As the pandemic pushed us out of the office and into a home/work environment, all the office drawbacks were exposed. Virtual work will transition into a new reality.
COVID-19 forced us onto a new page, justified by safety protocol.
This shift is not a parallel to digital nomad bliss, but rather something different all together. We would need specific tools and equipment to assist with this new phenomenon of working from home.
According to an Indeed survey, 52% of employees suffered stress damage in 2021, which indicates a 9% increase compared to before the pandemic. The Gallup survey reports that 29% of both previous and new remote workers were burned out by September 2020, which shows an 11% increase in 1 year.
To ensure a more accurate representation of this anomaly, more than 2,000 companies were interviewed to get an indication of what is yet to come. In a sense, employees have been unknowingly practicing for the future of remote work.
Let us not forget the situation back at the office where co- workers on different floors prefer to email or call each other rather than move up and down building floors. Remote work is just an expansion on this phenomenon.
Remote work is now exploding in demand. According to a Society for Human Resource Management survey, 52% of workers prefer to work out of office.
Here are 3 projections of how we should help sustain this new way of working.
How remote teams are becoming the future of work?
From the companies surveyed, we should aim to reduce office space from 70% to 50%. 30% are preparing to be completely out of office.
87% of executives according to the PwC survey are changing their tactics by amalgamating office space in top-ranking areas and/or creating more satellite hubs.
This movement is motivated by the need for attracting leading talent from anywhere on the globe. Also, the cost is greatly reduced when getting an employee operational can mean R2000 compared with R20 000 per worker hired in the traditional way.
Pushing for this change will be private equity firms looking to buy companies with lower costs and higher growth. This will in turn encourage companies to move away from the old office model which included high real estate costs. Instead they will see a surge in productivity as was observed during the pandemic. People seem to have the ability to accomplish amazing results even through adversity.
The old story of needing an office for communication or collaboration has certainly become redundant.
Accidental problem solving that was attributed to physical meetings in and around the office is no longer a necessity.
If our productivity was dependent on accidental meetings by the watercooler we would certainly have a serious problem. Companies need to be able to solve problems in a remote setting otherwise they are in trouble.
The Founder and CEO of CultureGene, Bretton Putter, proposes setting the example from the top.
His consultancy platform assists private equity funds and startups like Experian and Outbrain with their changeover to the new reality.
Putter is the author of Own Your Culture: How to Define, Embed, and Manage Your Company Culture.
He is convinced that the leadership of a company should work remotely as an example to others. Once the leader goes to the office, everyone will follow. This will lead to an imbalance and the workers outside of the office will feel excluded and inferior until they leave dissatisfied.
In spite of this, the leaders can decide when on occasion it’s necessary to meet in person.
Putter mentions that young marketing and sales teams may prefer working together while engineering teams are comfortable working at home where they are not disrupted.
Employees seem to concur. The PwC survey shows that 87% of workers see the office as an integral place to connect and socialize. Despite this finding, Putter maintains that given the correct tools they can nevertheless accomplish a similar interactive experience.
Is an amalgam of both home and office a disaster?
The immediate scheme for many companies is a hybrid solution, according to a Gartner survey which shows this trend at 82 %.
CEO of Citigroup, Jane Fraser states in a memo that 200 000 workers would be spending their time divided between the office and a remote location. This would mean 3 days at the office and two days remote. From July onwards almost 30 000 Ford employees will take on hybrid strategies.
Some have doubts about the hybrid strategy.
This method may lead to inequality when office workers have access to certain information in a spontaneous meeting or chatter while the remote worker is left out of the conversation. The remote worker may fall behind, receiving less feedback and lack of input which could stunt his advancement in the workplace.
Another issue is the lack of clarity for vacations and time off. Workers with unlimited paid time off (PTO) according to a study made in 2017, take two less days off per year than the old PTO procedures.
In this instance, people are so wary of being labeled as lazy, that they overwork instead.
Semi synchronous communication is another hurdle.
Putter says that before COVID most companies were working as though things were synchronized, even though they were actually asynchronous. Emails which are not answered quickly lead to frustration.
Putter is of the opinion that the hybrid structure relies on asynchronous and semisynchronous correspondence and that documentation needs to be shared.
The new trend may rely on project management tools, document software or Google Docs. A blend of different applications help with a more asynchronous correspondence and then for remote work we can use applications like Gitlab, Toptal or Buffer which incorporate all the needs into one package. These guidance manuals offer us efficiency pointers, the company’s communication style, tech tools and so forth. The average timeframe to set up a working hybrid plan is between 1 and 2 years.
Putter reminds us that this hybrid method restricts our ability to source the finest talent.
Why do companies prefer WFH?
CEO’s are saying that the system of 3 days in the office and 2 days remote restricts them to hiring people inside of their locality. They won’t be able to hire perhaps greater talent that lives far away, even in other countries. The consequence is loss of potential and growth.
Therefore, competition will force the inevitable change to remote working.
When your competitor is working remotely which automatically leads to greater efficiency and talent, you will fall behind and struggle to survive.
The relationship between time and productivity will become more transparent
Many companies failed to really make the change to remote working.
What is meant by this is that companies attempt to copy the office style of working and paste it into the home. This is not feasible as it leads to a synchronous rhythm with lack of focus and a myriad of distractions.
Is the future going to be working from home?
In the office framework too much emphasis is placed on hours of work rather than hours of successful work completed. Remote workers tend to feel proud of results rather than time spent working.
The ability to be your own boss and own your day while your worth is measured according to what you produce is surely a healthier mindset for the worker.
This said, asynchronous working will lead to higher efficiency and work satisfaction because the worker is able to focus on what he delivers rather than on how much time it takes. Goal orientation will replace measuring time spent.
Knowledge cannot be measured or placed in a frame like the 9 to 5 model. Any tech company is using project management software like OKR’s.
Performance is measured by KPI’s. At week’s end it is apparent whether the goal has or hasn’t been reached. This is the real significance.
Bureaucratic obstacles seem to be slowing down this transition phase. However, companies like Stripe have succeeded to lead as example by successfully expanding it’s remote culture. The reason for this success apparently is the emphasis on production and achievement rather than on time spent.
Striving for this outcome is a big challenge, but if we focus on watching and measuring our employees with all kinds of methods of surveillance, it may backfire and cause our workers to be in the same invasive environment as the office time clock.
In conclusion, we need asynchronous work, trust and emphasis on output.
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