The Leaders Championing the Remote Work Movement

I've been writing about remote work since the beginning of my career and most recently wrote how coronavirus is accelerating the remote workplace and what I've learned from a decade of remote work. Back in 2007 when I created the first social media position at a Fortune 200 company, I asked my manager if I could work remotely and he responded, "I can't let you or your coworkers will be jealous". Fast forward to today, where 70 percent of HR leaders credit remote work as a recruiting and retention tool, 85 percent of millennials prefer doing it "all the time" and over 40 percent of adults would give up some of their salaries to do it. There are many reasons for the growth in remote work besides the majority of U.S. states issuing stay-at-home orders, including the availability of collaborative technologies, the demand for work-life balance amidst the burnout epidemic, the cost savings ($11,000 per employee per year) and the ability to hire and manage a global workforce.

Remote work is going to have staying power in the aftermath of the coronavirus. Just a few weeks into our grand "remote work experiment" the verdict is in. American's would like to continue to work remotely after the pandemic is over. In a new Gallup national poll, 59 percent of people who are currently working remotely would prefer to continue compared to 41 percent who would prefer to return to a physical office when this is cover. But, of course in certain industries and professions like manufacturing and healthcare, remote work isn't possible or encouraged. Still, remote work will become ubiquitous and be as common an employee benefit as paid leave in the years to come.

When corporations and employees BOTH benefit from a workplace program, there's a high likelihood it will have longevity and produce long-term value.

Since last November, I've highlighted the mental health, gender pay equality and financial wellness movements. Today, I'm focused on the remote work movement because it's the most relevant and prominent workplace trend right now. I've selected some thoughtful leaders from some of the world's most admired companies that had successful remote work policies and programs before the pandemic and have continued to be role models to other companies in their industry who are scrambling to do the same. I spoke to five HR leaders in order to hear their perspectives around the topic. These leaders include Anna Vikstr?m Persson (Chief Human Resources Officer at Pearson), Kerri Reynolds (SVP, Human Resources, and Crowdsourcing at Appen), Kristi Hummel (SVP of Human Resources at Dell), Angela Geffre (Head of Global Talent at JLL) and Caskie Lewis-Clapper (Chief Human Resources Officer at Magellan Health).

Dan Schawbel: Why do you think remote work has grown by 159% since 2015 and why is it important for your company to support employees who want to work remotely?

• Anna Vikstr?m Persson (Pearson): There are a number of reasons why remote working has grown, firstly the demand from employees to have a more flexible working arrangement has increased. And secondly, we’ve seen huge advances in the technology we use to work remotely. The likes of Zoom, O365 and internal social networks like Jive have been game-changers. We can work with colleagues across the globe like they’re sat in the same room as us. For Pearson it is important we are able to provide a culture that attracts, develops and retains the very best talent. A flexible approach to our work environment is a part of this, we’ve embraced smart technology to work collaboratively, globally - connecting conference rooms to living rooms. 
• Kerri Reynolds (Appen): There four main forces are driving the growth of remote work. First, technology advances, including the cloud and IoT, have made working remotely easier, more seamless and more secure. Second, now that they can do it easily, many workers prefer working remotely. They may live far from an urban center, limiting the types of work they can get locally, or perhaps they want to work for a company or in an industry that has no local presence. Some simply prefer the improved work/life balance they can achieve if they don’t have to commute or spend most of the day in an office building. Remote work also makes it easier for someone to supplement their income with a second part-time job or pick a few hours of work while attending school. Even many workers who regularly go to an office enjoy a day or two a week working from home. Third, many highly qualified workers can’t commute to an office because of a disability or other limitation. Remote work enables these people to contribute to top companies anywhere in the world and earn the positions and income they deserve. Fourth, many companies recognize that relying on remote workers is good business. These workers are very productive, and a remote workforce enables businesses to drive down facilities costs while giving them access to a vastly larger pool to hire the expertise they need – including persons with disabilities (PWDs). This explains why 80 percent of large U.S. companies are planning to switch to a flexible workforce in the coming years. Appen has built its capabilities and brand on our software, systems, processes, and expertise in managing a remote workforce, which we call our Crowd. By crowd-sourcing our annotation and other services, we have built a one million-plus remote workforce, representing 130 countries and speaking 180 languages and dialects. While ensuring diversity for AI projects, our huge workforce also enables us to rapidly scale up teams for even the largest projects. We recently scaled a 3,000-member project team in under 48 hours. We can also support over 1 million hours of work per month for clients, thanks to our global footprint and reach. We simply could not deliver the quality, diversity, and scale we are committed to without our global remote workforce
• Kristi Hummel (DELL):  More and more, employers and employees alike are seeing the value that a remote workforce can bring. That is true more than ever in today’s environment. For us, adopting a flexible workforce has been a priority for more than a decade and year after year, we see the tremendous contributions our flexible work programs have driven. It’s become part of our company culture to put trust in our employees to work where and when they best see fit to drive the best results and outcomes for the company.
• Angela Geffre (JLL): Having both a culture and infrastructure in place to enable remote work has provided us with incredible flexibility, which is proving critical at this time of disruption. The growth in remote work generally is the result of several trends that have emerged nearly simultaneously. First, technology enables many of us to be productive from anywhere. Not long ago, it was only certain knowledge workers who could work remotely; however, now technology enables people to collaborate, diagnose and even innovate from their homes. With so many collaboration tools at our disposal, people are better connected than ever – whether they are separated by 10 desks or 10,000 miles. Coupled with that, employee expectations have changed and are challenging traditional ways of thinking -- why should I sit at a desk in a cubicle when I can be just as productive on my sofa or at a coffee shop? Finally, attracting the best and brightest now requires companies to offer more flexible work arrangements, including remote work.
• Caskie Lewis-Clapper (Magellan Health): We’ve experienced an exponential change in technology, making socio-technical intersections that even 5 years ago many couldn’t imagine. This, coupled with wanting and needing the right talent at the right time makes it imperative to have a wide demographic from which to recruit great people for our companies. We want the best talent and care less about where they sit each day. There is a time and place for remote work, co-location, and in-person face time for those not sharing a work site – but all those decisions should be driven fundamentally by the work to be done.

Dan Schawbel: Can you describe your remote work program, why it was created and what you’ve learned in the process?

• Anna Vikstr?m Persson: Pearson has been ahead of the curve when it comes to how we work with each other. Video conferencing for meetings, online collaboration and bringing your own device to work have been the norm for the last 10 years. This focus on using smart technology has helped to shape our approach to flexible and remote working. As a global company, we’re committed to providing the right tools for our colleagues so they can focus on doing their very best work.
• Kerri Reynolds: The mechanics of our remote work program are simple. We post available positions on our jobs board, and any pre-qualified worker can select a position to join that project team. We created our Crowd strategy to ensure diversity and high-quality results at scale. From the beginning, our philosophy has been based on putting humans in the loop of a new ethical AI economy. Predictions are that over 30 million U.S. workers will lose their jobs because of AI, and the numbers around the world will be staggering – but Appen is using technology to actually create new jobs as this new AI-driven economy grows, and help solve the challenge brought on by AI. Our Crowd is now over one million strong and represents 130 countries and 180 languages and dialects. We have built our Crowd program on a commitment to the well-being of our workers and we have established our principles of our Crowd Code of Ethics, which include: “Fair Pay,” with above minimum wage in each market, “Inclusion,” so we hire people from all around the world, and they feel like an important part of our global community, “Crowd Voice” to ensure we really hear the needs of our Crowd – what is important to them in their jobs and lives, “Privacy and Confidentiality” to protect them, “Privacy and Confidentiality” to protect them, “Communication” that is transparent and responsive, so workers can do their jobs effectively, and “Well-being” to ensure the health and wellness of our community. A couple of other principles of well-being inform our program. To ensure quality, we test and certify workers on their skillsets. This is essential to making the Crowd work. Yes, our customers benefit because they get a higher-quality result, but our workers also benefit because they experience more success and satisfaction on the job. We are also committed to ensuring we have projects available for workers. This is one of the key messages we hear through our “Crowd Voice.” Whether for a full-time job or supplementing other work, our workers are relying on us and investing in us, and they deserve to know they can count on us for the work they need. While diversity is a key principle of our Crowd Code of Ethics, it is also essential to our success in supporting AI projects. Our employee population is 61 percent female and 39 percent male, and we are an active supporter of people with disabilities. Through our Philippines operation, we initially onboarded over 50 people with partial or full hearing impairment to support image annotation work, and we have now expanded this group to over 200 people.
• Kristi Hummel: At Dell Technologies, championing a flexible work environment has been a key component of our company’s culture for over ten years. Established in 2009, our Connected Workplace program allows employees to choose the work style that best fulfills their needs on the job and in life in a highly mobile, collaborative, and flexible work setting. The program has positively impacted our business, our approach to talent acquisition and our environmental footprint. But more than just a policy, this program encourages a change in how we all think about work - where work is not anchored to one place and time and instead is focused on outcomes. That mindset and shift is now more important than ever as parents juggle working with their kids at home and as other team members adjust to new routines. We will continue to invest, grow, and evolve our Connected Workplace program to enable our team members to be their best and do their best work.
• Angela Geffre: We have enabled a culture that not only allows for remote work for many roles but enables our people to thrive in remote working environments. One way we have enabled this environment is through what we call “Quality Conversations.” These regular discussions between managers and their team members clarify personal and professional goals and help remove any obstacles to achieving them -- in some cases, we find that the ability to work remotely may be more highly valued than, say, more traditional rewards. In those instances, the manager and direct report can work together to craft a plan on flexible or location-free work arrangements. We’ve learned how important it is to provide training about working remotely – and not just training on how to use the technology. We help our people learn how to operate effectively when working remotely – through communicating, collaborating and growing relationships with colleagues that they don’t physically see on a daily basis. These skills are typically unknown to people who are new to remote work – the fostering of which is now more critical than ever with so much of the workforce at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve also learned how providing for remote work opens us up to a larger talent pool, supporting our efforts to have the best people in our industry.
• Caskie Lewis-Clapper: We began our remote work program years ago, based on the premise that we wanted the right talent for our roles, and could work around any geographic barriers. As technology got better, our program got better. The “work-life flow” it affords our team members, as well as a very broad candidate base for recruiting talent, has been a huge asset for our company. What I’ve learned – that’s a long list, that’s still growing. That said, here are some key things: (1) The work to be done is the key decision criteria for determining where and how a role is performed. (2) Not everyone wants to or can work effectively from home – that’s ok – no judgment here – but personal preference cannot always be accommodated. (3) High control needs of leaders were the single most frequent barrier to getting this program off the ground – and it still is. (4) We have lots of good work to do to help leaders get better at leading in 2020 and beyond– regardless of where they or their team sits.

Dan Schawbel: How have you measured the effectiveness of your remote work program from both the employer and employee perspectives?

• Anna Vikstr?m Persson: We know one of the benefits our employees’ value is our flexible approach to working remotely and the tools we provide so they can work anytime and anywhere.
• Kerri Reynolds: Our client satisfaction rating is extraordinary, and we are trusted by most global technology companies you can name, and for their most complex AI projects. Our Crowd enables us to scale rapidly and deliver the high-quality resources our clients need when they need them for a variety of use cases, and we can quickly ramp up new projects in new markets. We were also awarded #1 Ranking among 54,000 companies on FlexJobs’ 100 Top Companies to Watch for Remote Jobs in 2017, 2019 and 2020. In 2018, Appen was ranked second. You could say that our Crowd worker program is a phenomenal success. From our workforce’s perspective, we measure our program effectiveness using three metrics. The first is NPS scores. Are they stable or going up? Second is the attrition rate. How quickly are people coming onto the program and then rolling themselves off? And third is the length of stay. We look at this as different than attrition because some workers can work for periods of time and then not work for periods of time, so their overall length of stay is very important to us – how often do they keep coming back and engaging with us? These metrics are important because the longer people stay with us and the more experience they gain, the more stable and expert our workforce becomes, enabling us to better satisfy our growing customer demand. I think it also says something important that we have millions of job applicants every year and had almost 10 million visits to our websites last year.
• Kristi Hummel: Based on our employee engagement survey, we know that workplace flexibility is one of the top three culture attributes valued the most. One thing all companies on this journey should know is that we continue to see high levels of performance from our team members – no matter where they are working. In today’s environment, our team members know how to get their jobs done without needing a learning curve. They’re engaging online with co-workers around the globe while allowing space for the flexibility they need in their home life – working to find the balance they need to thrive both professionally and personally. Along with the positive benefits of employee satisfaction and removing geographic barriers to talent acquisition, our mission to drive human progress through our flexible work policy extends to our environmental footprint. When we look at our flexible workforce collectively, an internal analysis a few years ago showed that the impact amounts to a reduction of 136 million travel miles a year and 35,000 less metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted by having fewer Dell Technologies commuters traveling to work. That's the equivalent of taking nearly 7,400 cars off the road each year.
• Angela Geffre: We regularly conduct pulse engagement surveys and have found that people who take advantage of our work from home policies generally feel more positive on the majority of the facets we measure – including their overall engagement, their relationships with their manager, and perceptions about leadership. While remote work is not our only solution for creating a highly engaged workforce, the insights we have gained from these surveys enable us to reflect on how we can continue to create inclusive environments where people feel like they belong, and are productive and engaged, regardless of location.
• Caskie Lewis-Clapper: From an employer perspective, we measure our effectiveness based on our results. We have clear goals, and measures in place – and have treated working remotely as a privilege that’s earned. For our team members, we measure our success based on Pulse surveys we issue 3x/year (engagement), as well as individual performance & results. The net is, we measure our success the same for remote and site-based team members.

Dan Schawbel: While remote work offers employees freedom and flexibility, a global study I led found that people who often work remotely are less likely to stay with their employer long-term. Remote workers feel more isolated and have a weaker relationship with their team because they aren’t physically present with them. How can leaders maintain relationships with remote workers so that they are engaged and want to stay longer?

• Anna Vikstr?m Persson: At Pearson addressing the global culture of collaboration, inclusion, and diversity remote working is just as important as providing the right tools. Virtual town halls with executives are the norm. Our CEO and Pearson Executive Management host quarterly global conversations with 4,000+ attendees using Zoom. I personally use Microsoft teams with my own leadership team and host virtual town halls with our 400+ HR colleagues from Manilla to San Francisco. We also have Neo, our online community. Pearson employees work together on Neo to quickly and efficiently share information and feedback through blogs and comments and likes. Neo enables people to interact with their peers and all layers of the organization in real-time. It was through Neo Pearson people also crowdsourced a remote working manifesto to specifically address ways we could improve the user experience for everyone. This manifesto provides very practical tips for home office set-up and how to work with colleagues remotely, not just for those who are remote and there are lots of fun ideas for remote networking.
• Kerri Reynolds: While our commitment to fair pay is important, keeping a remote workforce engaged and loyal requires an emotional component that goes beyond the compensation and job description. That’s why our focus on our Crowd Code of Ethics and worker well-being is so important. Our online availability to our workers, including very active chat boards for each project, creates a vital sense of community. Our workers tell us they want to be a part of a larger community, and communication is the key to this. They know we care about them because we constantly communicate with them, from providing the workloads they need to training them for new tasks, to regularly providing them with healthy reminders, such as to drink enough water or remain in an ergonomic position. Our workers “feel” our presence and our concern. Initiatives like the hiring and training of hearing-impaired workers in the Philippines is another example of an approach to our remote workforce that clearly focuses on their well-being, not just on what is most expedient for the business. Because of this, the majority of our Crowd look at us as a partner in their lives. We also recently created an internal department called Crowd Care, and we have engagement managers who are now completely focused on understanding what our Crowd wants and needs. For instance, one of the things they discovered was an interest in gamification – which indicates that people want to participate in a way that validates their expertise – they want to be able to show what they have achieved, so they can stand out in the crowd. Now the challenge is creating a program for this that works all around the world. Last but not least, our content team is constantly trying to find new ways to surface wellness related tips and tricks for remote workers on the Life at Appen blog section.
• Kristi Hummel: We haven't seen the same results at Dell Technologies. In fact, work flexibility is one of the key drivers of talent acquisition and employee retention. That said, it does take effort and collaboration from our managers. Leaders of remote teams need to prioritize transparency, setting performance expectations, and ensuring employees feel connected and included. This is accomplished in simple ways such as daily huddles, using collaborative tools like Zoom or Microsoft Teams and listening and acting on feedback. To have successful, highly engaged, and inspired team members in this dynamic environment, its essential to partner across the organization to enable solutions that will sustain, have a progressive mindset, provide leaders with the resources they need, and listen to team member feedback.
• Angela Geffre: It starts with managers understanding their team members. Trust and relationship building are critically important with all teams, regardless of whether they work in offices or at home. It may take different actions to build trust over phones/videos versus in person, but it can be done. We find that when trust is built and people feel included, they stay longer. In fact, our survey results indicate that people intend to stay with us because they have the flexibility to work from wherever they want. Leaders also should institute practices that are inclusive of remote work. For example, if only one person on a team is remote, be intentional on conference calls/team meetings to make that person feel like they are there live – by using video or even by carving out time on each call for “water cooler” discussions. And, very importantly, use objective performance standards to evaluate talent. It’s easy for managers to have a bias, however unconscious, toward those people whom they see quite often.
• Caskie Lewis-Clapper: Workers can and sometimes do feel isolated and have weak relationships - whether they work remotely or at a site with other team members. These are things we’ve worked hard to mitigate our whole careers. The antidote to this is the same, regardless of where a person does their work: the leader has to invest in building a high performing team – ensuring clarity on the work to be done, each person’s role in that, how success will be measured individually and as a team, what touchpoints will be put into place, what team-building opportunities will be supported, and what culture will be shaped by the day to day leader and team members behaviors. We are fortunate that we now have great tools to help us do this virtually as well as in person.

Dan Schawbel: How do you think the remote work movement will evolve in the future?

• Anna Vikstr?m Persson: I think we will continue to see improvements in the technology we use to work remotely. I think it will interesting to see what the effects of Coronavirus (Covid19) will have on remote/flexible working. The current situation is forcing companies to new behaviours and accelerate remote working. I think we will see a push to more remote/virtual events and meetings in response to this and as companies continue to measure their impact on the environment. I believe this will also expand beyond colleagues and extend to how we can and will work with our customers, partners, and suppliers in the future.
• Kerri Reynolds: Many trends and facts are driving us toward greater reliance on a remote workforce – globalization, changing expectations of millennials and Gen Z, overwhelming evidence that remote workers are more productive while enjoying greater work/life balance, clear cost savings for employers, technologies that make remote work easier, more seamless and more secure. All of this will make remote working more appealing to employers and employees over the coming years. But there is another important trend to acknowledge. We know that employment disruption is coming, with over 30 million workers losing their jobs in the U.S. alone because of AI. We are combatting this by working with AI luminaries and global companies to create more jobs all around the world, as more businesses adopt this new technology. I believe that as our successful Crowd strategy becomes well known and understood, other companies, institutions, and even government agencies will explore how they can take a similar approach. In fact, we predict that within five years, everyone will be doing some kind of “crowd” or “gig” work – even if it’s filling out a survey on your mobile phone or participating in a rewards program or gamification. The question will be whether we are paid for this work or rewarded in another way and how this type of crowd work evolves on a macro level.
• Kristi Hummel: While today’s events are still unfolding, they have certainly put a spotlight on remote work and ultimately ushered in a new era of how a fully flexible workforce can operate. We have seen success with our Connected Workplace program and we clearly understand the value a remote workforce can bring to every organization. We hope other leaders will also see that value no matter where they are in their remote workplace journey. 
• Angela Geffre: We think it will continue to evolve with new tools and new ways of working – and the possibilities are endless. For example, office space isn’t going away but how we connect these offices with remote workers will continue to evolve by leveraging “smart rooms” which allow for more life-like experiences in the rooms where meetings are held. Remote work will continue to play a major role in integrated workplace ecosystems, providing companies greater flexibility and operational resilience.
• Caskie Lewis-Clapper: I think there will always be a need for co-located teams, but that there will be fewer “office-based” employees overtime. More and more companies will have “footprint” offices with great meeting spaces, and hotel offices – because we will always want and need some in-person time. As the Baby Boomers retire, and new generations begin to fill more roles, working remotely will be a far more normal course. As I write this – we’ve moved over 90% of our employees to a “work from home” status in response to the Covid-19 virus. We are still able to do our work, service our customers, members, and each other – and contribute to containment. It’s not anything we’d have ever opted to do – but now that we’ve done it, I suspect our physical footprint will not return to what it was before this epidemic.

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