Last updated: April 23rd, 2024
When Marissa Mayer banned remote work at Yahoo, she rocked many worlds. Companies like BestBuy, Aetna and Reddit soon followed her lead.
Four years later, the wisdom of her decision is still being debated. Yahoo continues to struggle and Mayer is transitioning out.
In the meantime, another female executive – IBM’s new CMO, Michelle Peluso – made a similar move. Again, many worlds were rocked.
(Related: Complete Guide To Activity-Based Work In Australia).
Are these scenarios harbingers of doom for remote corporate workers everywhere? Or are they merely a trend to watch?
Let’s look at what these companies have in common:
- They’re well-established and of decent size.
- They are/were all experiencing a need to jumpstart innovation.
- They are/were all seeking to reboot their culture.
Pretty Standard Corporate Woes.
What, then, specifically drove these leaders to abolish the 21st century’s hottest workforce trend?
Mayer’s rationale was that Yahoo’s turnaround could only happen if the team improved the speed and quality of their work.
As a peace offering to the disgruntled, she bought them new iPhones and brought in free food.
(Related: 7 Benefits Of Working From Home).
Peluso Is Making A Similar Argument.
IBM, one of the pioneers of remote work, has limited this decision to the U.S. marketing group for now. As Big Blue strives to get some new technologies off the ground and out to market, Peluso’s team will play a key role.
Her conclusion was similar to Mayer’s: people must collaborate face-to-face to innovate at light speed.
As a peace offering to her disgruntled employees, she promised amazingly inspiring workspaces.
Remote work is still on the rise in the corporate world. And paradoxically, the world’s most innovative companies (startups of all kinds, and even other tech leaders) are finding that remote work works for their people.
And for their business.
They’ve adopted hybrid work practices that allow employees to WFH or from a coworking space at least a couple of times per week.
So, why does it spark innovation for some and hinder it for others? I’ll explain more about this in a bit. But first, I have a question for you.
(Related: The Best Stand-Up Desk For Your Home Office).
Is Remote Work Right For Your Team?
Your company has undoubtedly experimented with this idea — or has been planning to. Leaders frequently cite the benefits: increased productivity, a happier workforce, and fewer hours wasted commuting.
While those numbers clearly show that remote work is here to stay, whether it creates a competitive advantage for your company may still be unclear.
Should you dabble with it at all? Here’s a hit list of what to look out for:
1. Your Culture.
Start with examining your current policy on remote work:
- What is accepted and/or frowned upon?
- What needs to be shaken up?
- Could remote work help?
Executives at the recent Global Leadership Summit forecasted that 50 to 75% of their full-time employees would be working remotely by 2020.
Referencing this same forecast, Adam Kingl, London Business School’s Director of Learning Solutions, said:
If your culture is lagging, or getting in its own way, don’t wait to make a plan to encourage bite-size changes. As Jack Welch said, change before you have to.
2. Your Tools.
Is most of your work done in the cloud, or is your collaboration technology from the year 2000?
If you’re in a culture that is heavily reliant on email, consider switching to collaboration tools such as Trello, Jira, Slack, and Zoom.
Divide employees into groups of three. Show one team member an image and ask him or her to describe it to another team member over the phone (without naming it outright).
That person, based on the description, e-mails the third team member with instructions on how to recreate the image. As you can imagine, this produces a lot of laughs — and a lot of strange drawings.
Expert Tip.
To avoid playing this age-old game of telephone, put together clear guidelines for your remote staff. Not everyone communicates best in the same way.
As a leader, your biggest challenge may be to push people out of their communication comfort zones toward new tools.
(Related: How To Claim Your Home Office Expenses).
3. Your Leadership.
Whatever end state you’re trying to cultivate around remote work, it’s up to you to role model the behaviours. Below are some quick tips:
- Schedule regular updates with your remote reports. Reserve some time for personal conversation. Predictable communication is more important than constant.
- Schedule regular meetings with your entire team, remote and otherwise. Use your video technology for spontaneous interaction.
- Avoid biases when it comes to performance evaluation with your remotes. Apply the same metrics across your team.
- Don’t forget to acknowledge your remote workers’ achievements so their efforts don’t go unnoticed.
Leading a remote team isn’t vastly different from leading face-to-face. It just feels that way at first.
4. Your Talent.
Chances are, some of your team is already working remotely at least part of the time. How well is it going?
Notice any trends you can track. For example, research shows that millennial workers value remote work more than boomers do. So consider how that demographic factors into your workforce planning.
Other dynamics to watch for:
- Meetings that waste time and brainpower.
- Poorly executed virtual meetings.
- A too-tight office layout that makes concentration impossible.
- A team that is self-reliant and seeking more independence.
- An ongoing struggle to bring in the right talent.
If you suffer from any or all of the above, remote work just might be an answer.
Finding and keeping great talent may demand that you offer more flexibility.
(Related Article: Best Home Office Chair For All-Day Comfort).
Steve Jobs nailed it when he said, “it doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
5. Your Competitors.
Not embracing remote work, but your competition is? Take this as a sign from the universe to change.
Because, ahem, evidently it CAN work in your industry. If you don’t get on board soon, you risk losing your edge with your employees—and your customers.
But the reality is, remote work isn’t for everybody. And it’s not for every company.
While some startups don’t even have offices, for most of us the best approach is to strike a balance. Don’t think of it as all or nothing, especially if you’re starting from scratch.
If the thought of leading this change makes you feel like a salmon swimming against a strong corporate current, listen to Muhammed Ali.
Irene
