By Staff Editor – Tech Unicorn

The path to remote working maturity

Since March 2020, when the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a pandemic, nearly 80% of the global workforce has been forced to work remotely at some point, launching an unprecedented experiment in remote working.

The true success of remote working will rely largely upon the ability of organizations to offer the right vision, models, leadership style, modern workplace practices, performance evaluation methods, and technological foundations.

Surveys indicate that only a very few companies in the world have been able to successfully reach full maturity across all the aspects of their remote-working efforts.

With so much to gain, how do managers and workers assess their remote-working experience thus far, and how can companies transition into a fully functioning hybrid working environment?

So, we ask, what will it take for businesses to best prepare for remote working? We identified seven dimensions that will be integral to the remote workspace of the future.

• Success criteria

  What would remote work culture look like for your company? Defining the true reasons for enabling remote work options, your goals and associated targets, which employees will work remotely, and the various models you plan to offer them. What will be the success metrics for effectively managing the remote work models? What will your workplace analytics dashboard look like?

• Remote work models

  One or two flexible days a week, offered primarily as a perk, to four or five days a week, maximizing value to employees, to fully remote? What models do you want to consider?

• Modern workplace analytics

  With remote work, there is a shift in measurement of employee performance from a system based on inputs, such as hours worked to one based on outputs to the achievement associated with pre-set goals and the quality and timeliness of the work. In this new workplace, trust is the centrepiece —not just between management and staff but within teams working remotely, too.

• Technology solutions

  Devices, online workspaces, collaboration platforms, performance management systems, work community spaces and remote learning is needed to deliver a highly engaged and trackable experience across time and space, enabling remote workers drive the same value irrespective of them working onsite or remotely.

• Infrastructure

  Modern data platforms, user identity management with advanced analytics and the proper cybersecurity mechanisms complete the toolset required for successful remote work.

• Leadership

  Trust is an essential characteristic of managers & supervisors leading remote teams. Managers must learn to inspire and care for their remote workers, communicating regularly and with empathy, and making sure they have the tools and guidance needed to succeed.

• Agile Practices

  To boost productivity, daily “stand-up” sessions, weekly team meetings, and “demo days” for sharing results via modern workplace platforms such as: Microsoft Teams. Companies that had deployed at least two of the above agile practices were 40% more likely to report an increase in productivity among remote teams.