How remote working is making a global impact

Remote working has transformed how we view the modern workplace. It has changed how employers recruit people, how employees think about work, and has boosted the influence of workplace technology.

In the UK, 50% of workers work from home (at least some of the time), and one in five of us wants this to be a full-time arrangement. Your workforce has discovered the many benefits of remote working for work-life balance, and this is beginning to influence policymakers. In the Netherlands, the Dutch Parliament's lower house passed legislation to make working from home a legal right.

Around the world, remote working viability is measured by cybersecurity, socio-economic attractiveness, comfort and the speed at which a country responded to the Covid-19 pandemic. High on the list of achievers is Germany, Denmark, the US, Spain and Lithuania. The UK is a respectable 17th on a list of 66 scoring countries. The impact of remote working on the future of work, at least according to many research studies, is global and profound.

So, how do you derive benefits from adopting a more attractive remote working policy, helping you increase productivity, reduce staff turnover and attract talent? Let’s look at some of the steps you could take.

Go agile, save time, and empower remote employee autonomy

Employees want to make autonomous decisions, and you could empower them by providing an infrastructure that enables them to do this. In fact, 58% of employees say that working remotely gives them more autonomy, so in building a working structure that helps remote workers better connect, you’re well on your way to achieving this.

Take stock of how your organisation operates. Pay close attention to your workflows and processes. Where are the bottlenecks? How can processes be made smoother, so that accommodating remote workers becomes easier to manage? You could explore the benefits of agile practices that help to quicken the pace of innovation and productivity. This could help to change the mindset of bringing people together (an office-based approach) to bringing information together.

Studies around having a network of scalable teams, remote or otherwise, have shown that agile methods work. Yet, smaller, more productive teams still need clear direction. Autonomous, remote workers within those teams may still benefit from being energised by leadership. You could do this by staying connected via every means at your disposal, join teams’ daily online huddles, text individuals (instead of the whole company at once), and encourage your management team to do the same. This isn’t micromanaging, but you could say it’s micro-communicating!

Remote workers will benefit greatly from feeling connected, more productive and energised. They automatically save almost five hours a week in not commuting to an office, and this extra time can be turned into productivity gains, and should help people achieve a better work-life balance.

Use technology and empathy to tackle loneliness

Increased connectivity and productivity are great, but what about the downsides of working from home? One of these is loneliness. We’ve touched on being better connected, so let’s look closely at what this looks like, and what technology to use to counter the effects of employee isolation.

One of your primary gifts as a leader is your ability to communicate. The challenge for you now is to adapt and strengthen your communication skills to facilitate the 21st century remote worker. Technology and empathy are your greatest allies. Here are some technology tips to help you form a plan:

• Keep everybody aligned with task management tools.
• Keep everybody connected with video conferencing tools.
• Keep everybody informed and productive with document sharing tools.
• Encourage collaboration with digital whiteboards and editing suites.
• Improve employee engagement with polls, surveys and regular Q&As.

Technology is an enabler that will help you reach out to your remote workforce. Empathy is your natural guide in knowing when to do this. In turn, you will improve employee retention, increase motivation and reduce staff turnover, and hopefully tackle the loneliness and isolation remote workers feel.

The amount you invest in new technology could be saved in human outcomes. Take a look at how you can improve technology practices inside your organisation. In doing so, you could improve security hygiene practices, connectivity, productivity and collaboration.

Seek opportunities to demonstrate care

Perhaps the most important facet of leadership around remote work is the care we can provide. People who work from home need all types of support, from technology requirements to emotional support, and they want to avoid being forgotten simply because they’re not office-based. ‘Home workers suffer from a lack of face time with colleagues and managers,’ says the BBC, ‘which negatively impacts promotions, and ultimately may stall careers.’

So while more than half of employees claim to be happier when working remotely, many still need to feel part of the culture and fabric of the business. It’s no surprise that WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg prefers to use the phrase ‘distributed workforce’ instead of remote, as the connotations of being remote lead to expectations that some people are more essential than others. This represents an opportunity for you to foster a culture of everyone being essential to the organisation, wherever they are in the world.

Conclusion

You could address technology concerns by ensuring people who work from home are set up well, are comfortable in the room where they work and have everything they require. The tougher challenges are those that come with greater rewards, such as your ability to promote inclusiveness and a sense of community. Look for ways to demonstrate that you care about remote employees’ mental health and wellbeing.

You may increase the potential to attract the best people to your organisation by reflecting on how processes and workflows run, what improvements you could make using technology, and how empathy should play a significant role. The benefits of remote working are there for the taking.