote employees also connect to different communities and cultures, something that could help organisations cater services to wider ranges of audiences. Part-time workers can also draw on outside connections, which can add value to a wide range of projects even if they cannot be the lead on major files that require full-time attention.

Adopt a learning-by-doing approach

These are new circumstances and there is no perfect playbook for how to handle flexible working arrangements. The best way to manage remote workers effectively is to embrace an iterative approach and develop insights along the way. The OECD says that a “test-and-learn approach” with clear identification of objectives paired with the tracking and discussion of progress may be worth embracing because the evidence base on remote work is still emerging. Part of what organisations need to do in the coming months and years is to actively create a new evidence base and cultivate experiences so our policies in the future can be based on a solid understanding of what works best in which specific settings. This measurement should include a wide range of qualitative and quantitative metrics to build the most holistic understanding possible. Managers can support experimentation today so that we can have more data-informed policies tomorrow.

A people-centred future of work needs managers that are willing to get to know their employee’s needs well and work with them to build a structure that suits the employee best.

Embracing an approach that is open to experimentation and learning from mistakes is essential because the transition to a new era of work will have hiccups. Striking the right balance in terms of flexibility while sufficiently building team cohesion is a challenge. Making sure that all personality types can participate fully in the work culture and avoid becoming isolated requires finding a delicate balance at a time when best practices are still being established. Leaders will also need to make an effort to provide alternatives to traditional in-person networking opportunities. This effort and experimentation could have big payoffs, including making networking more inclusive and less biased against those who cannot go for a drink after work for religious or family reasons.

Conclusion

International remote and other highly flexible work arrangements are not likely to become the norm in the Canadian public service. My experience over the past year and a half was the result of small tweaks that embraced flexibility and could provide large benefits to a small number of employees who want to take advantage of them. A better future of work in the public service can be built through incremental steps, openness to new ideas and a willingness to experiment. To the public sector managers out there: it’s time to get over your fears and embrace experimentation to boost employee well-being and motivation.

👋 You can create a post like this one! Share your thoughts with a community of public servants. Learn more

(Image Credit: Unsplash)