Chats, slacks, and work hacks and why you might need to change right NOW

8 min readOct 14, 2022

I do love a good chat. Don’t you?

So It was lovely to be on Oak Engage’s podcast — thanks Victoria Mcewan and Scott Ritchie. Oak Engage is a great tech company too. In this episode we chat and cover so much good stuff around the future of work including:

How to create a good employee experience and retain top talent
How employee experience impacts employer brand
How company culture and experience go hand in hand
The importance of good leadership

Thanks to them for putting up with my madness. And then editing my rants around leadership, the employee experience and company culture. And thanks to www.YourFLOCK.co.uk for the time to do it. It’s great to chat… But…

Where should we chat? Together?

What struck me in this podcast. And which might have been edited out for speed. Was our discussion around WHERE people worked. At OakEngage and many tech (and many other sectors) the question about where you work seems to be over.

It might even have helped the 4 day work week movement. As Ray Sherlock, chief exec at Engage Group, says in this article. Its scheme began as a post-pandemic measure. To respond to workers’ shifted expectations and “bring people back to the office.”

“The four-day work week for us was perfect, as a compromise between the team and leadership team. Workers spend two days at home; two in the office, and have one for what they will.”

It’s no longer a “think piece”.

The whole hybrid working.

It’s now just working.

As this Guardian article talks about the idea of 5 days a week in the office is over. The piece, highlighted by Bruce Daisey (who I share the stage with on Wednesday’s subtle plug.) Goes deep on workplace resistance to coming in three days a week.

‘It’s just not worth it’ — why workers are still not returning to the office

This is to the extent that Fast company has 4 ways remote workers can get in front of their boss. A great piece. But which highlights we aren’t talking about whether people will work a bit from home. Aka going hybrid. But how we do so, now everyone is doing it. As, Worklife Ventures, recently surveyed more than 550 tech workers and asked.

“What actions are you taking to stand out?”

40% are seeking out one-on-one time with their manager
31% are sending more frequent updates, so they aren’t overlooked
44% said they’re “making their voices heard” in company meetings

A couple of these are interesting. As you do them online whilst using Your FLOCK. And giving feedback to your manager. Which is more and more key — to do so online — if we aren’t all heading back to the office.

As the SLACK (the now ubiquitous chat platform for businesses) conference showed us this week with their surveys. That practically NO ONE is in the office full time. Not in the knowledge sector. Which most of the people reading this newsletter and that are users of Your FLOCK are from.

So they report that

“Most UK workers are spending 3 days a week in the office. And that 9 out of 10 workers are spending at least a day in the office…”

But what are they doing when they get there? This is a real concern of mine. As I am not sure this will bode well for the future of work or productivity or well being at work. As if we simply replicate what we do when working from home. BUt without the corresponding life work balance and lack of commute then what’s the point?

If is true that

“A fifth of all UK knowledge workers are spending half of their time in the office on video calls”

because we spend

“2 hours on video calls to people who are at home”

Is this really a good way to “spend” everyone’s time?

Again we have to think about Priya Parker’s book. Which I mention in my tedx talk — and the concept of consciously gathering. As gathering together IS important. But perhaps it’s not important for the WORK to get done. But the work on the company culture has to be done.

As:

“65% of workers say they miss deskside conversations when working from home”

And

“Four out of five workers say chat gives them feel a sense of belonging”

(Survey of 1000 UK knowledge workers, 23–29 Sept 2022).

Chat helps people feel belonging and not just on Slack.

This sense of belonging is key for the company culture and for the company to survive and thrive. And hire the best talent. And retain their employees. Without this we don’t have much to keep us all together. Which is why is this newsletter talks about one remark given by a senior leader of a well-known retail business

“In our experience there is a direct correlation between team performance and the use of their social budget. It shouldn’t have surprised us. But those teams who spent their social budget consistently outperformed those who didn’t. The teams who had planned team meals, team gatherings, and team lunches beat those who hadn’t.”

This gathering concept is going to be key. Whether it’s in team huddles, or company retreats, or town hall meetings. (Or even as Matt Phelan points out the HORROR or otherwise of the Christmas Company Do) But joking aside.

Now we are hopefully over the times of the biggest danger of the pandemic.

We can, and must, come together again. Remote work has been good and working from home. It is more economical, more environmental, and better for our life work balance. But as Bruce points out:

“Remote working was massively beneficial for life equilibrium but wretched for creating team cohesion.”

Which is one of the reasons we built Your FLOCK — the team engagement platform.

We like to work together.

Collaboration is one of my personal key values and it is part of the brand values for Your FLOCK too. Which is part of the inspiration behind our new work with the Manchester Publicity Association. And why we wrote the:

“10 distinctly successful ways of becoming a GREAT PLACE TO WORK.”

And are why we are sponsoring the MPA’s BEST PLACE TO WORK and their new award category.

After 10 years of running the awards and on the 100th year of the organisation existing. They have a BEST place to work category.

Which itself is damning. In a way. That it took this long. Which is why it is so interesting to read about the whole industry. And how Your FLOCK might do well to think about helping the marketing and creative sector more. As:

Behind the portrayal of glossy offices with ping pong tables and stocked up beer fridges, a number of Northern PR and marketing professionals dealing with anxiety, stress and burnout have painted a different picture.

For the marketing and creative industry, like many others. The biggest problem is a lack of time and effort from managers and leaders? By using Your FLOCK you can improve your talent retention. By gathering and analysing data to flag any team members that might need your support. But only when you use it. It doesn’t do it. By itself. But we do make it very easy for managers to do.

Perhaps one day with AI it might be able to do it all for you. Maybe that’s the evolution of Your FLOCK itself. But right now — I would rather a human get involved. We can talk about when AI might be able to do this another day.

Let’s chat about it’s no longer about where — it’s about WHEN

The stats are pretty telling. We want flexibility. But more about when we work than WHERE we work. Which is interesting isn’t it. And again part of my tedx talk and the new version of it you can see at the Inspiring WorkPlace event on October 20th.

This WHEN we work. Is a different revolution. The idea of asynchronous working. Which is one the “10 distinctly successful ways of becoming a GREAT PLACE TO WORK.” And is the bigger of the revolutions. As a great online friend of mine and keynote speaker about all this stuff Sharon Odea says on LinkedIn:

“By breaking the link between good jobs and a standard 9–5 day, we open up opportunities for good work to many more people.
To make the most of this shift we need:
🧑 💻 A true shift to asynchronous ways of working. That’s partly about having the right tools, but mostly in how those tools are used (think short text updates and co-created docs rather than real-time meetings)
⏰ Organisations to think how they can ‘un-bundle’ full time roles to create more true part-time opportunities. With working lives getting longer it’s not just just those with caring responsibilities who need different work patterns, but also people who need to fit work around study or re-skilling, or who might wish to work part time in their later years.
By enabling people to work when it suits them, we get the best from people when they’re AT their best, and keep talent in the labour market that might otherwise be forced out.”

This is the part of the new revolution I LOVE the most.

People work when they want to. To be their best. To help companies be amazing. And for them to have richer and happier lives.

This is the biggest change we need to make right now.

The irony is that I can’t move WHEN I do my talk at Inspiring WorkPlace event on October 20th. As this is straight after the MPA awards. Which ALWAYS are amazing but get very messy. Luckily, my spot is in the afternoon around 2pm for my talk — so I might be ok by then…

With a whole host of amazing speakers too.

Wish me luck.

I might need it.