In a recent survey of 500 Americans by SurveyMonkey, 46% of respondents indicated they wouldn’t be as satisfied with their work if they had to go into an office every day. A small number (6%) even indicated they would quit if required to go into the office daily. But what criteria can be helpful for employers to decide which office jobs could be remote at their company?
Employers need to be open-minded to remote workforces now more than ever, says Alissa Henriksen, chief recruiting officer and talent search strategist at Grey Collaborative, a strategic search and recruiting consultancy for global manufacturing and sales organizations. “This might be one of the only competitive advantages your organization has over others,” says Henriksen. “Especially if this is important to a candidate considering an opportunity with your company.”
The hard part, though, can be deciding which jobs should be remote. Consider these scenarios, says Henriksen:
Your team doesn’t have to be together.
While there are definitely jobs that have to be done in the workplace, many don’t. As chief happiness officer of pinQConsult, Angelique Slob helps companies manage the future of work and transition to new school nomadism employment models for talent that works, lives, and travels anywhere. “When the right cultural aspects are being met, there are many jobs that can be done remotely, maybe more than you would think,” says Slob. So take a look at what each member of your team does to determine if it’s really, truly necessary for them to all be together at the same office. You might find that they can get the same quality of work done (or even better) working remotely.
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The technology is already available.
One of the biggest determining factors for deciding if an office job can segue seamlessly into a remote job is technology based. What programs and apps do your workers use? Chances are, they are probably utilizing technology that is 1) cloud-based and 2) collaborative. This means that whether your employees are working in the office (or their home offices thousands of miles away from each other), they can still work well together as a team. If that’s the case, there’s really no reason for them to commute into the office.
There is no departmental impact.
Consider how front-facing each one of your workers is. If allowing them to work remotely does not impact the department, your customers, or company goals, giving them flexibility just makes good business sense. And in doing so, you’re more likely to be more successful at recruiting—and retaining—the best talent for your workforce.
You’re hindering your company by having office jobs.
Sure, having a brick-and-mortar business model may work well for some organizations, but not for others. While your company may have had its roots in a traditional workplace, that doesn’t mean that it has to stick to its origins. If you find that you’re losing employees, that you’re having problems recruiting fresh talent, or that your team’s productivity is lackluster, an inflexible work environment might be to blame. Add to that the exorbitant expense of having all your workers report to work each day, and it might make better business sense to start transitioning your team to a remote work lifestyle.
Your competitors are already doing it.
Every company has its share of competition. What does yours look like? Maybe most of them have already adopted a remote work policy, in which their workers are a mélange of work-from-home employees and digital nomads. Although you might think that how they run their business won’t affect yours, it could. After all, if job seekers are actively looking for workplace flexibility in the jobs they apply for, they might steer clear of your company and veer towards companies that will allow them to work remotely. In order to keep up your competitive edge, offering flex just might be the fix.
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