The future of work is about relationships, not technology

Technology has changed how we all work. You might be reading this on your mobile, have your internal workplace chat program open, be taking a conference call on the way into work, or be running Twitter or LinkedIn behind your emails. However, as technology becomes more ubiquitous a shift in values is occurring, writes Lindsay Brown, with many of us increasingly prioritising another form of connectedness – human relationships. 

The millennial generation champion this value, despite common rhetoric. Millennials expect technology to support and complement every aspect of their lives. More importantly, they demand a more open and collaborative environment; shaking up the traditional business mindset. Now, as they start to make up the majority of the workforce, businesses need to deliver on their expectations or risk attrition and losing to another company that does support these values.

Undoubtedly, technology plays a key role in enhancing how people communicate and collaborate, but it shouldn’t be the focus. Technology is a tool and delivers the greatest value when it helps facilitate relationship building, between colleagues – whether in the office or working remotely – or with clients, partners or prospects. Technology needs to enable these relationships to happen, but ultimately it needs to work seamlessly and get out of the way.

Optimising meetings to enhance relationships

For the first time in history, four generations are working side by side in the workforce. Many professionals are working beyond retirement age, meaning that at times there can be a generation gap of more than 50 years between the oldest and youngest employees.

Businesses must embrace the diverse perspectives, motivations, attitudes and needs of the various generations within their workforce while being acutely aware of what they expect.

Millennials, for example, have little desire for the traditional office collaboration processes that we all know, but don’t necessarily love – meetings. In fact, they’ve helped to reimagine the humble meeting by suggesting that if there’s no specific purpose and meaning for a gathering, then don’t hold it. Any generation can agree with this thinking, but we’re finally seeing it being championed.

Don’t get caught thinking that this generation is totally “anti-meeting, digital message only”. They know the value of face-to-face conversations and prefer to use their time at work to get important tasks done. The lesson here is to maximise the use of a meeting. Share a note of key things to discuss in a meeting and keep track of time. Nominate a person to lead the meeting, to ensure it stays focused and is beneficial for all involved.

Designing more effective collaboration

If your team is geographically diverse, you’ll need collaborative technologies that encourage more “face” time, i.e. video and voice conferencing tools. If your team are all located within the same office, encourage in-person interaction for Work In Progress (WIP) or start of day meetings, to help build camaraderie, and use a workplace chat function to support their day-to-day interactions.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Ask what tools will help your employees complete their jobs to the best of their ability and ensure they are trained thoroughly in any technologies that the business has in place to support their roles. You never know, the least IT-focused person on your team may know of a brilliant tool that can help every team member.  

Supporting employee experience

If we understand modern workplace collaboration to require technology, in some capacity, we must also look at how it is rolled out. To deliver the best quality work and relationship building between employees, top-down support from the business’ leadership team is essential. Good leaders not only put the right technology in place, but they provide a consistent, supportive environment in which relationships can be built and fostered. They also reward good work in a way that transcends geographies, so that employees feel like an important part of the team, irrespective of where they live or work.

For example, our team at LogMeIn uses Slack to communicate between team members, globally. We have different personalised channels, on top of the daily all-team group, which help build bonds with people across the company that have similar interests from any team or geography. Getting employee buy in on new technologies can be challenging, but many of our team acknowledged that it was an easy transition to this collaborative tool when they learned they would have the ability to have fun while getting work done – thinking outside the box could help your technology adoption rates and boost morale.

Use technology to better your partners

Positive relationships help any business move forward, but they’re absolutely vital for small and medium sized organisations (SMBs). Unlike large scale enterprises, many SMBs rely on outside partners to do critical parts of the job and help them deliver better business outcomes. This might be legal advice, marketing help or designers, for example.

If you’re not located in the same region, technology will greatly aid your interactions with partners and ensure that you’re all working towards the same goals. Video conferencing tools or webinars can help you bring together multiple partners in a quick and effective manner to deliver information or update one another on your progress for a particular project. Online chat tools can also help businesses connect with their partners in safe ecosystems, sharing information with those that are approved to be part of the microsite. With an increasing number of time zones at play for many businesses, these tools can help you get more done in a shorter amount of time – which is great for your business, your partners, and your team.

Though there are a vast number of communication and collaborative technologies now available, the human experience should never be lost in these interactions. Prioritising the value of relationships within these transactions can help to ensure all parties involved are more satisfied with their level of engagement – no matter where in the world they are working from.

Lindsay Brown is VP of APAC and Japan for LogMeIn.