Chief Strategy Officer at Zoho Corporation overseeing strategy, channels, and various marketing and operational efforts.
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We are now months into the Covid-19 pandemic, and it has become clear that the virus has unquestionably impacted how people all over the world are living and doing business. Companies continue to actively take precautions, even as businesses begin to open their doors. Twitter, as a high-profile example, told its employees they can work from home “forever” back in May.
All in all, there has been a dramatic shift in how and where employees work. I believe we are entering a transition period in which many businesses will embrace a hybrid model wherein some employees continue to work from home, while others return to the office.
Systems, software and even organizations are being tested and stretched — some for the first time — to allow companies to stay afloat. It's unfortunate that that attention around working from home was ignited by office closures relating to Covid-19. But it has given organizations an opportunity to discover the methods of work that make this “new normal” more digestible.
Employees still likely point to community and personal accountability as main drivers of their preference for working in an office. Those are great reasons, but it goes well beyond that. Office workers often rely on food and services employers provide.
All told, there is a reason many people prefer working in an office, and after months of working from home, many long for it. But despite what employees may prefer, offices can be expensive, limiting and burdensome for employers.
Thankfully, workplaces can hold remote employees accountable, foster a sense of community and lower operational costs. Society has reached a point technologically at which remote work isn't a bloodless and cumbersome process. Businesses also need to help employees happily and excitedly work toward outcomes that do not require live participation. To that end, here are some tips businesses and employees can use to make the most out of their systems and strategies.
Communicate Rather Than Isolate
Communication is key in any work environment, and that doesn’t change in a distributed landscape in which some team members remain at home while others are begging to return to the office. Chat applications have come a long way. Meeting software and presentation tools allow for easy interoffice and external connection.
And let's face it: Part of everyone's day involves socializing — having fun with co-workers — and chat apps and office message boards have become a powerful way to foster community. Group chats that allow for, say, reaction emojis or gifs may seem unnecessary or ancillary to getting the job done; however, without them, working from home can feel isolating.
On the employer side, virtual town hall meetings in which remote workers can ask questions and contribute to the vision and mission of the company moving forward are critical. If there is a way to anonymize the workers so they can ask the tough questions without fear of blowback, that's even better.
But town hall or all-hands meetings only satisfy one side of companywide communication, so there need to be more avenues for employees to socialize in smaller, department-specific groups, such as daily or weekly team meetings and check-ins, as well as less formal get-togethers such as happy hours or end-of-week recaps. The frequency and content of these virtual meetings will vary depending on the specific business' culture and each department's needs. Companies of all sizes should continue to play around with what works best for their employees, but the need for workers to regularly chat and socialize virtually is there and can contribute to the overall well-being of any business.
Simplify The Process
Many businesses were already using cloud productivity and collaboration tools, but many also adopted new software to meet the needs of their newly remote workers. If your entire business's operating system is cobbled together with disparate applications or their integrations aren't tight, users are going to have trouble migrating or finding and organizing data centrally. This can affect a sales team's ability to call up customer information, for example.
In general, the more seamless a business platform is, the fewer redundancies and less overall confusion there will be.
Businesses, especially those with globally distributed workforces, should take advantage of the flexibility remote work affords them. For example, remote workers around the world can start their days earlier by using the time they save on commuting to build a personalized work schedule, and this practice should be encouraged by employers because it can lead to a better, more simplified workday for employees.
Remote work also enables employees to splinter off into smaller groups, which can lead to easier communication and tighter workflows. In an office setting, workers are often pulled in many directions and help out across departments. With a semi-remote or entirely remote workforce, that need isn't always there, and teams can manage their own activities.
Recruit New Talent
Instead of viewing remote work as a limiting factor, businesses should consider that they can recruit talent from anywhere in the world. They can use the newfound knowledge they've gained about virtual collaboration to expand their hiring reach and get better talent from outside their city limits.
Companies can access subject matter experts and contributors who might otherwise be unavailable. Those remote workers and experts can help a business just as effectively as if they worked in the same offices. Businesses that are relatively new to using remote workers or who are expanding their remote workforce should scale slowly and try out different solutions to find what works best for their organizations.
Lean In And Adapt
People have a lot of pride in their companies, both at the top and throughout the organization. With that pride often comes a sense that no matter how the company got to where it is, that's how the business should behave moving forward. For legacy companies, that means conference rooms, all-hands meetings and impromptu strategy sessions around the lunch table. Those types of interactions are valuable, no doubt, but as we have discovered, they're not always possible.
What's more, those interactions aren't always necessary. A new age is indeed upon us. It could be now or never for businesses to buy into having a distributed workforce and for employees to embrace the future of work that is already here.
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