Over the last few months, work life for many has transformed dramatically – from commuting into work and catching up with colleagues and clients in person, to the creation of home offices at scale. In fact, I’ve witnessed businesses that were once strictly face-to-face on premises, now supporting hundreds of staff members remotely.
For certain industries, going back to the office full-time may not be a viable option for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, many are also realising the benefits of remote working to employee’s mental health and personal autonomy, as well as organisational cost effectiveness.
So it’s no surprise that McKinsey reported that the levels of remote working are likely to remain higher than pre-crisis, even after the pandemic is over[1]. This sentiment has been felt globally, with Facebook and Google already telling employees they could work from home for the rest of the year[2]. In Australia, we’ve seen the likes of Westpac go a step further, announcing potential plans around a permanent shift towards a more remote workforce.[3]
With such developments, the new post-crisis environment will see a mix of employees returning to the office and employees continuing to work remotely. Therefore, remote work is a conversation that needs to be explored in-depth and embraced by every organisation.
Here are three priorities for management as they consider remote working as part of the new normal.
Priority 1: Re-think the digital technology roadmap
As the pandemic continues to impact economies across the world, leaders are faced with the challenge of rebuilding business success by focusing on recovery and growth. This, combined with the demands of the workforce, means added pressure on the teams that manage back end systems.
Management need to ensure that the underlying technology supports ‘business as usual’ operations as customers and staff demand seamless and secure experiences, especially in a competitive market. We have gotten through the initial emergency response and put the business continuity plans to work and now it is time to be prepared to align with leadership and put the business in a position to thrive. These new demands and business priorities create an opportunity for IT leaders to look at their technology roadmaps, considering fundamental technologies in place but also new or enhanced offerings that could empower staff and customers further. This may include going beyond business as usual IT services to enhance an entire corporate suite of solutions.
Priority 2: Supporting Employees with the Best Office Productivity Tools
The new technology roadmap should consider innovative tools that can be customised to support individual employee requirements, while still being able to cope with the overall sudden increase in remote workers. Reliability, performance, security, and the availability of data and applications are of paramount importance for the success of remote working. With the right tools, employees can feel engaged and empowered. They can even be more innovative and empathetic than they would before the adoption of such tools.
For example, businesses can support both returning and remote workers with the best end-user computing (EUC) and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) in place. This helps teams manage VDI shared storage resources across cloud vendors and regions, enabling employees to access company data, software and collaborative tools anytime, anywhere and from any device.
Priority 3: Adopt a People-First Mindset
Despite its many benefits, it is important to understand that technology itself is not the silver bullet here; rather IT is the enabler to transform business practices to meet the demands of a changing workforce. Yet IT leaders need to work closely with other business leaders to ensure such innovative tools and systems translate to higher employee productivity and wellbeing.
What I have witnessed over the past few months is that remote working can also come with a myriad of constraints experienced by employees – from personal space and time management, to competing personal and professional priorities. It thus is important to build an inclusive and collaborative culture that focuses on bring out the best out of remote employees first. Particularly in a virtual format, this may mean thinking differently when it comes to best accommodating and remunerating employees; otherwise, left unchecked, employees may start to feel uninformed and disconnected from the workplace.
Some ways businesses have been embracing remote readiness include investing in digital upskilling employees or providing an ergonomic and home office allowance to encourage productivity and positive wellbeing.
The most important thing for leaders to remember is to look after the people, as this will make all the difference in the world in terms of employee development and success of the business regardless of where they work from, and the tools they’ve been given.
For businesses looking to support recovery and growth, investment in the right technology is vital to making remote working easier. Yet at the core of this development is making employees a priority, including being well-equipped to work at their high-performing best. Once this is taken care of, businesses will realise the benefits towards a successful business recovery effort in the long run.
[1] McKinsey, The COVID-19 recovery will be digital: A plan for the first 90 days, 14 May 2020
[2] BBC: Facebook and Google extend working from home to end of year
[3] Australian Financial Review: Westpac mulls permanent remote staff