AP Leads By Example: The Future World of Work
As we head into the final months of 2022, many of companies have started to contemplate what the next year and beyond will look like for their business. I recently attended Incubeta Ignite: Tomorrow’s World, an event that encourages forward-thinking companies to share their ideas for a better tomorrow and engage with entrepreneurs on a global scale.
The concept for this event comes from the BBC’s 1965 TV show, “Tomorrow’s World”, a revolutionary series that took a deep dive into the latest technologies and cast its mind to the future—often predicting where it saw these radical new advancements heading. The series (which ran for 38 years) shaped a generation of future technophiles.
With this show as inspiration, Incubeta created the Tomorrow’s World event to be a springboard from the original BBC show and generate serious conversations between leaders in digital marketing about the future of this industry as we know it.
Tomorrow’s World was held at the Google headquarters in London—a very creative and innovative space. Some of the talks included discussions around the future of advertising, privacy in a first-party data world (one of my favorites), the role of CSR, sustainability and purpose, and lastly, the future world of work—a panel that I had the opportunity to join.
Learn what I had to share about the future world of work and how Acceleration Partners (AP) is contributing to that future.
The Future World of Work Panel
On the panel with me for this discussion were Mark Hawley from Google, Ian Benjamin from Digital Execs Recruitment, and Kelly Perry from Awin. We each covered different predictions we had for the future of work, and below are the main areas I spoke about:
Transitioning Into More Remote Environments
Already we’re seeing companies transition to a fully remote or hybrid approach to remote work due to the impact of COVID-19. This transition is even a selling point for many job seekers, with some companies seeing candidates ask whether a position is remote or hybrid as their first question (over asking about the job salary). While for many companies this remote model is new, for AP, it’s a model we’ve proudly perfected over many years.
From inception, AP has been a remote company. AP was built to always be fully remote, and we have the resources, training and experience to ensure there is never a lapse in productivity and employees feel connected and content with their work setup.
What really makes AP stand out in this area is that we empower employees to do their best work in the way that works best for them. As we continue to see companies adopting remote work models—something we’ll likely continue to see in the future—it’s imperative that businesses recognize their employees not as a large group with the same general needs, but as individuals.
With this in mind, we ensure that our remote employees have the unique collaboration tools and communication mechanisms they need, as well as the flexibility and autonomy to decide how they work. For some, this means taking advantage of our flexible workspace budget to work in a shared office space (like a WeWork), if they’d like another option besides working from their home.
A common misconception about remote work is the inability to genuinely connect with colleagues and embrace relationships. While AP is fully remote, we still create opportunities for employees to meet up in person. Some of these include our hub meetings (meetings that are held in our key cities for employees to discuss business needs), social gatherings (put together by enthusiastic employees), and our renowned, annual AP Summit.
Elevating Employee Connection: AP Summit
As we predict to see more companies transition to remote work, we also predict there will be a need for businesses to find ways to prioritize and get innovative with how they facilitate employee connection. For AP, this has meant establishing an annual summit meeting for the entire company where coworkers from across 30 different countries gather to bond, celebrate achievements, brainstorm on industry pain points, and discuss the future of the company.
This annual gathering is something AP has dubbed as AP Summit. Our last AP Summit was held at Camp No Counselors, a summer camp in Equinunk, Pennsylvania. In the span of several action-packed days, nearly 300 employees got to connect and inspire in meaningful ways, including:
- Traditional camp activities (like boating, archery and s’mores by the campfire)
- Non-traditional camp sessions (morning yoga, chocolate tasting and painting)
- Fireside chats with senior leadership
- Decades party and karaoke night
- Powerful talk from a keynote speaker about affecting positive change
- Inspiring TED-talks given by fellow coworkers
- Awards night recognizing the talent and hard work of AP employees
Whether your company is just starting out on the remote or hybrid work model, or it’s something that might be coming down the pipeline in the future, AP has become an excellent standard from which other companies can learn from. Bonding events like AP Summit can be a game-changer for your remote company.
Focusing on Employee Health and Wellness
The last area I covered in the panel was the importance and growing focus on businesses supporting their employees’ health and wellness. AP strongly believes that businesses have a duty of care for their employees, and we act on this in several key ways.
The first is that we offer employees unlimited PTO. At Acceleration Partners, we recognize the need for employees to take time away from work to recharge and spend time with family and friends. We also believe in a flexible work environment where employees are able to take personal accountability for managing their own time, workload and results. Because of this, we’ve embraced open PTO for all employees. As we look toward a future where employees will start expecting more from their employers, AP is setting the standard for how we can best meet employee needs.
Another factor we predict will be important to the next generation of workers is whether a company is willing to accommodate and support an employee’s health and wellness. This is another area AP has already taken strides to incorporate into our business.
Personal health and wellness impacts everyone differently—most recently, the pandemic and current economic state has had a large impact for many people. AP wants everyone to have the ability to bring their A-game to work every day. Personal health and wellness goals are also different for every person and with this in mind, AP created a wellness budget for employees to use to cover a variety of expenses that support a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle.
Looking Forward
Regardless of what the future holds, one thing is for certain. Companies that want to stay relevant and attract the best future leaders need to evolve to meet the needs of a society that prioritizes employee happiness and empowerment.
To hear the full panel discussion, watch the YouTube video here.
