The current work from home situation will be the best thing to ever happen to your business
I feel like I should place an asterisk on the title, but take a moment to hear me out, especially if you are an employer. I already know you are worried the current forced remote work model will harm your business, but when you finish reading I will have changed your mind.
I have experienced an increasing number of job candidates in the last three years requesting a new job that has a portion of their week as work from home, and although we couldn't have predicted the current situation we are all in with Covid-19, I believe there is a lot to be learned about the workforce through this.
Assuming we collectively do the right thing for society and act responsibly to move past this incredible pandemic, I believe the outcome for both employees and employers will be greater than expected.
The truth is, most companies were not prepared for a remote work model for a myriad of reasons, and now the band-Aid has been ripped off faster and more aggressively than we would have imagined.
I recently published an article where I exposed the lessons learned from the experience of my own company in regards to moving to a remote work business model. I cannot say the same for every business but it took five months for us to re-establish our identity, processes and culture through this change.
For someone who works in tech, the recent changes in business operations most likely have not affected you much, but I am writing this for the more traditional businesses who have consistently verbalized the message that your business is “different” and needs face-to-face interaction in order to operate properly. I’m talking about Law firms, architectural design firms, business consulting organizations, etc.
We have entered into a small window for the next 2 to 3 months where your business will operate differently, and as an employer my advice to you is to take this time and document the process changes and standards necessary for you to adapt to a hybrid remote work model in the future.
This will require you to think differently, and challenge almost everything you have done in the past when it comes to business but the outcome will be greater than you could ever imagine.
The request for remote work options from employees is not going away. In addition, I just had a conversation with a business owner today who lives in the south San Francisco Bay area. I informed him that in our recruiting efforts to help him hire an architect we have been turned down by many candidates because of commute alone. You now have the opportunity to create a solution for these individuals and open up the window of candidates you can consider for hiring in the future. The forced work from home situation you are in can provide a silver lining that will open you up to a new pool of qualified talent who desire work from home options either part time or full time.
We have also seen the studies from other countries who have tested shorter work hours, work weeks, and remote work options. Do any of you remember the study produced by Microsoft in November 2019 where they documented the productivity of their team on a 4 day work week? This news was Google’s #1 trend for more than a week, and it wasn't because people were proud of what Microsoft accomplished. Everyone shared that article in hopes that their employer would see it and implement the same model! The same theory applies to the remote work model. Your people are asking, and now is the time for us all to shine.
There is no need to go overboard with the remote work situation. Take it one step at a time. However, if overboard is your thing, here is a link to Remote Year, where you allow employees to work from anywhere in the world for 1 year. https://remoteyear.com/
The list of benefits that will come from adopting a hybrid remote work model are longer than I want to cover here but we have an opportunity to make a very positive change for the future through a forced situation. Don’t miss your window because you might regret it later.
Patrick Sirmeyer - CEO - Luxus+
www.Luxusjobs.com