In an increasingly competitive world, it is crucial for economy to continuously increase its innovative strength and performance. This is only possible by maximizing the performance and motivation of employees. Companies have a whole range of both new and tried-and-tested methods at their disposal: from self-organized working and working from home to agile methods and job sharing. But while People & Culture departments are working on new methods to make employees even happier, companies such as Amazon are revising their previous home office policy and calling everyone back to the office. So, are new work methods just a fad after all or are they actually a lever for greater motivation and performance?
In a recent survey, Horváth Partner Sascha Lindner analyzed the effects of various New Work methods on employees and the extent to which the measures have already become established in companies. The results are consistent with the practical experience of the People & Change expert: "Most New Work measures act as a booster for employee motivation and performance," says Lindner.
Challenges and successes of New Work methods
Measures relating to mindset are particularly well established - and rightly so: without exception, they show positive effects. Self-organized work in particular is a lever that motivates respondents and significantly increases their performance.
Cultural issues are already being dealt with extensively in organizations but are not yet sufficiently tangible. If they are implemented correctly, they increase motivation and performance – like, for example, diversity networks, where 75 percent of respondents see a positive effect on motivation and 50 percent see a positive effect on employee performance.
Flexible working also proves to be a performance booster: the study shows a clearly positive effect on employee motivation and performance of making the working environment more flexible through home office arrangements or flexible workplace concepts where employees can choose between different optimized work areas.
Agile methods and digital forms of collaboration also significantly increase performance and motivation. Other drivers are further training opportunities, in particular mentoring programs and coaching offers, although these were not seen as a strong lever. The trend towards T-shaped People, in which all employees have a basic understanding of all topics but also act as experts for a specific topic, also has a positive influence.
A few barriers remain: specific forms of leadership are perceived as a brake on motivation and performance. 13 percent of respondents stated that distributed leadership roles dampen their motivation and performance. Reasons for this could be, for example, unclear expectations or a lack of communication. Change leadership, on the other hand, has a 100 percent positive or very positive effect on performance.
Working from home has a two-pronged effect: while it acts as a performance booster, the flexibilization of work acts as a brake on motivation. A strong corporate culture and digital communication structures are therefore even more important when employees are working from home.
Trust instead of control
"With regard to these results, it's absolutely counterproductive to force employees to work in an office and use tracking measures," confirms HR expert Lindner. "It is quite the opposite: excessive control can have a negative impact on employees' ability to innovate and their willingness to perform in the long term." Companies should therefore not be afraid of New Work measures - with the right approach, they are a sustainable way to promote trust, personal responsibility and collaboration and ultimately increase performance and growth within the company.
About the study
Based on project experience from the past few months and a survey of over 50 selected HR experts and high potentials, Horváth analyzed the specific effects of the most important New Work measures and trends. Both short and long-term effects were analyzed in order to derive well-founded recommendations for action. The results offer comprehensive insights and practice-orientated solutions for companies that want to meet the challenges of the modern working world.
