What is the right remote work strategy?

In today's ever-evolving professional landscape, remote work has become more than just a trend; it's a strategic necessity. As organizations embrace flexibility and adapt to changing circumstances, a well-crafted remote work strategy is essential for success. A successful remote work strategy is a carefully planned and executed approach that enables organizations to effectively manage their remote workforce while maintaining or even enhancing productivity, employee engagement, and overall business success.

Different theories can be used to justify the increase in remote working. I have reviewed three in particular that aid in giving context to organizational considerations when embarking on a remote eork strategy. Within the context of the knowledge economy, the growth in remote working signifies an economic shift with an emphasis on the value created by educated professionals, and where the knowledge generated is less spatially bound.

1. The flexible firm theory originally proposed by Jon Atkinson of the Institute of Manpower Studies, in 1986, is based on the principle of segmenting the workforce into core and peripheral groups. The core group is composed of employees that are vital to the organization, functionally flexible, and difficult to replace (perhaps because of their skills, knowledge, or experience). The peripheral group is composed of employees who are numerically flexible because (1) their skills are in plentiful supply in the labour market, and so they can be easily replaced, or (2) they are only needed to complete particular tasks (irrespective of the scarcity or otherwise of their skills), or (3) they are only needed at peak times across the working day or week.
2. Then there is the organizational adaptation theory, which is an ubiquitous concept in management and organization research. Adaptive organizations are those that are able to obtain alignment both within the organization, reflected as alignment in internal functions and strategies, and across organizations, reflected as alignment with the needs of the external environment. Adaptation processes describe the means by which organizations adapt the challenges they face in negotiating new positions within existing market and environmental dynamics.
3. Finally, is viewing remote work as a form of social exchange. The social exchange theory is one that implies employees are willing to make sacrifices and work harder and longer hours to enjoy the privilege of working off-site, to save time and costs on commuting, and to avoid critique from colleagues at the office. The convenience of working from home is prioritized and given preference, particularly in accordance to the personal circumstances of the employee, i.e being a new mom, residing further from the office, the ability to concentrate more in the absence of office murmurs etc.

The flexible firm theory approaches remote work from a skills lens, has elements of the the adaptive organization theiry that approaches remote work from a critical area of adaptation for business to thrive and attract talent lens that informs the social exchange lens.

With the back drop of the mentioned theories, the presiding thought for executives today, ought to really be the question of what remote work strategy will yield the greatest amount of productivity and efficiency within the organization, in the context of the operating industry and specifically for the organizational workforce?

There are roles where the presence of human interaction sparks creativity, a sense of community and collaboration. There are roles where virtual collaboration is sufficient and the limited human interface still yields productivity, perhaps in some what exponential proportions. The winning formula for me, resides in a blend of reviews from the theories and applying those to the organizations context.

Other influencing factors would be to consider how to refine work from home performance metrics, reviewing the robustness of cybersecurity on work systems and access to organizational resources, feedback loops and being able to still maintain a form of company culture and engaged employees.