Companies are planning their long-term remote work strategies. Some big ones have decided in favor of a permanent remote policy, such as Twitter or Square. Others will be remote at least until summer 2021, like Google, Uber, and Facebook. There are companies that might develop hybrid formats to cater to the need of risk groups, or other similar factors.
As each company decides which working format suits it best, what rules will be kept in place? and what will be revisited? What are the processes set up in place which guarantee your company’s operation remains flexible enough to embrace change, and tight enough to remain secure?
Benefits and challenges
The benefits of working from home can be seen from different perspectives. Companies reduce their fixed spending and can access improved prepared talent pools. Employees, on their part, need to spend less time commuting and can live where they choose to. According to a recent survey a third of workers expect WFH to be permanent or at least long term.
There are also challenges brought forth by these changes at every level, both to individuals, societies, and cities as a whole. Parents need to juggle working, chores, and child rearing at the same time and space, with no apparent change from one role to the other. Societies need to reimagine how to interact and maintain proximal while keeping distant. And cities will also inevitably be transformed, from James Altucher incendiary article to fully booked moving companies and rising housing prices in suburbs. The scale of changes to how we organize life might not be all apparent today.
Change acceleration has gone hand in hand with the Covid-19 pandemic, and as we settle into the “new normal” of being homebound, this new lifestyle can and should be framed as an opportunity to find new, more efficient ways to work, collaborate, live.
While at the start of the pandemic some changes might have happened fast and without the luxury of time to plan and think things through. Now, six months later as we move into long-term territory it’s definitely worthy to take a double look at your setting and how they are enabling your business growth in the short and long term and through uncertainty and unforeseen circumstances.
As a company, while looking into a long term remote working strategy there are three basic questions you should ask yourself:
- How does your company store, back up, manage and share information? (Hint: Cloud)
- How do they access the files they work on? How do they share them and work on them collaboratively with others? (Hint: SharePoint)
- How does your team communicate with one another? Do you have more than one video or voice tool? (Hint: Teams)
If you have any doubt about your long-term remote work strategy, we are here to serve.
BONUS: As an individual you can discover ways to accomplish your personal and professional objectives from at-home life:
