{"id":167029,"date":"2021-04-20T18:06:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-20T22:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=167029"},"modified":"2021-04-20T18:12:11","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T22:12:11","slug":"gm-adopts-a-flexible-plan-for-employees-as-it-moves-towards-a-post-pandemic-workplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2021\/04\/gm-adopts-a-flexible-plan-for-employees-as-it-moves-towards-a-post-pandemic-workplace\/","title":{"rendered":"GM Adopts a Flexible Plan for Employees as it Moves Towards a Post-Pandemic Workplace"},"content":{"rendered":"
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GM’s new Working Appropriately plan allows managers to use employee input to create a new work plan that involves offices and remote options.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like most American companies, General Motors radically altered the way its employees work throughout the course of the pandemic and, now, it is launching a flexible work plan that may only see a fraction of its global team return to their offices and other worksites.<\/p>\n

The plan, dubbed \u201cWork Appropriately,\u201d allows individual managers to work with their teams to craft an effective strategy that may see some employees return to a traditional office while others will continue operating from locations that could be halfway around the globe, officials explained during a Tuesday afternoon Zoom meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a culture change for us all,\u201d said Laura Jones, an HR director, adding that the plan is not only flexible but likely to evolve as GM watches what works best, post-pandemic and the years to follow. \u201cWe\u2019re going to learn our way into this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lessons learned on the fly<\/h3>\n

It has already been a learning experience for the largest of the U.S. automakers. GM began sending workers home about the time COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March 2020. Even its factories were shut down for two months. Some then began returning to work, notably hourly workers at parts and assembly plants. There\u2019s also been the need to bring together designers, product development team members and some others \u2014 though not always full time.<\/p>\n

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General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said employees are able to make good decisions about how their teams best operate.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The majority of the GM workforce has continued operating remotely. And many do so permanently.<\/p>\n

Like many other U.S. companies, the automaker learned there are advantages to this flexible approach. Freed up from what can be lengthy commutes, workers often are willing to devote a bit more time to their jobs, said Jeff Massimilla, a director who oversees connected and software technology operations.<\/p>\n

Allowing workers to work remotely offers additional advantages, he added, letting GM reach out for talent in places where it currently doesn\u2019t have a physical presence, such as Pittsburgh where there is a large pool of software engineers who focus on autonomous vehicle development.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the last months we\u2019ve been hiring significantly more diverse people than we did before,\u201d added Cyril Jones, GM\u2019s talent acquisition leader.<\/p>\n

That said, \u201cThere are also people who desire personal interactions for a variety of reasons,\u201d and want to get back to an office, Massimlla added, even if just occasionally.<\/p>\n

Sussing out advantages and disadvantages<\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a>
For some, GM EVP Gerald Johnson’s equipment may be the norm when “at work,” but they may be “at work” every day.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like other companies, GM is looking at the pros and cons of a more flexible approach to work. For some, there are big benefits to bringing employees together for what HR Director Jones calls \u201cwater cooler interactions,\u201d where a chance meeting might spark a new business opportunity or deliver an unexpected solution to an old problem.<\/p>\n

Under the Work Appropriately plan, GM will let individual group leaders decide what works best after consulting with members of their teams. So, two similar departments may take very different approaches. In some cases, they may stick with a work-from-home policy. Others may want folks back in an office. Still others may use a blended approach where staff could be called back for meetings or, perhaps, on set days of the week.<\/p>\n

“The notion behind this approach,\u201d GM CEO Mary Barra said in a blog post, “is that our employees are capable of making smart decisions without overly prescriptive guidance.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s all but certain, Jones said during the Tuesday Zoom meeting, is that \u201cWe don\u2019t have all the answers now,\u201d and may revise the plan \u201cin 2022 and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n

Technology key to success<\/h3>\n
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A GM engineer works with a 3D printer at the automaker’s new Additive Industrialization Center.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

GM isn\u2019t alone in trying to find a post-pandemic approach to work. Rival Ford also plans to use a mixed strategy as it begins resuming operations in what it hopes to be a post-pandemic era.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s clear is that technology is playing a critical role going forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe pandemic has forced us to create tools that are super secure,\u201d something essential when working on programs to develop vehicles that won\u2019t reach market for years to come, said Massimilla. The tools almost make it possible, he said, \u201cto have people in multiple locations\u201d operating almost as if they\u2019re sitting together.<\/p>\n

But technology does have its downsides. There are growing concerns about what many call \u201cZoom fatigue,\u201d especially among those who must spend hours a day in video calls.<\/p>\n

Jones says it\u2019s critical not to turn people into \u201cZoom robots.\u201d Sometimes, she said, it makes sense to stick with a relatively old-fashioned telephone call, instead, so someone can go for a walk, rather than finding themselves stuck behind a desk, whether it\u2019s at an office, or in their home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like most American companies, General Motors radically altered the way its employees work throughout the course of the pandemic and, now, it is launching “Working Appropriately,” a flexible work plan that allows employees to provide input into how many workers return to working in an office and how often. Get the details at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12],"tags":[],"make":[56,58],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,150,151,123,131,299,248,243,132,125,124,137,128,291,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167029"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167029"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=167029"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=167029"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=167029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}