Work from home was a lifesaver in 2020, a catalyst that showed leaders they can provide workforce flexibility, and now the challenges begin…

 

The return to the office is a welcome sign in the fight against COVID and a relief to leaders who are eager to get back to the familiar ways they manage their teams. In Oklahoma, leaders and employees, alike, called digital platforms the “saving grace” for their company, allowing them to shift to a distributed workforce rather than shut down completely.

More than survive, adapting to remote work enabled many to thrive. The experience will not easily be forgotten, and mounting data shows not everyone wants to.

Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) of people don’t want to go back to working full-time in the office, according to an Oklahoma statewide case study of work and digital communications during COVID. Many participants in the multi-sector study prefer to work remotely two to three days per week, indicating a permanent shift in the workforce to a new way of life.

Remote work was more successful than expected, but in 2021 the challenges begin.

Challenge 1 – Uneven willingness to work full time in the office

In 2020, massive numbers of people experienced what the future of work can be. But in the early months post-COVID, a remote work expectations gap emerged between the desire for remote work options by employees and the openness to the idea from leaders.

Despite consistent positive feedback indicating that team members prefer remote work flexibility, leaders aren’t entirely convinced. They wonder if increased productivity is sustainable long-term. Leaders are raising important questions about trust, introducing new hires, and promoting a healthy organizational culture.

As employers hesitate to embrace remote work, 30 percent of employees say they would quit if not allowed to. The uneven willingness to come back can lead to disruptive conflict and turnover.

To overcome this challenge, employers need to learn the specific reasons people within their organization say they want remote work flexibility moving forward.

  • The general benefits to remote work are many. In your organization, the desire for remote work may be more specific and varied across job function.
  • Team members in certain departments may have found remote work significantly enhanced their productivity and efficiency.
  • Others may have personal and family obligations as primary motivations.

When leaders better understand the reasons their own employees desire remote work flexibility, they can better bridge the gap between the needs of the organization and those of their people. Leaders can also discover the unique ways their company can be a more desirable place to work.

Challenge 2 – Distrust of workers not willing to work in the office

As more people can come back to the office, leaders naturally question why their employees don’t want to. Leaders may interpret an insistence on remote work as a lack of commitment. Trust is foundational in most situations, especially for the success of distributed teams through remote working.

To overcome this challenge, leaders must build trust across the whole team.

  • Commit to honest communication that invites input from team members.
  • Celebrate individual and team accomplishments and work product.

Success for a hybrid work environment with remote work flexibility is possible when it is a culture of trust that values individual contributions and collaborative accomplishments rather than suspicion where managers think the work is only getting done if onsite from 9:00 to 5:00.

Challenge 3 – Abuse of a flexible workforce model

Embracing remote work accepts the fact there will be some who abuse the flexibility. Leaders felt forced to allow remote work in 2020 whether sufficient accountability existed. Increased productivity from strong team members also makes it harder to recognize when others are coasting. The whole team suffers when bad behavior isn’t addressed.

To overcome this challenge, manage remote teams well.

  • Utilize techniques that engage everyone’s participation and gets the most out of what these technologies can offer.
  • Establish a rhythm for rapid team updates. Keep them short, focused, and informative where everyone talks for two to three minutes without draining your team’s time and energy.
  • Communicate expectations, set goals, and agree to deadlines and workflows.
  • Limit remote work options on Mondays and Fridays.
  • A policy for when cameras need to be on or off in video conferences is a good idea, too.

By using the technology well, leaders can manage remote teams and establish an organizational culture necessary in the age of virtual work that cultivates connectedness, elevates accountability, and promotes the core values of your organization.

Challenge 4 – Creating desired cultural elements and building teamwork with new and remote workers

Leaders are right to be concerned about organizational culture. They want to be receptive to the reasons their employees want flexibility without losing cohesion and the culture they’ve worked hard to build. It can be harder for new hires to integrate when they must start team building virtually. Creating and promoting the culture you value in a hybrid or fully remote team will take a different approach and new skills from leaders.

To overcome this challenge, leverage your approach to remote work as a basis for culture, not a by-product of 2020.

  • Create a culture that acknowledges the personal and professional preferences of your people rather than ignoring them.
  • Remote work can reduce internal tension when balancing job responsibilities with family obligations. An employee can get their job done and make it their kid’s dance recital.
  • As quality broadband internet access expands across the nation, particularly beyond population centers, personal or family priorities can drive important decisions such as where to live more than the headquarters’ location.
  • Create a culture where working for your company gives the freedom to choose between urban amenities or small-town way of life, to live near aging relatives or a preferred school.
  • Then, ensure managers have the necessary training and support to lead hybrid or fully remote teams.

This person-centered approach for leaders and team members alike values their needs as well as individual and team accomplishments more than logged hours on the clock.

Challenge 5 – The emerging class system: Resistant, Reluctant, Rewarded

Nearly all projections indicate the post-COVID workforce will be more remote. One year after COVID, one in four Americans remote work full-time. The number of fully remote workers is expected to rise by 87 percent over pre-pandemic levels. The future of work will be distributed, and a new class system is emerging.

  • The resistant: The bottom of the classes are the people who resist or even refuse to come back and demand remote work flexibility. This group may stay employed but get passed over for promotions or raises.
  • The reluctant: The next class up are those who grudgingly agree to come back due to real or perceived pressure from their employer. They will look for excuses and work from home when they can pull it off. This behavior harms culture, compromises trust, and can lower their standing in the organization if they are perceived as not fully loyal.
  • The rewarded: The top class are those who want return in-person. This group will reap the benefits from the struggles of the other two. Though potentially less qualified, they may be rewarded due to their in-person relationships with leaders who may see them as more committed.

To overcome this challenge will require give and take on both sides.

  • Those desiring remote work need to be adaptable when experiencing the potential limitations that come with increased remote work flexibility.
  • They must evaluate when the benefit of remote work flexibility is worth the potential costs.
  • Leaders need to look at their whole team when evaluating performance and making decisions about merit-based incentives, promotions, and leadership development.

Challenge 6 – Reimagined and renovated central office space

Remote work means rethinking your physical space. Fully remote workers or alternating block schedules for coming into the office requires less space. In addition to cost savings, increased effort and vision can reimagine the purpose of physical space altogether.

To overcome this challenge, think about your organization in terms of a work environment more than a workplace.

  • Decide what services and capabilities the physical space can provide that help all the team members succeed.
  • Access to better quality production equipment elevates the efforts of all your employees and departments.
  • Convert square footage from desks and offices to cutting edge corporate meeting space for in-person meetings.
  • Sublet street-front space to businesses that benefit the community and your on-site people, such as restaurants, childcare centers, or gyms.

Challenge 7 – Developing future leaders and competing for top talent

Organizations will continue to see the benefit of new technologies optimizing their processes and profit margins. However, advanced technology will not replace the need for innovative leaders. In the digital age, the most important resource any organization needs to develop its future leaders.

The ability to recruit and retain top level talent will be a decisive factor moving employers toward remote work. Organizations without this option risk losing current team members to competitors who do. As the future of work becomes more distributed, recruiting and retaining top talent then developing them into the future leaders of your company is more important and difficult than before.

To overcome this challenge, expand your search, aggressively recruit talent, and develop leadership pipelines.

  • The virtual work environment makes this possible without the cost of outsourcing professional development of skills a person can take to your competitor.
  • When recruiting talent, embracing remote work can free the organization from looking solely within the market of a company’s headquarters location. Dollars formerly needed to relocate a new hire and their family can be saved or redirected into hiring bonus incentives making your company even more competitive when recruiting top level talent.
  • Research shows the same digital platforms needed for remote work are effective when used for e-mentoring.
  • These tools allow your executive team to create an efficient and goal-oriented leadership development approach that overcomes the barriers of busy schedules and geographic boundaries, common reasons that mentoring programs stall.

 

By incorporating leadership pipelines into remote work policies, employers can effectively identify, cultivate, and retain high level talent that puts them on a path to be future leaders and innovators committed to the organization and its success.

Learn more about Future Point of View’s Virtual Interaction Strategy consulting services here.