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While we are learning to live with a global pandemic, we are also learning to work in new ways.
The Coronavirus is pushing businesses to integrate remote-work technologies to keep the company running, employees productive, and customers served. Consequently, many companies are implementing for the first time a company-wide remote work policy.
Employees who have never worked from home suddenly must figure out ways to be productive. At the same time, leaders are learning to adapt their leadership styles to motivate employees from afar. And for some leaders, they are learning to feel comfortable trusting that employees are being productive while working remotely.
For remote work to be effective and viewed favorably by executives, business results cannot be compromised. While there are business and workforce challenges associated with a remote workforce, they can be overcome. It will take a mix of business fundamentals and experiments.
Prior to COVID-19, nearly a quarter of America’s workforce was working remotely. That number is likely to be higher right now. For executive teams, the challenge is how to keep the business going and the workforce engaged. Certainly, the challenges that businesses face are unique to each company and its culture. That said, common challenges prevent themselves when adopting a work from home practice.
What follows are the two types of challenges companies face when implementing a remote work solution. I categorize and define the two challenges and then suggest solutions.
Business challenges are operational and technological in nature: finding solutions that reduce operational costs and making it easier for IT to implement a company-wide tech solution. Here are three business challenges important for executives to solve if they want to make remote work a long-term benefit.
The ease of dropping by someone’s office is lost with a remote workforce. It takes more effort to gather teams to get updates on important projects. This is where the right technology helps executives keep their fingers on the pulse.
For example, with Bluescape, leaders can access any project’s workspace to view deliverables, project timelines, and budgets, for example. Within a workspace, anyone can add comments or give feedback on a piece of content. Communication doesn’t need to be compromised. Instead, choose a tech solution that offers a mixture of digital communication solutions, like leaving edits or comments on documents, and supporting video meetings to help executive teams connect and review feedback.
Finding information saved in the cloud by other colleagues can be frustrating even when working in the same office. Unfortunately, progress and timely decision making are compromised when documents aren’t more easily retrievable. Again, be sure to put into place a technological solution that makes it easy for authorized employees to find what they want and when they need it.
Here are a few considerations to factor into choosing a solution that mitigates the annoyance inherent in information saved in multiple places:
While COVID-19 is transforming the business landscape, what your company is doing in response should not be viewed as temporary. A remote work program is shifting the company culture. To go back to “business as usual” will be disruptive. As the virus abates and people return to the office, have a plan in place to continue to offer remote working as an employee benefit.
The business value of working from home can impact important business metrics. In a Harvard case study, one company reduced hiring costs by 4.4%, reduced office costs by $38 million. What’s more, the study revealed that because employees were commuting less, remote workers reduced emission by 44k tons.
Workforce challenges center on workforce preparedness; how ready is the workforce to successfully transition and adapt to working remotely?
In a Gallup survey, 54% of employees said they’d leave their current job for another that allows them to work remotely. While the data point is a pre-Coronavirus finding, it reveals just how important working from home is to employees. Here are some common workforce challenges associated with working from home and solutions to solve them.
Leading remote teams is a challenge. For example, communicating with one another is 100% tech-driven; home WiFi constraints make video meetings troublesome, for example. Team members can feel lonely due to isolation and from a lack of human interaction.
Managers must learn to adapt their leadership to ensure employees feel informed and connected. Here are some solutions to boost team cohesion:
Working from home isn’t for everyone. Admittedly, I struggle with it. I prefer to be surrounded by the hustle of my colleagues shuffling off to a meeting or gathering in the lunchroom to catch-up with one another. Of course, the opposite is true for others.
The internet is flooded with blog posts on how to motivate remote employees to be productive. Instead of adding to that noisy echo chamber, here are some fundamental practices that inform how you can motivate your team.
A mandated shelter-in-place order is an unprecedented business and leadership challenge in these modern times. A remote workforce may be challenging now. However, after the virus abates, your solutions do not need to end. You have implemented an approach that works for your organization. What’s more, you’ll have a flexible work arrangement that keeps and attracts high performing talent. These are evergreen outcomes that you’ve battle-tested.