Remote Work Culture

Remote Work Culture

Most companies with open work culture are starting to realize the opportunity that a remote working presents. It’s no longer necessary for employees to be “in the office” from 9-5, but rather are able to work from the comfort of their own homes or a remote site.

Having said this, many leaders have also expressed their concerns about this shift from “in the office” affecting employee interaction, morale and overall engagement with senior team impacting the bottom line as well as worries that their employees may not complete their tasks on time, work as hard or be as invested in the company.

Post-pandemic, companies that avoid adapting to the evolving remote working landscape will eventually crumble for the simple reason that employees will no longer tolerate baseless logic when they see competitors offering the new standard of work culture. In spite of the fact that #employees end up working?more hours?remotely with increased productivity, there are direct benefits of saving on travel time and money on commuting, feel more satisfied with more freedom, flexibility of time, autonomy and control with remote working.?If not adapted, it won't be long before the talent feels unsettled and starts to look for work that aligns with their personal needs and values elsewhere.

With the growing remote work culture inforce, it has now become imperative for companies to consider creating a remote work culture and introduce the right systems and practices to implement it. Some of them are listed below:

1. Loneliness – This is a natural fall-out. A strong and consistent remote work culture can unite employees and give them a shared sense of purpose,?imbibe a feeling of camaraderie and directly leads to real actions like casual check-ins and informal conversations to avoid remote isolation.
2. Trust - This is a two-way street. Employees will only trust management when they trust employees. It’s important to communicate all the high-level decisions with the team to show employees that trust is reposed in them completely to handle their work, even when they are working remotely. Management should focus more on the output of the employees instead of hours clocked, avoid checking in and micromanaging the employees and give them space to manage their work.
3. Tools - The management should work on a unified platform “digital workplace” where teams can collaborate, communicate and accomplish work within a unified virtual space. This will help bring in a positive culture among remote workers and help them have a happier and more positive work experience.
4. Work policy – Management should be specific and explicit on remote work policy so that the employees always know exactly what to expect and lead to smoother remote work and better company culture like:

• Nos of hours the employees have to be online every day
• Availability of employees in a certain time zone despite their location
• Freedom to employees to make their?own work schedule
• Travel to the main office on occasions and days
• Any compensation to set up home offices, and so on..

5. Face to Face Meeting – Employees should be encouraged to switch on their video during team meetings to reinforce values through direct face-to-face communication and get to know each other in a better way. Sitting in front of the laptop, week after week, can often get isolating for remote employees and alienate them from their team members. Team managers should hold regular 1:1 meeting with the employees to build better connections, establish trust, and celebrate their individual accomplishments.

6. Feedback – Working with a remote team will not automatically produce all results exactly on the right time. Constantly taking feedback will ensure that all processes are working well with them and continuously improve the same.

Conclusion

Overall, the management must ensure that transitioning the entire organization to remote work or adding a new remote team, one must be equipped with all the?best practices?and tools as well as foster transparency?to create an environment of trust with all employees to move forward.

About SBS

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