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The future of work we’ve all been waiting for came faster than we expected and has completely reshaped the way businesses are founded and run. Enterprises and incumbents are currently struggling to rethink their offices and corporate culture as demand for human cloud and hybrid work models increases. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to break away from traditional organizational structures and 9-5 work cultures when the company has been operating this way for years.
New businesses aren’t burdened by existing, outdated processes and policies that can limit growth and productivity in the future of work. Today’s entrepreneurs and startup founders have the opportunity to organize their business from the ground up to take full advantage of the future of work.
So if you were to start a new company geared towards the future of work, what would it look like?
See also: 4 things employers should be aware of about the future of work
Integrate distributed teams into your org chart
Traditional companies have an established top-down organizational structure, and any freelance, contract, or gig workers are considered “other” or outside of the organization. This structure is unsustainable at a time when the workforce is increasingly freelance, contracted, remote, rotating and distributed.
Aside from keeping each employee’s work accountable and who is accountable to whom, a startup’s organizational structure streamlines the flow of communication and information from company leadership to all workers and team members. The future of work requires a more flexible and inclusive organizational structure that brings a fragmented workforce on board while accommodating the roles and communication channels available between the organization and its team members working outside the company. Remote and distributed workers can help meet the needs of your organization when their employer meets their expectations and meets their psychological needs for belonging and recognition.
Assume a non-linear work chain
When developing the org chart, you should also allow for more decentralized decision making instead of a traditional hierarchy. As the work model gradually adopts the new concept of employment, startups and aspiring entrepreneurs need to move away from the traditional top-down management structure and adopt a non-linear or decentralized business model. Linear top-down management slows the pace of work and limits the potential for team members to come up with innovative ideas.
Decentralized decision-making is especially valuable when you embrace outsourcing and allow the expertise of people outside the organization to be brought into the conversation.
See also: 4 reasons why decentralized business management is booming
accept outsourcing
As companies strive to innovate at scale, outsourcing software development and leveraging augmentation is becoming more common. In fact, a large internal team is not necessary at all in the future of work.
Outsourcing development to distributed teams allows your organization to stay lean while responding quickly to the latest technological advances. In comparison, traditional companies that have expanded their technical staff in recent years are now being forced to downsize their teams as the overall market and technical landscape changes. In addition to avoiding the expense of constantly scaling up and down to meet your current needs, outsourcing provides access to experienced software teams that can improve the speed and quality of your development cycles.
Consider remote and asynchronous work
The future of work increases the chances that you will end up hiring across international borders, as data from the Remote Workers Report 2023 shows that 44% of companies are increasing cross-border hiring. To reap the full benefits such as increased productivity and higher retention rates, you must create appropriate distributed processes for your teams across time zones and geographic locations that need to work together to deliver results despite not sharing common office space.
A change in work environment requires a corresponding operational change to maximize efficiency and productivity; You may want to implement asynchronous processes instead of traditional processes. With remote teams, work doesn’t happen at the same time in the same place; You need to set up asynchronous communication and coordination processes for remote workers because the future of work means work can happen in different places at different times. Working asynchronously from the start means employees don’t need to be online at the same time, as they can work autonomously and still deliver the expected results.
See also: How to become a truly asynchronous workstation
Build workflows for distributed teams
A Recent study found that 72% of workers surveyed would not accept offers from companies that do not offer flexible work options because they prefer a better work-life balance. With the future of work offering workers the prospect of working from the most exotic of locations, future-proof your new startup by creating a workflow for your remote teams that simplifies work-related communications and increases productivity.
Create plans for implementing clear and visible workflows that show how team members and managers work together to reap the benefits of remote work. A customized workflows is a tool that allows your managers to track all tasks and focus on high-value tasks. More visibility, e.g. B. Seeing teammates’ conversations about how to deal with work-related obstacles, helps others learn lessons and avoid repeating the same conversations everywhere, increasing efficiency and creating better teamwork.
Large organizations around the world are already implementing new ways to stay ahead of the competition. Luckily, entrepreneurs have an edge because they can create a perfectly organized business to take advantage of the future of work. As organizations rely on outsourcing, asynchronous work, and distributed teams, the organizations that can best support these new structures will see the greatest success.
