Telework Equals Productivity?

Remote working can be made a profitable option for employers and employees alike if managers keep communication and expectations consistent with that of co-located employees.

- Wayne Turmel

Much is written today about remote work and virtual teams, but not every organisation is properly prepared to deal with the challenges of working apart from each other. One of the reasons may be that they do not recognise they are, indeed, a team of remote workers.

For example, I was walking through a client’s office the other day at a large, multi-national company. As we walked through the offices, she told me that the company did not allow people to work remotely full-time and were not likely to. But as we walked, I could not help but notice half of the desks in the ‘bullpen’ were empty. There were people assigned to them—I could see the pictures of children and half-deflated birthday balloons—but no one sat there. Her answer was simple: “Oh, Bob is in London today, and Alice’s son is sick so she is working from home. But we do not have any full-time teleworkers.”

What she does have, are remote employees who do not identify as such. Like a stealth bomber, it is there but often undetected by radar until it is too late. The result can be reduced productivity, higher frustration levels, and challenges for succession planning and employee engagement.

Many companies treat their workplace as a binary choice. Either people work in the office full-time, or they work from home or a secondary location. But in the real world, most of us live in an in-between space. As with my client, there is an official policy requiring a central workspace. In reality, people may be travelling on business, or working from home for one reason or another, yet work must get done. Here is a simple test for leaders. When work is done, is everyone in the same location or not? If the answer is no (and it is more and more likely) then you have to behave as a remote team.