Remote Work

Remote Work and Hybrid Work have been a hot topic these last few years. In 2020, while I was the CEO at Nucleus Networks we made the decision in March of 2020 to pivot to remote-first. We had about 3-5 people coming in daily across our 3 offices and the other 60+ fully remote. The pandemic was a catalyst for expedited digital transformation for our Managed IT Services business and all of our clients. Luckily we were prepared but many weren't, for some, it was the equivalent of going from Kindergarten to University in terms of modernizing the workplace in a matter of weeks.

Risk Mitigation

Adopting the cloud and leveraging remote access technology allowed us to pivot quickly. Many businesses weren't as fortunate as everything was on premises and they didn't have the systems to accommodate a remote workforce. It was some HEAVY lifting for a while (shoutout to the Nucleus support and project teams) to activate our clients that went fully remote. Shifting to the cloud reduced the long-term risk for many clients; better security, increased redundancy, and enhanced scalability were all unlocked by doing so. Whether you work in office or remote, leveraging the cloud or being setup for working remotely is a great idea - you shouldn't have to rely on a physical office to get stuff done.

Measuring Performance

In order to fully adopt remote or hybrid work, one of the most important things is the ability to measure performance. Without KPIs and metrics you are hoping people are truly "working" from home. With goals, clear expectations, and definitions of success (KPIs), there should be no issues with certain roles being remote full-time. We changed one of our core values during the shift to remote-first to "Culture of Accountability", want to work from home? no problem, but here is what you're going to be measured on and what will be reviewed and discussed on a regular basis. The businesses that I've seen struggle, do not have defined KPIs per role and do not have a culture of accountability in place, just "winging it" isn't an option.

Culture Building

I can't stress the importance of this one enough - Initially I underestimated the culture hit of going remote-first and we continually had to invest in team building and keeping the finger on the pulse of our people. The role of People & Culture within the business is critical and should be seen as an investment, not just for remote-first companies but even more so if you operate in a hybrid/remote-first environment. Bringing people together as much as possible whether it be virtually or in person helped with that initial hit of losing the in office interactions. To this day, I miss this element the most, the impromptu conversations, the lunchroom banter, the drinks after work - the office camaraderie cannot be matched with working remotely. The early days of Nucleus in Gastown were legendary and all of us being together in the office was a big x-factor at the time.

Modern Day Interruption Factory

Jason Fried said it best in his book Remote:

the office can be an "interruption factory"

We've all been there, an onslaught of people stopping by to chat, run things past you, escalate an issue, you name it. There are definitely days that I can remember where I could come into my office and not even turn my computer on and people would be at my door. Working from home does provide the benefit of being able to focus and minimize distractions, but in some cases, distractions are greater at home than in the office. It's a fine balance. For me, in terms of pure focus, working from home is optimal for pure focused work.

Back To The Office

A lot of companies are mandating people back to the office. Whether it be full-time or part-time, and there are many pros and cons of this approach. I will say that Nucleus had tremendous success recruiting talent because of its remote-first approach and that amazing people were hired because their employer was forcing them back to the office.

I'm sure over the next few years there will be a plethora of case studies about the modern office, specifically through the pandemic and post pandemic. I've learned a ton from shifting a traditional office-based business to remote-first, the pros and cons of the office and the pros and cons of working remotely are real, and different for each business. I'd love to hear some thoughts from business owners who are moving people back to the office, people that work from home full-time, and C-level executives that have made the switch or thinking about getting rid of the traditional office.