Should I Allow My Employees To Work From Home?
In the wake of COVID-19, there’s a ton of discussion about remote work. This debate has been raging for years, but it’s time to put a few things to bed for good.
First of all, should you be providing the ability to work from home, even after everything is “back to normal?”
Yes, you definitely should.
In 2020, 98% of employees answered yes to the following question: “would you like to work remotely, at least some of the time, for the rest of your career?”
In addition to that staggering statistic, more than half of full-time employees want to work remotely.
It’s definitely important that so much of the workforce wants to work remotely, but businesses should also understand the business case for remote work. It’s not just about keeping your employees happy, there are numerous benefits for businesses to move to a remote workforce.
Mental Health
Flexibility in the workplace is a major factor in employee mental health. 97% of people say that having a more flexible job would have a “huge” or “positive” impact on their quality of life.
Remote work is the single most helpful thing a business can do to provide flexibility to their employees.
In addition to flexibility, remote work reduces work-related stress. Remote work helps employees reduce stress and improve productivity by removing distractions and interuptions from the workplace.
Commute times are also a major factor, the average commute time is 27 minutes, but many employees commute over an hour. That time is valuable and is given back to the employee when they are allowed to work remotely.
Employee Retention
Companies that allow remote work experience 25% less employee turnover than companies that do not allow remote work. That alone should be enough of a reason to start allowing remote work.
In addition, [remote workers say they’re likely to stay in their current job for the next 5 years](https://www.predictiveindex.com/blog/remote-work-improves-employee-productivity-happiness-retention/#:~:text=3.,improves employee loyalty and retention.&text=Not only does offering remote,to stay than onsite workers.).
Employees also don’t leave your company when they move. A common reason for losing employees is that they are moving. With remote work, they can stay at your company no matter where they are phsyically located.
Business Expenses
Each remote worker can save your business up to $11,000 per year in expenses. These remote work cost savings include improved productivity, real-estate cost savings, reduced turnover and better disaster preparedness.
The Future Of Remote Work
At this point, there’s no denying that remote work is here to stay. There are companies that still refuse to allow their employees to work remotely, but they are rapidly dwindling in number.
If you’re trying to future-proof your business and maximize your efficiency, you need to create an environment where your business can thrive with a remote workforce. Here are 3 steps to building a killer digital workplace.
1 – Creating Digital Workflows
Transforming Paper Processes To Digital Processes
Digitizing paper processes is the first step in creating a digital workplace. In order for your employees to be able to seamlessly function without sharing a physical office space, they must be able to share any and all documentation digitally that they would have needed to share physically.
The first step to creating a digital workflow is to map out your current processes. You need to understand every place in your business that you are currently using paper and develop a plan to digitize that piece of paper.
How Are Your People Using Paper?
Before you can digitize a process, you need to understand how that process functions currently. For example, if you’re trying to digitize your invoicing process, you will need to understand exactly how your team manages that process manually now.
This will give you insight into things you should replicate and areas where you can make the process more efficient. Simply doing it the way you think makes sense from the start is not a good way to approach digital transformation for workflows. You need to understand how human beings handle these processes now, then create a digital version of that process.
What Does It Mean To “Digitize” a Process
Basically, the goal of digitization is to remove the necessity for physical paper entirely. This means that every part of the process needs to be possible through digital means.
Let’s cover a few of the most common obstacles to digitizing processes.
1) Electronic Signatures
Signatures are a common hold up in digital processes. On physical paper, its incredibly easy to simply write your signature on a piece of paper. In the digital world, it’s not that easy. If someone sends a Word doc, how are you supposed to sign that?
There are number of digital signature tools that are highly effective for this part of the digital workflow.
DocuSign is a leader in the digital signature space. They’ve been around for a long time and are widely used. Think of them like “Kleenex.” Many people will say “DocuSign” when what they mean is “digital signature.”
HelloSign
HelloSign is an alternative to DocuSign. Many users find HelloSign to be more user-friendly than DocuSign. HelloSign has helpful integrations with Google as well.
Adobe Sign
AdobeSign is one of the first digital signature softwares ever created. AdobeSign provides integration options, including and API and has some templates and tracking features.
2) Collaboration Tools
There are so many collaboration tools available it can quickly make your head spin. Here are a few of the best options for collaboration.
Notion is a workspace platform designed to create truly digital workflows inside of your business. Notion works on a modular software platform that allows for complete customization and flexibility.
Notion allows your team to keep track of projects, create timelines and schedules, and comment and discuss in real-time on the platform.
Asana
Asana is a project management and collaboration tools designed for remote-work teams. Asana helps your business manage projects and timelines in a way that makes sense.
Asana is a project management and collaboration tools designed for remote-work teams. Asana helps your business manage projects and timelines in a way that makes sense.
Airtable
Airtable is a highly effective collaboration tool that offers a free version for any team size. There are paid versions that include more storage, features, and support.
Airtable makes it super easy to schedule projects and visually keep track of timelines and tasks.
G-Suite
If you’re looking for an econmic option, G-Suite is included with any Google business email account and includes quite a few options for collaboration tools.
While none of these tools function as well as the more streamlined and specific software tools out there, they definitely will work in a pinch or on a budget.
Digitizing Workflows In Action
It’s best to start with one specific workflow that you want to digitize and work through it. Take one process at a time. You’re much more likely to fail if you try to digitize multiple processes at the same time.
Also, start with processes that are more likely to fit into the tools that are available. If you’re still managing projects on paper, start using a project management software. If you’re still trying to manage invoicing manually, start with a finance management software.
There are many options for digitizing common workplace processes that will help you get started. It’s not necessary to start with complex processes that require custom software and integrations.
#2 – Enabling Effective Communication
Once you’re on your way with digitizing your processes, the next step is to look at your communication. Communication ranks high among the most common challenges to remote work. It’s common for businesses to assume that their phone system is the most important form of communication in a remote workplace, but this is not necessarily true.
34% of remote work teams say that communication is their biggest challenge. Many businesses try to implement remote work assuming that most of their communication will take place over email. This is simply unrealistic and leads to difficulties managing workflows.
If your business is highly dependent on phone traffic, then a remote-work-ready phone system must be a priority, but there are many options in the modern technology landscape for communication that do not require a physical phone system as well.
Creating an effective digital workplace means offering communication options that reflect that way your team wants to work.
Top Communication Platforms For Teams
Outside of physical phone systems, there are quite a few platforms offering communication tools that incorporate audio, video, and messaging to provide seamless integration between your team members.
1) Discord
Discord is a free, open-source communication platform that offers a broad and versatile set of tools. Discord includes voice channels, text channels, and video collaboration all within one platform.
Users can seamlessly switch from chatting to talking over voice to quickly including video and then screen-sharing.
Discord allows teams to segment their conversations based on projects, customers, departments, etc and can invite guests into your workspace for increased collaboration with vendors or customers.
Discord also includes file sharing features and integrations with other communication and collaboration tools.
2) Slack
Similar to discord, but without the voice and video features, Slack offers a more corporate experience. Clean and simple to use, Slack allows teams to create channels and segment their conversations.
Slack also includes file sharing features and integrations with other communication and collaboration tools.
3) Teams
Included in Microsoft 365, Teams has emerged as a solid option for remote-work teams, both as a collaboration and a communication tool.
Teams offers similar features to Slack and Discord, but also includes a more robust document sharing and editing platform. If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop for your communication and collaboration needs, Teams should be a front-runner.
4) G-Suite
G-Suite is listed in both communication and collaboration because their tools span the full breadth of business processes.
Google Chat offers similar features as Discord and Slack, but more stripped down and less user-friendly. Because everything in G-Suite is synced across accounts with easy administration features, its a compelling solution for businesses that are already using Gmail for their business email.
Implementing VoIP In Your Business
Chances are good that you are already using a VoIP phone system, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting the most out of your hosted phone system.
If you’re serious about creating a digital workplace, then your business needs to feel like a business when people call you. It doesn’t matter that your “front-desk person” is actually in their home office, your business can still look and feel exactly the same as if you were all in the same office location.
There are several top contenders in the hosted business phone market. Much like major telecom carriers, your experience with them depends on factors like geography, company size, and business needs.
A few of the national hosted brands are:
How To Pick A Hosted Phone Provider
With all the options available, it’s difficult to pick a solution for your hosted VoIP needs. When it all boils down, you need to start with your needs and go from there.
Much like digitizing your paper processes, choosing a hosted phone solution requires that you understand how your business communicates right now.
Who in your company are using phones now? Who is using them the most? What are they using them for? These questions, and others like them, will help you determine what features you need.
Once you understand the features you need, the next step is finding a solution that matches those features. Most VoIP phone solutions claim to offer pretty much all of the same features, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find that each one of the phone systems does some things well and other things poorly.
When you know what you need, you can identify the phone solution that will fit your needs best and give you the highest chance of success in implementation.
#3 – Removing Barriers To Remote Work Success
While the tools and processes are incredibly important to building a killer digital workplace, there’s one factor that reigns supreme. That factor is your people.
Your people matter in a way that tools and processes can never matter and your people can make or break a digital workplace in ways software never can.
In order to truly unleash the power of the digital workplace, you need to understand your people and work with them to make this new future a reality.
Leading The Charge For Remote Work
One of the major challenges to remote work is that employees can feel like they are expected to always be “on.” This is especially true when company leadership does not set clear expectations or adds work to “make up” for the time the employee is not commuting anymore.
To build a truly awesome digital workplace, your employees have to feel trusted, respected, and valued. There will be employees that take advantage of you, but those employees already are doing that. If you haven’t noticed before, you’re not going to notice now.
Leadership must set a clear example of how to work remotely and make sure that their own habits reflect the digital workplace they want to create for their employees. Here are few examples.
1) Off-Hours Communication
It’s essential that companies set clear policies about off-hours communication. Just because you’re employees are near their home office doesn’t mean you can email them a request at 7:30 in the evening. Company hours are company hours regardless of where your employees are physically located.
Author Ben Fanning says, “what happens to most people when they are working from home is they often work more hours.”
If leadership wants to work in the evenings, that’s their prerogative, employees are under no obligation to participate.
2) Realistic Expectations
Because there are so many conflicting ideas on remote work, it can be difficult for employees to know where their leadership is coming from. There are many business leaders who make no bones about their dislike for remote work.
Phrases like “time-theft” and “remote-worker accountability” are thrown around often by business leaders who don’t want remote work in their companies.
This leads to an environment where employees feel distrusted or micromanaged, even if their leaders don’t expressly believe or say those things. The key to removing these obstacles is to communicate realistic expectations to your employees.
Employees need to know that leadership doesn’t expect them to be sitting in their home office for 8 hours straight or else they think its “time-theft.”
Employees need to know that their leadership is okay with them using their work laptop to surf Facebook or stream Netflix.
To build a killer digital workplace, leaders need to understand that people are people. Overbearing management and unrealistic expectations destroy the benefits of remote-work for everyone.
3) Define A Remote Work Policy
Many of us may glaze over when we hear the words “remote work policy.” In reality, remote-work policies are important and they help your employees remove all ambiguity from their remote work situation.
A few of the key policies that need to be in place include:
- Equipment: what tools will your company be offering your employees to facilitate the remote work environment.
- Rightful Termination: you must include a clause saying that your employees cannot be terminated for working remotely. This protects them from overbearing managers who dislike remote work.
- Security: this is essential. Network policies must be specific and enforceable. In addition, policies for handling sensitive information must be clearly spelled out.
- Customer confidentiality: because workers are in environments outside the office, there is the possibility of information and data being exposed to people outside your company. Remote work policies must address how customer data is to be handled.
This is just a few examples, your remote work policies should be more exhaustive than this.
The Digital Workplace
When its all said and done, the digital workplace is the future. In some ways, it’s happening right now. There will be a lag-time for businesses that don’t feel comfortable moving from their office to a virtual office.
Businesses that adopt this mindset sooner will attract better talent, reduce their costs, and provide better services and products to their customers.