Create Structures to Free Employees to be Their Best, with Preeti Somal, VP of Engineering at HashiCorp, and Mark Thiele, CEO and Founder of Edgewana

The world has changed; work has too. Many people are reassessing both their personal and professional lives. The truth is that the personal and professional worlds have always been intertwined. People never left their humanity outside the front door of the office. Now, due to the increase in remote work, there may not even be a physical office. And the integration of personal and professional life is more obvious today than ever before. Work is being done at home, but so is taking care of the household or kids. There’s a lot of life for people to sort out. It’s a challenging time, for sure, but also one filled with potential.

Companies have an opportunity to take care of their employees in new ways. Or, if they are reluctant to change, employees can leave for other opportunities. Instead of an outdated and unhelpful mentality about controlling workers, companies have to adjust to make sure employees have the freedom they need to do their best work.

Part of this is making sure that work culture is good. Leaders don’t try to control employees; they make sure their path is smooth to do their work. It’s also about providing the right tools at the opportune time to get work done efficiently. Most people are decent and hard working. They want to be productive and to be respected. If companies take care of their core needs, employees will produce, increase ROI, innovate, and care for customers. 

On this episode of IT Visionaries, Preeti Somal, the VP of Engineering at HashiCorp and Mark Thiele, the CEO and Founder of Edgevana, discuss how companies can transform to create more productive work environments in this new era of increased personal and professional integration. Enjoy the episode!

Takeaways:

• A Good Culture and the Right Tools: In this new world of increased remote work, companies must create an environment where workers feel satisfied and productive in order to retain them. First, create a work culture based on trust, freedom, and support. Then, provide the right technical tools that make work easier for employees to be their best.
• Control is a Mirage: Most employees care and do quality work. Trying to control workers based upon the fear of a few underperformers is counterproductive. Control isn’t even really possible nor should it be desirable. It restricts the freedom that is necessary for most workers to achieve their goals. Instead, performance must be evaluated through common sense and accomplishments rather than surveillance.
• New Wave of Internal Tools: Low-code and no-code developments are allowing for lots of new tools to be created within companies. These new tools can be micro-targeted to help a few employees, but also have the ability to be designed, developed, and integrated rapidly. With so many new internal applications, it’s important to develop an organizational team and platform to track them.

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