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What Managers Need To Know As Coronavirus Expands Our Remote Workforce

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There’s no question that coronavirus is going to accelerate companies’ transition to remote work. The director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is already asking businesses in the U.S. to prepare for "social distancing," including canceling in-person meetings and having employees work from home. Major corporations are recommending that their people work from home to avoid the potentially devastating impact of ill employees infecting their colleagues. According to Business Insider, “As the COVID-19 virus spreads across other parts of Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, companies like Microsoft, Hitachi and Chevron are asking their workers to work remotely as a measure against the rapidly-spreading disease.”

For most employees, being asked to work from home doesn’t sound like a sacrifice. According to FlexJobs, 97% of workers say a job with flexibility—like remote work options—would have a positive impact on their overall quality of life. An Owl Labs 2019 study of remote workers highlights how desirable remote work is. Consider these stats:

  • 83% of survey respondents agreed that the ability to work remotely would make them happier.
  • 81% agreed that the ability to work remotely would make them more likely to recommend their company to a friend.
  • 74% agreed that the ability to work remotely would make them less likely to leave their employer.
  • 34% would take a pay cut of up to 5% and 24% said they would take a pay cut of up to 10% in order to work remotely.

Besides these benefits, companies can also save on the overhead of expensive real estate, which is often one of the highest fixed costs a company incurs.

Despite those advantages for employees and employers, there are inherent challenges when you’re not collocated with the people you work with regularly.

Working from home can feel foreign to those who commute to glass towers and office parks every weekday. As remote work becomes the answer to preventing or minimizing company-wide outbreaks of the virus, how can employees remain connected, engaged and productive? And how can they continue to build their personal brands when face-to-face chats are limited?

The hurdles for remote workers often center around communication and interaction. According to Owl Labs, which produces equipment for smart meeting rooms, the challenges for remote workers include being talked over during virtual meetings and IT issues that impact meetings, in addition to being unable to interrupt to share relevant content. Brainstorming sessions are the most challenging kind of meetings to follow and participate in when working remotely. And for many, the social element of work is gone when you’re isolated in your home office or living room with just your iPhone and laptop.

Tricia Sciortino, CEO of BELAY, says companies are seeing the positive impact remote work has on productivity, employee satisfaction, and their organizations’ bottom line, but key elements have to be in place: “Communication is the ultimate indicator of success when it comes to a team, whether in a remote or office setting. However, it isn’t always easy to cultivate open communication at a distance. One way to manage this is to use a dedicated platform or internal communications tools like Slack or Microsoft Teams. This helps to reduce isolation and keeps a healthy dialogue in play.”

To keep your workforce productive, she recommends “providing open communication and a flexible work environment. Additionally, determining the right technology, priorities, and streamlining processes also proves to be indispensable to an organization looking to increase productivity. These components can allow improved team collaboration, so that leaders can better understand how their employees are performing and surprisingly further creates social experiences, through enhanced communication tools, that promote company culture.”

Lynda Lowe, a Group Marketing Director at Condeco Software, which specializes in workspace management, observes that “new technology has enabled companies to offer employees flexibility, and that means that even in the midst of a global crisis, businesses can carry on productively with limited impact in a secure and collaborative way. Threats to business come from many areas, but those companies that are using technology to maximize their productivity already, including the ability to meet in a virtual meeting online or book desks, workspace or meeting spaces from a remote location, will find it easier to ride out disruption.”

With the virus continuing to spread outside Asia and a vaccine potentially a year away, it’s likely that companies will heed the CDC’s advice and recommend or even mandate remote work. That means corporate leaders need to prepare themselves and their people for this different way of working, and this may extend beyond just the duration of the virus. COVID-19 may be the catalyst for making remote work the norm.

Companies that invest the time now will yield the best outcomes in the long run, when working in an office becomes a relic of the past.

William Arruda is the cofounder of CareerBlast and author of Digital YOU: Real Personal Branding in the Virtual Age.

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