Embracing remote work can be an effective way of attracting and retaining top talent. It can also achieve high productivity, when it's managed effectively.
Remote work is here to stay, whatever concerns employers' may have about productivity. Demand for flexible work options remains high among employees and job candidates. Technology and tools such as Zoom, Teams, Slack, and ChatGPT that support remote work are increasingly useful, continually improving their capabilities, expanding service offerings, and user base. Yet although many employees have been reporting being able to work productively in survey after survey, until recently there was little hard evidence on whether workers are more or less productive at home than at the office.
The answer? It depends. A recent study from WFH Research shows that remote worker productivity may be lower than it was believed to be, in at least some cases, and is certainly not guaranteed. But whatever the evidence may say, employers of all shapes, sizes, and industries can embrace remote work and still embrace remote work for high productivity, if employers plan ahead.
Here are five questions to help your organization to embrace remote work while ensuring high productivity.
Who can work remotely?
Figuring out who in the organization is 'remote eligible' is the first thing. Which job functions can be performed as well, or better, outside the office? Companies routinely allow people in technical service, sales, and other customer support functions to work remotely. Employees in accounting, financial planning, and data analysis jobs are also good candidates for remote work, as well as a host of others. In fact, at a time when companies such as Google, Meta, and Lyft are bringing people back to the office, lots of companies are not. U.S. News & World Reports cites companies as diverse as Intel, Hubspot, Citigroup, and Autodesk that offer fully-remote or hybrid work arrangements to their employees.
Consider the nature of your company's products or services, customer or client needs, employee preferences, and the day-to-day responsibilities of each job function when determining how to structure remote, hybrid, and other flexible work arrangements. Looking at job functions rather than individual employees is an objective way to determine who is remote-eligible, under what conditions, and to do so fairly for everyone. However, the best work arrangement is one that gives all employees some work flexibility, regardless of their roles and responsibilities. Family care needs, work-life balance, reducing long commutes, and other and needs affect all employees, and are important considerations when coming up with remote and hybrid work options.
When can employees work remotely?
Knowing when employees need to be in the office is key to maintaining high performance and productivity. The initial stages of a new project, onboarding a new employee, a complex product launch, or a presentation to a high-profile client are all cases where a positive outcome is critical, and where it may make more sense for employees to come to the office. Meta's own research, for example, indicates that engineers who start work with the company in-person can make the eventual transition to remote work successfully.
Spelling out when remote employees need to be in the office is especially critical for small and medium-sized companies, which may rely heavily on individual employees. This approach also helps employers to avoid misunderstanding, absenteeism, disciplinary and related issues by making it clear up front that every employee will need to be in the office for some portion of the week. A minimum of three days onsite is a good place to start the conversation about how employees might divide their time between office and home.
What support is needed to ensure high productivity?
Employers didn't have to think as much about employee support needs before the pandemic. Support happened both formally and informally, frequently, and briefly, in face-to-face conversations between supervisors and their direct reports. Companies must now be intentional about remote employees' support needs. For example, what technology is required? How often do supervisors and the people they manage need to be talking to each other? Communication, collaboration, and coordination are three key support needs, any of which can mean the difference between a productive, successful remote experience, and unsuccessful one. Developing guidance for the company as a whole and adapting it to each business function is a practical approach to getting the right support infrastructure in place. Supervisors play a key role in determining how to provide adequate, appropriate support, which they themselves will need to manage remote workers for high productivity. Training on support needs is also necessary for leadership team members, mid-level managers, and people in other supervisory positions.
How do we manage performance?
Managing performance is perhaps the most challenging and critical piece of the remote-work puzzle to ensure high productivity. The central question is: What role will supervisors and the people they manage each play in evaluating and managing employees' performance? How do we make sure that performance is productive?
Inevitably, however, employees need to accept more responsibility for their work performance and results when working remotely. This includes tracking and evaluating their own performance and productivity. Clear guidance, such as expected outcomes, as well as measures used to gauge performance against those outcomes, is critical to successful performance management. Regular, scheduled conversations one-on-one between supervisor and employee to discuss the employee's progress and needs is the best way to successfully manage the employee's performance, whether they work in the office or offsite.
What role should employees play?
Finally, just as employees need to help manage their own performance, they also need to play an active role in setting up the right remote work options and conditions for themselves and their colleagues. Employee input on remote work guidance, such as what rules of online conduct to put in place, is also essential. This kind of openness is crucial to establishing the kind of supportive, productive corporate culture (online and in-person) that employees and job candidates are increasingly demanding.
If employers seek employee input on remote work early in the process, employees will be more open about sharing their own concerns and needs. Most of all, when employers embrace remote work with productivity in mind, engaging all employees in the process, everyone involved will begin to take ownership and accountability for remote work.
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