With the pandemic continuing on and remote work becoming not only a necessity but a productive, flexible, and empowering way to work, companies are having to decide how to incorporate remote work into their new normal for the long-term.
Some are deciding to permanently allow employees to work from home, while others are moving to a blended work environment as soon as it’s feasible. Either way, remote work in some form is here to stay for a while, and companies need to be prepared for the workplace of the future.
So, what should previously office-bound organizations expect as remote work takes center stage? Here are five ways the new world of remote work may impact your workforce.
1. Remote Work Will Impact Recruiting and Retention
Hiring and recruiting candidates who live beyond your immediate geographic area is a bit of a catch-22 for employers. On the one hand, you’ll be able to diversify your candidate pool by being open to candidates from a variety of locations and backgrounds. But, with so many companies moving to remote work, the competition for top talent (who also have more opportunities with the proliferation of work-from-anywhere roles) may become fierce.
This also applies to your current employees. If their own pool of available jobs expands exponentially with remote work, they may be tempted to leave if they aren’t getting what they need or want. Fortunately, you can increase your odds of both recruiting and retaining excellent talent by creating a robust remote company culture and by being transparent with your staff.
Being as transparent as you can about the company’s long-term remote plans will go a long way toward building trust and loyalty. If you’re not sure how long roles will be remote or haven’t yet figured out how often (if ever) you’ll want staff in the office, let people know so they won’t feel blindsided by sudden announcements.
2. You’ll Have to Be More Intentional About Culture
In some ways, company culture at an in-person office is easier to establish than in a remote work environment. Ping pong in the break room can help set a “fun” vibe. What about a nonprofit organization that focuses on wellness? Daily lunchtime yoga classes in the conference room may be the go-to for creating a self-care culture.
But when your company is entirely online, the face-to-face interactions that dictate so much of how it “feels” to work somewhere (annual work Halloween mega-party, anyone?) are gone. This doesn’t mean you can’t create a remote work culture. Quite the opposite, in fact! Your company can build a stronger culture than ever before—it just needs to be intentional.
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Think outside of the box as you come up with ways to celebrate your unique company culture remotely. Those dusty beverages in the break room? Consider hosting weekly virtual happy hours for your teams. Still want wellness to be a central tenet of your work culture? Online yoga classes and wellness seminars can provide the self-care fix employees have come to love.
Figure out what really matters to your company, design your remote culture around it, and proactively nurture it day in and day out. Building a positive employee experience that starts with the remote onboarding process is a great way to reinforce your culture throughout the employee lifecycle.
3. Employees May Want to Move
Once you take away the physical location requirement of work, like Facebook and Twitter have done with their permanent work-from-home plans, employees suddenly have the option to work from, well, anywhere.
When there’s no longer a need to live within a commutable distance to the office or near the company headquarters, staff can conceivably live wherever they want. Research shows that 35% of workers in America are considering relocating, 40% of whom are looking to move to less-populated areas, and 31% who want to live somewhere with a lower cost of living.
What does this mean for companies? First, before announcing that employees truly can work from anywhere, you’ll want to check into the tax implications of having your staff working in different states (or countries!) than company headquarters. You may discover that you’ll only want employees based in a few specific locations or you might find out that working from anywhere aligns with regulations, but the important thing is to do your research.
Second, consider if you’ll want to restrict staff to living in certain time zones to accommodate synchronous (vs. asynchronous) communication among your teams. Sure, it may sound nice to tell your staff they can move to Spain while the company stays based in New York, but make sure you understand how the time difference will impact the daily workflow of the business.
You may also want to reconsider your company’s compensation plans if employees will be moving from a high cost of living area to one that is significantly lower. After all, will you want to pay San Francisco salaries to staff who move to Tennessee to be near family? Many workers are on board with pay localization strategies in exchange for being able to work from where they want, so it’s worth looking into.
4. Results Will Matter More Than Hours
When your team all worked in an office, managers could quite literally keep an eye on everyone’s work throughout the day. They could monitor when staff started and ended their workdays, how long they took for lunch, and even how often they headed to the water cooler for a quick (or not!) chat with colleagues.
While the heavy focus on hours at the desk isn’t a good indicator of the quality of work in any scenario—remote or in the office—it has been the de facto standard for measuring the productivity of office workers for many decades.
Unless companies plan to aggressively monitor their employees via tracking software, managers have to let go of control and learn to trust that their staff will get their jobs done, even if they are out of sight. This can be a real challenge for managers used to checking up on employees throughout the day, but it’s crucial that companies ditch the outdated leadership style of relying on time spent rather than results.
Emphasizing outcomes over hours with your team is the new frontier of remote work, and the benefits of trusting your employees to get their work done when and how best works for them far outweigh any potential downsides.
When it’s all said and done, an employee’s ability to complete quality work and move tasks and projects forward is much more indicative of their performance than how many hours they work. And when they feel trusted and empowered to do their best work without being micromanaged, they’ll be more productive, happier, and more engaged team members.
5. Burnout May Be Harder to Spot
In an in-person office environment, burnout—chronic, unresolved workplace stress—can be easy to spot. Maybe you noticed an employee looking frazzled and anxious day after day, followed by a string of sick days. Or perhaps you overheard a staff member talking with colleagues about feeling overwhelmed with and exhausted by work or heard through the grapevine that they were feeling overworked. If you’re paying attention, these in-person cues can give you the information you need to prevent and treat burnout with your employees.
In a remote work environment, however, your only “face-to-face” interaction with your team members is likely during group meetings and one-on-ones, where staff may feel uncomfortable bringing up that they feel burned out. And since no one’s in the office, it’s unlikely that you’ll hear from others who may be concerned about a particular coworker’s stress levels.
With increased responsibilities at home and so much uncertainty in the world during the pandemic, many workers are more stressed than ever, so it’s important to keep your eyes and ears tuned into the signs and be proactive about managing burnout for all your remote staff members.
Remote Work Is Here to Stay
There’s no question about it—for most companies, remote work in some form is here to stay for the immediate future. Whether your company has plans to stay fully remote after the pandemic or is just remote for now until you have a better idea of what the future holds, going into a remote work environment with your eyes wide open will prepare your company and your employees for long-term success.
If you’re looking for more advice on transitioning to remote work, FlexJobs can help. FlexJobs has been a leader in remote work since 2007, and we work with companies of every size to provide support for businesses that are integrating remote work. For expert guidance, reach out today!
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