As work prepares to resume, many voices are being raised on the question of remote working: should it continue or not, and on what terms? Here is a sharing of experience…
A real discovery for many, made under constraint and in a hurry, remote working is already part of the daily life of many economic actors.
As the return to work under health restrictions is being prepared, many executives are calling for remote working to be extended, while others are asking their teams to come back on site. These choices owe more to “convictions” than to real knowledge of the strengths and limits of this way of organising work. Here is a small contribution, based on shared experience and on the lessons of our survey conducted on the eve of the 50th day of lockdown (for the survey results, see here).
From experience, the success of remote working rests on four pillars of different kinds.
The technical side
This subject kept companies very busy when lockdown was announced in mid-March, and the answer to this challenge was in everyone’s hands: employers, internet service providers and individuals.
The first had to cope in a hurry. Let us bet that the short-term solutions will be made permanent and strengthened – unless there is culpable carelessness.
The second apparently held up… There remains the question of territorial inequality in terms of “digital continuity”, whether for 4G or fibre.
As for individuals, whether or not they became aware of how vulnerable their connection was for services that allow them to work, stay in touch with loved ones or entertain themselves, they invested – and the unions are already, naturally, considering making companies pay for these dual-purpose services.
The logistics of the workspace
Working from home is good, and our survey confirms it: time (and money) saved on daily commuting, and the pleasure of spending more time with one’s family, are highlighted.
Several conditions for success nevertheless emerge, in particular the availability of a space suited to working from home (the challenge of sharing space with others, storing documents, the absence of a paperless office, etc.). Here again, the unions will take up the question, which will need to be addressed in terms of overall remuneration.
Other purely human aspects will also have to be taken into account… Does working “at home” also mean being more available for household chores, or for responding to the children’s demands?
Remote management skills
This is a sticking point in the change involved in remote working: remote management turns out to be radically different from face-to-face management.
Of course, one can carry on “as if” and change nothing:
- Continue holding long “top-down” conference calls… convenient, since no one has to put up with the consequences of everyone’s lapses of attention any more (nodding heads, eyes drifting to a mobile phone or other screens…). All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds…
- Make sure everyone is “present” at their workstation… Some “managers” have been seen doing so through a live “chat” system. You’re connected, so you’re there… It is certainly as effective as checking that faces in an open-plan office are indeed turned towards their screens…
- Organise video conferences to lead one’s team and thus make sure, in front of focused faces, that everyone is properly engaged. Unfortunately, a video connection is not always possible – or bandwidth limits favour audio only. And some people are so good at keeping a smile on their face in all circumstances… Building an interpersonal relationship face to face is hard enough – so at a distance…
Beyond these situations, the real question raised is that of each person’s added value. What concrete contribution should be asked for? How should work be divided up? How should a project be organised? How should “performance” be measured? Many of these questions are not addressed in many organisations, where regulation happens day to day, through formal or informal interactions, or where an employee is expected to hold a position rather than to make a contribution…
This managerial vagueness can be comfortable, both for “managers” who are poorly trained for, or little committed to, this difficult task, and for their staff, who appreciate the absence of “managerial pressure”. The risk that will arise, if these arrangements become permanent, is that of job retention. Because once you decide to work remotely, it becomes possible to question the return on investment of each position, with two possible options for change: automating certain tasks – out of sight, out of mind; or “offshoring” them to providers offering better value for money (especially if quality is not a priority), in our own country or elsewhere, subject to language compatibility…
Are the companies and employees who want to make remote working permanent ready to open this box? Working remotely has many advantages for everyone, but only if one really works at it, changes, trains and adapts. Seriously. And therefore by adopting a way of organising and operating suited to each company, to each team. Not by picking an “off-the-shelf” solution.
And the meaning each person finds in their work
Implicit in the previous questions, the meaning each person gives to their work is also the key to successfully operating remotely over the long term.
Our survey on how individuals and companies were experiencing the 50th day of lockdown shows this.
The first thing people missed during these past weeks, personally but also professionally, was human contact: real contact, the contact of meetings, of one-to-one interactions, of the coffee machine, of shared lunches… And the many digital interactions, formal but also intended to be informal, did not make up for this lack… So how will you respond to it after 11 May?
Ways of engaging differ greatly from one person to another, from one company to another… Some put their heart and soul into it, at the risk of over-investing with nothing in return, and of disillusionment. Others only come to work because they have to, and expect nothing from their interpersonal relationships… But what about you? Are you ready to cross that line? Ready for solitude, or to reduce your relationships to family and friends alone?
In our survey, some also regretted the loss of the freedom, even the privacy, that business travel offers – whether a different kind of day or simply the daily commute… a little time for oneself, at least for some, to read, listen to a podcast, daydream… Should we give that up? Or how can we replace these moments, to make the working day they are part of a successful one?
Engagement is also relational
The satisfaction brought by face-to-face interactions cannot therefore be overlooked. Because the engagement of most people, somewhere between emotional and purely rational engagement, is also relational.
And because remote management, even when it is imposed by the company’s geographical organisation, regardless of the current health circumstances, also needs real interactions. At a pace and in ways to be set according to each person and to everyone’s expectations – because not all talents are interchangeable – and according to the corporate culture, because the habits and expectations of different professions and activities are not the same. Case by case, here again, and not “off the shelf”.
So, if you really want to make remote working a lasting part of how you operate, don’t improvise, and don’t just draw lessons from an exceptional situation born of urgency and fear… Work at it! And we are here to help you.
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