The recent flurry of articles about growing calls for a return to the office got me thinking. I’m sure some companies genuinely can’t break that habit, but I get the sense that at least some of the hype around this idea is coming from commercial landlords with space going spare and failing investments.
Not sure why it has to be an all-or-nothing sort of thing. More people are going into the office than, say, this time last year but we’re still seeing a lot of flexible working as well as a lot of people committed to keeping that flexibility. That means remote working isn’t going away – and that means you need to make extra sure it is producing the results you want or those calls to come back to the office will gain traction. And we don’t want that, do we?
So, how to ensure remote working works for you? Here are six things to keep in mind:
1. Use the Right Communication Tools
Effective communication has always been important in the workplace – in the office, at business conferences, in client presentations, job interviews, internal comms, you name it. Comms are key.
But when working remotely, how you communicate becomes exponentially more important because you’ve taken face-to-face interaction out of the mix and not everyone is present at the same time (we’ll get to synchronous vs asynchronous in a sec).
To keep the communication fit for purpose and flowing freely, we turn to the digital toolbox. There are more options than ever before providing real-time messaging, cloud storage and file sharing, video conferencing, and project management – all designed to keep people collaborating and connected across distance and time.
Of course, with all those choices, the trick is to pick the right ones best suited to your teams and your goals. That will depend, among other things, on the size of the teams, what they are doing, the budget, and how these tools will interact with other systems. But if you take the time to make informed choices, they will be the right choices.
2. Build a Transparent Culture – And Remember That Transparency Includes Accountability
Remote working requires a good deal of trust and transparency. Information should be shared openly, and decisions should be communicated clearly as should expectations. But transparency isn’t just about sharing information. It’s also about accountability, about owning up to mistakes and learning from them. It’s about taking responsibility. If you’ve been allowed to decide HOW you do your job, it’s down to you to do it.
It’s also important to be transparent about remote working within your organisation. Having a productive, robust remote work culture requires clear, specific commitments about how and when remote work will be permitted. No one likes a bait and switch, and no one trusts organisations that do that. Word gets around…
3. Find the Right Balance Between Synchronous and Asynchronous Working
Synchronous work is the real-time stuff like team meetings, presentations, brainstorming, that sort of thing. All those scheduled, real-time interactions whether in person, on the phone, or on video – that’s working asynchronously.
Asynchronous is when someone engages with work on their own schedule and isn’t dependent on the availability of others in that same window. Even in an office situation, you can work asynchronously. When you send an email update at the end of the day and your boss replies the next morning, that’s basically asynchronous. So asynchronous isn’t just something that happens with remote or flex time teams.
Both methods of working have their place and circumstances where they work best; both have upsides and downsides, and both suit certain types of work and personalities more than the other. So, finding the best mix that works for you and your team – the one that maintains productivity and employee engagement – is the goal.
And it will be a mix. No one works only one way or the other, even if they are all in the same place and time zone.
4. Track Performance, Not Time
Remote work isn’t about clocking in and out. And when the hard start and stop of the 9-5 world has become blurred, clock-watching not only gets harder, it makes very little sense. Now, obviously in situations where hourly billing is involved, tracking time spent on work is necessary. But tracking time spent on a task is not the same as taking attendance.
Giving teams clear metrics and KPIs helps them understand what success looks like and their part in achieving it. When people have that understanding alongside ownership of their own way of working, you have created a culture that values productivity and performance, rather than presenteeism. That is how to get the best out of remote teams.
5. Make Sure Roles and Tasks are Clear
We’ve spoken about the importance of using the right communication tools – but the clarity of the communication itself is also vital to the success of remote working.
Whenever and wherever possible, everyone should be able to see what they need to do, when they need to do it, and how their tasks fit into the larger project or company goals.
In a remote working environment, you want to ensure that everyone can see what they need to do when they need to do it, and how that work fits into the larger picture. It’s not only important for avoiding misunderstandings, duplicated work, or things getting missed. It’s also about keeping employees engaged. If people’s roles, responsibilities, and tasks are clearly communicated, they know where all that sits in the context of the team and in the larger landscape of the organisation’s goals – they will feel more engaged. If employee engagement is low – so are productivity, performance, and collaboration.
6. Foster Team Cohesion and Collaboration
Remember when we said that finding the right mix of synchronous and asynchronous working was really important? Ensuring team cohesion and collaboration is one of the key reasons that even the most widely distributed teams should be working synchronously at least some of the time. Remote work can sometimes feel isolating (even for people who thrive on working on their own). So regular check-ins, virtual team-building activities, and collaborative projects can help keep that at bay.
The frequency will vary – team size, location, preferences, and other dependencies will have to be considered. But cohesion and collaboration are the foundation of positive work culture – and that is the kind of culture that boosts overall productivity and team performance.
If you implement these strategies together (you can hardly help it as they are so entwined with each other), you’ll have a remote work environment that is efficient, productive, and populated with team members happy to contribute to the long-term success of their organisation.