Remote Working: The Business Guide - Thanks Ben

Making remote working actually work

Without a doubt, a remote work setting has many benefits, but it comes with challenges too. You might have struggled with a few during the pandemic. Ben’s ultimate guide to remote working is here to help you and your team. It’ll help you get the most out of remote working, learn how to navigate the challenges, and how to pick the right strategy and tools to create a high-functioning remote or hybrid team.

An introduction to remote working

Remote working goes by many names: smart working, mobile work, telecommuting, telework, or just working from home. A handful of companies, like Impala, Basecamp, and GitLab, have been successfully functioning remotely for a while now. But, for many, the shift to remote work was abrupt and forced upon them by unprecedented external circumstances – the coronavirus pandemic.COVID-19 impacted our lives in many ways. The way we work, socialise, exercise, carry out basic activities – it all changed.

Even from early in the pandemic, it was clear big changes were coming. In April 2020 in the UK, 46.6% of people in employment were doing some of their work from home, with the vast majority (86%) of these homeworkers stating that this was because of the pandemic.

Although a shift towards greater freedom of choice in working patterns was already happening, COVID-19 definitely gave it a huge push.Now, many companies – from big corporations like Microsoft and Facebook to SMEs – have decided to stay fully remote or offer their team members the possibility to work from home if and when they want. But how do both companies and employees get the best out of their (new) remote working environments?

Why work remotely?

Start by asking why you or your team want to work remotely. What are you hoping to gain out of it and are you ready to make the necessary adjustments? While making this decision, you need to take into account the impact on both employers and employees.

For companies, although you might need to hire and onboard without meeting in person, remote work does offer:

  1. A larger talent pool
  2. More diversity
  3. Increased employee retention

You’ll notice throughout this guide we focus on employees. After all, all employers rely heavily on their staff – so having more people available and being able to keep staff happier is all good news. There’s the potential to save a lot of money too. Not only will you have limited or no office costs, there’s some suggestion that remote work improves productivity and efficiency. There have been a lot of studies on this subject, with a 2013 study by Stanford University professors and scholars being one of the most cited. 16,000 call center employees volunteered to work from home over nine months, and in this time performance increased by 13%. Other studies have followed, revealing that:

Remote working can also have a knock-on effect on the amount of sick days taken (it did during the pandemic), although it’s not necessarily clear if employees are healthier, or just that people feel willing to do some work at home while feeling unwell.

Employers do have the responsibility to make sure employees are still taking breaks, holidays and sick days while remote working. The added flexibility may feel like a huge benefit, but employees shouldn’t feel like they have to earn it by putting in extra time.

Remote working models

Fully remote

Opportunities
Challenges

Hybrid

Opportunities
Challenges

Distributed hubs

Opportunities
Challenges

Establishing and maintaining company culture

Creating a strong company culture in any work setting is probably one of the larger challenges leaders and managers face. And in a remote workplace, something that already appeared intangible has seemingly lost the last bit of its foundation.

There are plenty of definitions or explanations of company culture, but it’s easiest to think of it as the personality of an organisation, determined by what the workplace stands for and used to guide what’s expected of employees. However you come to understand culture, remember one thing: it has the power to make or break a business. After all, employees are a huge asset to any business. They deliver work, grow teams, drive strategy – and more. But if your employees are unhappy, it’s unlikely they’ll do more than the bare minimum.

With a culture that promotes transparency, honesty, and recognition, employees can be happier. And if you can win over your employees with the right workplace culture, you’re much more likely to win in the marketplace.

Company culture in a remote setting

If you asked them to explain it, it’s likely there’ll be some common themes across different businesses’ cultures – whether they’ve officially confirmed their culture in writing anywhere or not. But it’s definitely better to guide the culture you want by having a company mission, vision, and core value statements. You might just opt for one, all three, or perhaps you’ll have different names for your statements. The important thing is that you’re sharing and promoting the same message across the company. Regardless of organisational size or remote working set-up, this consistency is important.

Company mission, vision, and core value statements

The first step in creating a strong remote company culture is having clear, inspiring company mission, vision, and core value statements. These can have a strong impact on your team, foster a strong work ethic, and create cohesion to guide everybody in the same direction. So, what are they?

Mission statement

A good mission statement is a short description of the organisation’s purpose, goals, and the sort of products/services it provides to help find solutions to specific problems. It’s a simple yet powerful statement that acts as a guiding light for company culture. In modern working culture, a clear purpose has become incredibly important to employees. Overall, a good mission statement explains in less than 100 words:

Vision statement

While a company mission statement creates a sense of purpose in the present, a vision statement communicates where the company wants to be in the future. Vision statements function as roadmaps that guide each action of a company. A good vision statement should be:

Company values

A company’s values represent its desired behaviours and attitudes. Typically, they would be formulated by a leader in the company and passed down through time. But there’s no reason why you can’t get employees involved in setting company values. When a company transitions to remote work, it might be necessary to reformulate the values to reflect the remote working culture. Some examples of important company values could include:

It’s important to choose values that resonate, and create examples that show employees how these company values work in reality.

Goal settings

When you’ve successfully formulated the company mission, vision, and value statements, they can be broken down into actionable and measurable goals. That’s where employees from across the company can get involved. Goal setting can seem like a daunting task, but it helps to create alignment within the company, and encourages employees to feel connected to the wider business goals and mission.

OKRs (Objectives & Key Results)

An increasingly popular goal-setting methodology is the implementation of OKRs (Objective and Key Results). Companies like Google, Spotify, and LinkedIn use their OKRs to manage and grow their businesses. And for good reason – they can be incredibly effective. In a nutshell, OKRs are a goal-setting framework that helps define and measure goals. They can be used at all levels of a company, from board to employee. In a remote setting, having clear goals is arguably more important as it helps everyone stay on the same page.

Enhancing employee engagement

The great thing about goal setting is that it encourages employee engagement. When rolled out correctly, workers can really get behind shared aims. Your employees are your greatest asset. Keeping them engaged can truly make a difference to how successful your company is. A disengaged employee is only going to have a bad attitude and be unproductive. It all has a knock-on effect on your bottom line. In fact, according to Gallup, an employee with low engagement costs 18% of their annual salary, or £1,800 for every £10,000 they make.

Engagement strategy roadmap

  1. Ask
    • You need to know what your people need. The only way to find out is to ask.
  2. Identify
    • The survey(s) and 1-on-1s will provide you with enough data to identify what needs to change, what is missing, and what can go.
  3. Document
    • Write an engagement strategy that addresses the above points.
  4. Create casual opportunities
    • Use video conferencing for gatherings.
  5. Send out annual employee engagement surveys
    • Capture a moment in time.
  6. Repeat the process
    • Employees know that surveys give them a voice – so keep listening.

Perks and benefits

Developing a great employee benefits strategy can have a great impact on your company culture, employee wellbeing, and overall productivity.

Type of benefits

Statutory benefits

Depending on the country, some benefits are mandatory by law:

Salary sacrifice benefits

Non-mandatory benefits or perks

These benefits go above and beyond the standard and can make an impact on the lives of employees.

Health & Wellbeing

Support the health and wellbeing of any team member, including:

Conclusion

With the right culture, policies and security in place, anything is possible. Giving your employees greater flexibility can have a huge impact on their life. It may take some effort to set up for success, but it’ll be worth it – for both employees and employers.