Engaging in remote work for a couple of weeks at a time will necessitate some reorganization of processes but most companies can manage. When it comes to long-term remote work, however, a more strategic approach will be required.
Does your company have a long-term remote work plan or strategy? If the answer is negative, the time may be just right to start going over the essentials.
According to experts, remote work will continue being a prominent trend over the course of. Forrester forecasts suggests that a hybrid workplace model is going to remain very much the norm. More people will work from home or out of the office for longer periods of time. The number of employees working remotely will settle at about 300 percent of the pre-pandemic level, the forecast suggests.
Such flexibility can benefit everyone involved in organizational processes, as long as remote work is managed in the best possible way. If you’re wondering how to put a remote work plan in place, the following essentials will help come up with a cohesive strategy.
What Work Model Will Work Best for You in the Future?
Based on your processes and the interactions between employees, you will first have to determine the model that is best aligned with your long-term remote work plan.
How many employees will start performing remotely? Why? Will remote work contribute to their performance and will it create certain challenges?
Remote work should not be a goal on its own. Rather, it should enable flexibility and productivity that are bound to give you a better outcome in terms of output, client interactions, and revenue generation.
In other words, the first thing you have to do is answer the question why you want to introduce long-term remote work in your routine. A good, solid and measurable objective is the correct type of motivation. Otherwise, you may end up disturbing functioning systems without switching to a better alternative.
Technology as a Part of a Long-Term Remote Work Strategy
Once you decide about the remote work objective, you’ll need to start going through more practical considerations.
To offer reliable remote work opportunities to your employees, you’ll need to invest in the right technology. Both hardware and software components will be required to set up the right kind of digital workspace.
The technologies you choose should enable effortless collaboration, team management, document processing, and productivity enhancement.
From the right document management system to video conferencing and finance digitization – you’ll need to consider it all. Luckily, cloud-based technologies are more affordable than ever before and they give you amazing opportunities to customize the digital workplace to your specific needs.
Investment in laptops, tablets, electric standing desks, and smartphones will potentially be more expensive but giving your workers access to the right technologies will contribute to a major payoff in the future.
Employee Guidelines
Every strategic change within an organization necessitates the introduction of all-encompassing principles and guidelines everyone can follow.
When remote work takes place for a few weeks at a time, you can get away with improvising.
If you plan to make long-term remote work a part of your corporate strategy, however, you’ll need to make sure everyone is on the same page procedurally.
Remote work is very different from spending time at the office. There’s a lot less structure and everyone’s routine will be highly specific. This is why guidelines are required to ensure the same level of commitment and adherence to the practices that make the most sense within the organization.
The rules should be the same for everyone – from executives to interns. Guidelines will usually focus on accountability and work management in a way that is transparent for the entire team.
Flexibility (Backed by a Bit of Structure)
The nine-to-five work model doesn’t work in a remote environment.
Long-term remote work strategies allow for a lot more flexibility when it comes to working hours and the manner in which a typical day is structured.
A good plan envisions flexibility in terms of work hours.
Employees should know that deadlines are still applicable. There will still be team interactions via collaboration channels and these are going to remain non-negotiable. Other processes, however, could benefit from less rigorous frameworks, as long as goals are met within the specified timeframe.
Making sure that everyone’s on the same page as far as team member availability goes will also be important. Using project management software for this purpose can help you keep everything on track.
Regular Status Updates
The final aspect of effective long-term remote work is regular status updates.
Some managers believe that status updates are only required whenever a team is working on a specific project or trying to meet a deadline.
Understanding progress and effectiveness, however, is important even when teams aren’t directly contributing to an end goal.
Regular updates should become a part of the corporate culture and they should involve everyone. From the finance to the HR department, employees need to maintain the feeling that they’re part of a whole unit and that their work is important.