Listen to three executives’ perspectives about ways managers can help remote employees work well.
The option for employees to work from home permanently is becoming a reality for some. Recently, for example, Twitter announced that employees may work from home as long as they want.
Companies in technology, financial services, and insurance have invested in remote work tools, indicating that virtual work will likely become more pervasive after the pandemic. In fact, a survey from Willis Towers Watson forecasts that 22 percent of employees will continue to work remotely after the pandemic passes. That’s more than three times higher than the 7 percent WTW reported in 2019.
Facebook, which is allowing the majority of its employees to work from home through the end the year, estimates that within the next five to 10 years, 50 percent of its workforce could be working remotely.
Unfortunately, according to a recent survey of 2,877 US knowledge workers that chat platform Slack conducted, nearly one-third of newly remote workers said working at home has negatively affected their productivity, compared to 13 percent of workers who had previous experience with remote work.
How can managers help their teams work remotely more effectively and efficiently? CTDO recently spoke with three individuals for their perspectives on this topic.
Ben Bisbee
Ben Bisbee is author of The Unashamed Guide to Virtual Management and founder of Rhinocorn.
He notes that to help virtual teams succeed, managers need to prepare to have more meetings. The good news is that those meetings should be brief—but ultra-focused—to achieve the desired effect.
Kelah Raymond
Kelah Raymond is a manager of HR services at Insperity.
She says that without the casual interaction that face-to-face work provides, it’s imperative for managers to ease access to information and resources if they want their remote teams to avoid bottlenecks and silos.
Tammy Bjelland
Tammy Bjelland is founder and CEO of Workplaceless.
Model remote managers need to be intentional, transparent, consistent, and empathetic when interacting with individual contributors, Bjelland says. They also need to be aware of the unique challenges remote work presents and be ready to spot and implement solutions to problems when they surface.
Read more from CTDO magazine: Essential talent development content for C-suite leaders.
