In organizations with proper hiring practices and the infrastructure to support remote work, the right people are filling the right roles, and work is getting done just as efficiently as it does in in-office scenarios.
Unfortunately, a 2023 report from the Standford Institute for Economic Policy Research found that fully remote work scenarios created a 10% drop in productivity when compared to both hybrid or fully in-office scenarios (those two produced the same productivity rates).
For many businesses, even with that drop, offering employees a fully remote work situation is still attractive:
So what’s going on? How can managers get the most out of their workers while also delivering the benefits of offering remote work — for the organization and the employee?
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Today’s employees want purpose, development, coaching and connection to feel engaged and to know their work contributes to something bigger. Smart organizations facilitate and encourage these tactics in both remote and on-site work environments. If that’s not the case, disengagement can drive business outcomes down, and even have a contagious effect on team morale.
Managers, who Gallup reports can account for up to 70% of variance in employee engagement across business units, have the opportunity to make a major impact on the work of their team and, ultimately, the success of the organization.
Exceptional leaders are attentive, according to Harvard Business Review’s “What amazing bosses do differently.” Listening, being empathetic and recognizing the unique situations of each person on a team will make their jobs more enjoyable and meaningful.
When it comes to managing a remote team, managers can be supportive by:
Audit the company’s existing technology solutions to assure employees can do their work efficiently, securely and easily while out of the office. Begin by asking questions:
People bring varying levels of digital confidence to remote roles. Assess employees’ comfort with the specific applications they’ll need to thrive, such as video conferencing tools. Provide training, including video conference best practices, and consider a company video-on/video-optional preference policy, which will set expectations for establishing connections.
If your team is new to remote working, or has kept its old in-office process, then remote work offers an opportunity to reevaluate and optimize processes. This includes reassessing client engagement strategies to enhance service delivery and reduce operational costs in a digital environment.
Helping leaders in managing a remote team requires formerly on-site organizations to shift their thinking of how work happens. Encourage the team to focus on what needs to be accomplished and measuring output not by hours-worked, but rather by quality work completed.
Data security breaches are a major area of concern for chief security officers and chief information officers. To ensure remote teams remain secure, you should focus on people, technology and processes (according to McKinsey & Company’s “Cybersecurity tactics for the coronavirus pandemic.”)
Phishing, smishing, vishing, baiting — the list of socially engineered cyberattack tactics is long and frightening, primarily because most prey on human error. These threat campaigns target vulnerable systems and people, and with many people working remotely for the first time, vulnerabilities are at an all-time high. Security teams need to inform employees of the enhanced predation during a crisis, as well as reiterate any previous training to eliminate exploitation.
It’s beneficial for all to create an official remote working policy and do continual training on it. It should include policies around data security expectations, password protection and work expectations.
Starting with secure home Wi-Fi, what may seem simple can be a large-scale problem. In an office setting, IT can control Wi-Fi settings, but employees’ home connections may not have strong protections in place, leaving organizational networks vulnerable to hacking. Create a plan for getting employees the equipment and assistance they need to keep data safe.
Utilize cloud security solutions with cloud delivery so employees have access to the information they need to do their jobs, and the information itself is protected. Leading cloud solutions provide secure data centers, encrypted in-transit connections, built-in redundancy, data replication, disaster recovery and even ongoing penetration and vulnerability testing.
When faced with a new work-from-home environment, employees may lean on unsanctioned shadow IT solutions to get around productivity obstacles. IT departments need to be ready to provide vetting, assistance, protection and sanctioned alternative solutions for employees looking to such workarounds.
While initiating multifactor authentication may be cumbersome on the front end, the security benefits do pay off. McKinsey and Company recommends a phased rollout that prioritizes users with elevated privileges and those who work with critical systems.
For employees who have never worked off site, logging into VPNs or authenticating necessary credentials can feel overwhelming and may be beyond their digital comfort zone. Consider adding capacity to the IT help desk so newly remote workers can get the help and support they need, when they need it.
The values of an organization help define the type of work performed, and how it gets done. With employees remotely connected, it can be harder for teams to feel the strength of a company culture. To keep the company values visible and actionable, organizations need to stay committed to a delivering a positive employee experience that engages and recognizes valued work.
A modern content management system is vital for remote team management. Such systems provide secure, contextual access to information, supporting anywhere, anytime access and robust security measures like encryption and access policies. These features ensure remote teams can not only operate smoothly and securely, but also do their jobs as a part of an engaged, connected and productive corporate culture.
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