The rise of remote work has expanded the talent pool, enabling finance departments and HR teams to find top candidates anywhere around the world. And while it may not be easy to form a globally diverse team, the benefits are often worth the effort.

“There are plenty of studies about how diversity drives better business outcomes,” said Godelieve van Dooren, CEO of South East Asia Growth Markets at Mercer, based in Singapore. “You get different skillsets and therefore more innovation, and you have more balanced teams that can come up with better solutions for a diverse client base. Is it hard work? Yes. Is it worth it? Yes.”

In addition to driving better business outcomes, globally diverse teams, located in different time zones, have the potential to work on projects around the clock, and they’re better positioned to establish a company presence in various hubs around the world.

Read the full article at: www.fm-magazine.com

Remote work is not a new trend. Many forward-thinking companies have been utilizing remote teams for employees who want flexibility and the ability to work from home.

The pandemic has proven that tasks and projects can be successfully completed from anywhere at any time.

Advances in technology have provided businesses with remote programs and apps making collaboration and project completion more effective and efficient.

It is a win-win proposition as workers are not tied to their desks and companies save time and money.

Read the full article at: www.business2community.com

Around the world and in every industry the future of work has changed dramatically. Some roles made an easy transition to remote work delivering significant benefits. Other roles were unable to work away from the workplace leading to furloughs and layoffs.

Most office worker roles actually made a successful transition to remote work. Forcing an urgent transition to what was previously only a workplace experiment. The success of remote work has seen global surveys of executives confirm that remote work or a hybrid version is definitely here to stay.

McKinsey Global Institute have conducted analysis and found that the potential for remote work is “highly concentrated among highly skilled, highly educated workers in a handful of occupations and geographies”.

However at least half the workforce has little or no opportunity to work remotely. People who need to work physically collaborating with others, those who use specialised machinery etc.

Read the full article at: innovation-thinking.com

What does it mean to project good leadership over a computer screen?

Over the last year, digital communication has become the bedrock of our work lives, whether we like it or not. With the global pandemic forcing many of us into long term remote work arrangements, we can no longer fall back on physical body language to showcase our best traits and distinguish ourselves from our colleagues. Whereas we used to score points with our innate charisma or a freshly ironed suit, it’s become harder to subliminally communicate our best traits — what I call “executive presence.” How are we supposed to convey confidence and integrity over video calls without looking like a try hard?

Read the full article at: medium.com

It seems like just yesterday we were living our day-to-day lives - commuting to work, having lunches at a nearby restaurant, hanging out with our colleagues after hours. Yet, it’s already been half a year since most of us have been to an office (or any other place other than home or a grocery store, for that matter). 

And while remote work was the only way to keep a business running under the new circumstances, that transition came at a price. 

As 98% of sales executives are still adapting to the new reality, according to the Revenue Enablement Institute, their team productivity has dropped by 20% since the beginning of the pandemic. 

Most sales leaders also agree that there’s no way back - the way we sell has changed forever. 

Read the full article at: blog.leadiq.com

COVID-19 led to a remarkable increase in remote work. But as vaccinations ramp up, employers will soon have to decide whether they’ll continue to offer remote work arrangements once the pandemic has passed. As companies weigh the costs and benefits, there’s one factor that employers shouldn’t overlook: diversity. 

New data from LinkedIn suggests that offering remote jobs may make it easier to build more gender, educational, and generational diversity into your workforce. Compared to men, women are significantly more likely to apply to remote jobs. A job seeker’s education and age can also make them more or less likely to seek out remote jobs. 

Read on to see which groups are most likely to be interested in a remote job — and learn how remote applicants may have different priorities than most when it comes to considering a potential employer.

Read the full article at: business.linkedin.com

The Traditional work environment vs Work from Home Environment?
The work environment continues to evolve, change, and adapt according to the times and the workforce landscape. Traditionally, employee workplaces have consisted of company-designated office spaces structured by a specific function or department. The traditional workspace design was intended to create consistent performance, maintain professionalism, and increase employee collaboration to achieve company goals. In a traditional setting, employees are easily able to build relationships and establish connections within their teams when working together in one location or building. The traditional office space has helped employees to remain engaged, productive, and thriving in the work environment.

The introduction of the virtual or work from home option has disrupted the 21stcentury workplace. According to a Gallup:

“43% of U.S. employees work remotely some or all of the time...show remote workers are more productive and profitable than in-house employees.”

The virtual work or work from home environment is a new frontier shaping the workplace. Employees are faced with increasing challenges to adjust and remain productive in a geographically dispersed workforce.

There are three ways to remain productive when transitioning to a work from home environment:

1. Create a balanced office structure
2. Evaluate and monitor performance
3. Maintain engagement and communication with your team

How do you create a balanced office structure?
Creating a balanced office structure is important to staying productive in a work from home setting. The work from home option often lacks organization and order. The benefit of working from home is the ability to create your own structure and workspace. It is important to create an office environment that you can easily remain motivated to perform well. Plan by arranging your office space to help you feel relaxed while working from home. Furnish your office with comfortable furniture, provide essential ergonomic office equipment and construct a pleasant setting to work in for 8 hours a day. In your virtual space, you may need your furniture arranged to have a view of a natural landscape, picturesque scene instead of a blank or gloomy wall. Delineate the workspace from your home environment to eliminate frequent interruptions and establish a boundary between business obligations and your personal life. Come prepared to start each day with a positive mindset to minimize distractions to your workflow. Your positivity will influence innovation and creativity. Incorporate an aspect of accountability into your office structure by implementing a daily schedule. The daily schedule will help with establishing a routine. Keeping a routine will help with creating a balanced structure and sustain the performance that you had prior to working from home.

How do you evaluate and monitor performance to stay productive?
Another way to remain productive is to continuously evaluate and monitor your performance. Remain focused on your individual and team goals by dedicating sufficient time to important tasks and staying abreast of deadlines. Schedule meetings with your manager to clarify performance expectations, update your goal status and check completed milestones. Your results are the best leading measurement of your performance.

How do you maintain engagement and communication with the team to stay productive?
Working from home often creates a feeling of isolation for employees. Employees lose the ability to have frequent interaction and engagement in comparison to staff in a traditional office environment. The Buffer State of the Remote Worker Report said that:

"20% of remote workers have stated a feeling of loneliness when working from home.”

As a work from home employee, you must make the effort to build relationships virtually with your team through frequent communication and collaboration. Make use of your company's internal communication channels like Slack and Video Conferencing to remain connected to your team. Plan ad-hoc virtual breaks or team-building exercises to boost employee morale and connectivity to the team. You’re not alone because you simply work from home. So, resist the urge to work in a silo. Always ask for help when needed and offer to support your team when you can. Using a team-based approach is best to maintain engagement with your team members and manager and create an inclusive culture.

Well, I think it’s safe to say that it doesn’t look like COVID is going away anytime soon.

Our team has been working from home for just over four months now. It’s crazy to think about that, even as I type this.

I think we all feel the transition to remote life has been two fold – great in some ways, not great in others. Not having to commute is at the top of my list. Just getting those couple of hours back each day makes a huge difference in my overall happiness and work-life balance.

As far as the downsides go, I miss seeing my team each day. Yes, we see each other on Zoom calls, but it’s different when you get to each lunch together and casually chat about everyday life. But alas, we do what we have to do when a pandemic hits.

Having a good culture is the lifeblood of a company. For many millennials like myself, it’s a make-it or break-it when it comes to choosing where to work next.

But like taking care of a plant, you don’t put it in a pot, water it once, and call it good. You have to continue to nourish it for it to grow.

Because of this, we decided to get together a couple of weeks ago and discuss what it would look like to continue to invest in our remote working culture. We talked about what’s been going well, what hasn’t, and what could be improved moving forward.

I found this process to be extremely valuable and wanted to share it with you as an example you can take back to your organization.

To start, we went back to the basics. We focused heavily on our values and how our culture supports them. You may have seen these before, but at Heinz Marketing, our values are:

• Results-driven
• Generous
• Creative
• Curious
• Proactive
• Respectful

We strive to make sure everything we do revolves around these values, from our interactions with each other to our interactions with clients. We even have a tradition of “helmet stickers” (like in high school/college football) to call out accomplishments made by individuals on our team who model our values.

Next, we took a look at our best practices for internal communication. Obviously, when working from home, we aren’t able to turn our chair around to ask our neighbor a question. So we talked through how to go about asking quick questions, internal reviews of client deliverables, and methods for giving and receiving feedback. This got everyone on the same page, cleared up any confusion, and allowed us to establish a more concrete process. We were also able to agree to err on the side of over-communicating, versus under-communicating. For us, this included setting our status on Slack as “away” if we planned to be away from our computer for more than an hour, or “heads down” if we are preoccupied with a project and/or don’t have extra bandwidth.

Along with talking through our preferred communication styles, we also dug into our communication tools (primarily Slack and Zoom). In this process, we evaluated whether or not we were taking full advantage of the tools we use everyday and all they have to offer. This ended up being super beneficial, as we discovered a few features we hadn’t used previously that could make our lives easier. The one we were most surprised to find out was we can actually make 1:1 calls on Slack (you’re welcome).

Lastly, we discussed feelings around video calls. While we want to see each other regularly, we also wanted to be cognizant of times where we just don’t feel like being on video. This could be because we’re finishing up our lunch, or have already had quite a few video calls that day and are just tired. Being on video might not seem like work, but does require more energy to be “on” than simply being in a meeting in the office. We all agreed we would try to be on video as much as possible but be okay if not everyone is every single time.

In the end, the exercise of collaborating and talking through our company culture was promoting a good culture in it of itself. That’s the goal.

The gist of it is this: company culture doesn’t have to take a back seat just because we aren’t able to be together physically. We can and should continue investing in each other and promoting the environment we want to be working in.

Hopefully, you found some of these tips helpful as you continue to navigate working from home in these weird times. And let us know if you feel like there’s anything we missed! We’d love to hear from you.

With the sudden and ongoing shift to remote work for millions of American employees, many are starting to speculate that working from home (WFH) may be part of the “new normal” in a post-COVID world, even after the necessity of the work arrangement has passed.

 

This begs the question: Will the ability to work effectively from home become a job skill employers look for in their hiring process?

Working from Home as the New Normal

According to survey results published by Willis Towers Watson, roughly three-quarters of employers adjusted their workplaces in response to COVID-19; 53% report that their full-time employees are now WFH.

The Willis Towers Watson survey also found that employers expect two-thirds of their workforce to be working in person on-site full time in the post-COVID-19 world.

That’s certainly more than half, and it’s more than the 37% who are currently working on-site, but it’s a big dip from last year, when 87% were working in person.

Not All Employees Thrive in a WFH Environment

The logistical challenges of shifting significant proportions (or even all) of a company’s workforce to remote work are enough to make any manager cringe. But logistics are not the only challenge.

Some employees simply aren’t great at WFH, and many don’t even like the arrangement. According to a survey by Fishbowl, roughly 55% of respondents said they would choose WFH as their new normal. That’s more than half but certainly not an overwhelming majority. Even employees who prefer to WFH might lack some of the traits necessary to do so effectively.

Traits of Effective WFH Employees

So what exactly would comprise a WFH skill set? A few come to mind, such as independence, organization, time management, technical aptitude for telecommunications technologies, and the ability to develop and maintain strong relationships.

As WFH arrangements become less of an exception and more of a standard practice in many industries, these are the types of skills employers should consider looking for when hiring new staff.

It’s also a good idea to work on developing those skills where they might be lacking in existing staff—learning and development leaders can play an important role in this process.

We’re only four months into the new year, and 2020 will most likely be remembered as the year of the pandemic. The coronavirus is affecting the global economy, daily life and how and where you work.

Recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines recommend limiting large events and gatherings of more than 10 people. Many employers are taking heed by both grounding employees who frequently travel and instituting work-from-home policies for employees who typically work in a centralized business office.

While there is an increase in remote working due to this national emergency, remote work isn’t new. It has been gaining traction as employees increasingly demand greater flexibility with both their hours and working conditions. Five million employees, or 3.6% of the workplace, work from at home half of the time or more, according to Global Workplace Analytics. Regular work-at-home has grown 173% since 2005.

Even with its growing popularity, a sudden shift to working remotely can leave you feeling a bit uneasy. After all, if you’re accustomed to working in an office environment full time, the change to working from home can leave you feeling both excited and discombobulated!

Below are some helpful hints for the work-from-home novice, and some gentle reminders for those road warriors who suddenly find themselves longing for business upgrades.

 

1) Set boundaries. Work life has a certain cadence to it. You leave the house the same time every day, stop and grab a coffee and a muffin from the same café and arrive at your desk with enough time to send a text to your bestie or partner.

But now that you’re working from home, everyone seems to think your availability is greater and you have nothing to do. Time to set things straight.

It’s important to let people know that, even if you’re working from home, you are still working. You have the same goals and your boss is expecting the same results. Set boundaries around your availability by letting your friends and family know your working hours haven’t changed.

 

2) Get organized. Not everyone has a dedicated office, so finding workspace can be a challenge. While working at the kitchen table may not be ideal, you can make it work for the short term.

If you expect to be working remotely longer than the next eight weeks, it may make sense to convert a spare room to an office or to find a spot in the house you can use that will be less distracting. Move your charger station close to your workspace, find a comfortable chair and set your table up like you would a desk at the office.

Creating a dedicated, work-friendly space will help you separate your personal and work life and keep you feeling organized during this time of transition.

 

3) Embrace technology. Working from home has its benefits, like throwing a load of laundry in the wash at lunch or taking a quick walk around the block with your four-legged friend. But remote workers also tend to feel isolated, especially in the early stages of transitioning to working from home.

To prevent that feeling of loneliness, it is important to remain connected. The good news is many businesses already have tools in place like Zoom, Go to Webinar and Skype. These tools help to create a more intimate communication experience between workers and their colleagues and clients. 

For some workers, getting comfortable with the video features can be a little intimidating, but if you focus on the purpose of your communication instead of how you look, you’ll quickly find these tools bring the outside world in and any anxiety you felt about video communication will quickly subside.

A quick word to the road warriors who have been grounded: don’t despair. You’ll be earning hotel points and frequent flyer miles soon enough. Enjoy the extra hour or so in the morning normally set aside for getting to the airport and go for a walk, practice yoga or do an activity with your kids.

This crisis will end soon enough, and you’ll be longing for the green, green grass of home once again.

You can be just as productive when working remotely – if not more so – but there are challenges as well as benefits.

Work culture is the experience you have that is based on what you see and hear while you are at work. It is a feeling that you have when you think about your coworkers and your work environment. That experience or feeling can be positive or negative, depending on how people conduct business and work with each other. Work culture is shaped by the level of respect, rapport, trust and collegiality employees have between each other.

 

Every employee has the opportunity and responsibility to shape the culture in which they work, including the new and more prevalent virtual working world. So, don’t wait for your boss to take the lead. Here are five ways you can contribute to your organization’s virtual work culture and set the tone for a new “normal:”

 

1.     Keep your camera on during team video calls.

If you are on a Zoom meeting with your team and you have your camera off, people are going to notice. Video meetings can be exhausting, and you may not want to always be seen. But not having your camera on when your teammates have their camera enabled can make your colleagues question what you are doing and your commitment to the team. Keep your camera on during team video calls. Stay engaged. Be part of the team.

 

2.     Dress professionally.

It is tempting to keep your pajamas on or put on sweatpants and a t-shirt. It is easier and more comfortable than putting on a collared shirt and blazer. But try to resist. Wear what you would wear if you were in the company’s office. You want to continue showing up and showing up well.

 

3.     Be enthusiastic.

If you want to work in a positive work culture, you and your colleagues need to communicate and engage with a positive and inquisitive mindset. Being enthusiastic does not mean having to smile all the time or use a lot of exclamation points. Ask for an assignment. If you are in search of new opportunities within your organization, reach out to people at your company to network and learn more about their career trajectories. Show that you continue to be excited to work and collaborate with your teammates.

 

4.     Proactively support your teammates, if you sense it would help them. 

While the physical distance separating you from your colleagues may make you feel less a part of the team, you can still be a team player. You can still support your colleagues. Part of being a successful team member is having the emotional intelligence to sense whether a colleague needs help.

 

You might ask your coworker if it might be helpful to them if you proofread a slide deck or conducted some brief research on competitors that could bolster the proposal they are writing. Supporting your coworkers promotes teamwork and collegiality, which are both critical to fostering a positive work culture.

 

But don’t step on people’s toes or usurp an opportunity for your colleague to shine. Ask your teammate if and where you can be of help. Support them. Don’t supplant them.

 

5.     Get personal.

Getting personal can also help to lessen the feeling of isolation or detachment that your coworkers may feel working from home. Ask how your colleagues are doing or something simply like if they have read any good books lately. Talking about things outside of work can help people to feel connected on a more emotional level. 

 

You don’t have to get overly personal. You don’t have to share everything about your life or every feeling that you are experiencing. You should avoid asking about very personal topics. Keep the conversation light. 

 

Fostering positive work culture requires people to feel comfortable opening up about other things than just work. When colleagues feel comfortable talking about outside interests and activities, they tend to have stronger relationships that help with working together professionally.

This has been a significant year of change across the globe, particularly in the workplace as we have all had to adapt and rethink our workforce strategies. As we look to find the answers to the right, wrong, and most effective ways to move forward in the new normal in 2021 and beyond, one thing is for certain: remote work practices are here to stay. Whether your team is fully remote or is a hybrid of remote and in-office, the workplace has forever been affected. Major companies like Facebook and Twitter have already set a precedent by allowing employees to work remotely, permanently.

As a remote-centric company with 750+ employees spanning 35 countries, remote work has been ingrained in our DNA since Auth0 was founded in 2013. Over the past seven years, we have found success in giving our team the freedom to do their best work on their own terms, regardless of location. Here are a few key lessons we learned on how to make remote work successful.

Read the full article at: chiefexecutive.net

What does the future hold for remote workers? And what will post-pandemic workdays look like—back to the office, working from home or a hybrid? While the light at the end of the tunnel seems within reach, companies across the globe are scrambling to create the future workplace. One way to predict the future of work is to understand people’s remote work experiences over the last year. And based on recent reports, one thing is clear: remote work has left an impression. The Limeade Institute’s Employee Care Report 3.0 found that 100% of formerly onsite workers said they’re anxious about returning to the office, 71% said they were concerned about less flexibility and 77% said they’re worried about exposure to Covid-19.

Preference For Remote Work

FlexJobs ran a survey of more than 2,100 people who worked remotely during the pandemic from March 17, 2021 through April 5, 2021. They found that, not only do employees want remote work post-pandemic, 58% say they would absolutely look for a new job if they weren’t allowed to continue working remotely in their current position.

Read the full article at: www.forbes.com

You want your sales team to dominate their quotas and close deals. But there's a challenge: due to the  COVID-19 crisis, all of a sudden your all-star sales team is now working and selling remotely from home. Now what?

And to be frank: for a first time manager, managing a remote team is not a walk in the park.

As of 2019, the amount of companies with a remote workforce is getting larger. 66% of companies allow remote work, and 16% are fully remote.

Read the full article at: blog.close.com

Cozy clothes all day. No commute. Freedom to do house chores while on a conference call.

Ahhh the joys of working from home…

What started as a short-term leave from the office has transformed into an entire workforce transition. Remote work has been on the rise, with a peak of 62% of employed US adults working part or full time from the confines of their home. But remote work isn’t the only thing that has been on the rise... Burnout is hitting an all time high. More than two thirds, or 69%, of employees are experiencing burnout symptoms while working from home, and this influx is impacting both business productivity as well as the overall health of the workforce.

If you think burnout just means being exhausted from your job, think again… Burnout is known to cause a litany of physical and mental conditions: high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, a weakened immune system, anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease, and even death.
With remote work, which socially isolates people, there is an added component to consider: loneliness. Research demonstrates that while obesity reduces longevity by 20%, drinking by 30%, and smoking by 50%, loneliness takes the cake, reducing life expectancy by a whopping 70%. It’s safe to say that practicing self-awareness and establishing a healthy work from home lifestyle could be what keeps you safe for the long term.

While this data may be difficult to digest, there are strategies to nip remote-work burnout in the bud before it gets too bad. I have outlined three of the main causes of burnout while working from home, along with ways to remediate them so you can get back on track with growing your career.

1. Inability To Disconnect

The alarm goes off and you start checking email in bed. You sit on a conference call through lunch and end up working on a report late into the evening. Your laptop has become an extension of yourself, always by your side. Sound familiar?

All of this connection at home means more hours logged at work. On average, employees have reported working three more hours per day since working remotely due to Covid-19. That 15 hours a week… almost another part-time job. Too much of a good thing can be bad, particularly if it’s your work.

This increase in work hours and shift in setting are causing some pretty profound social and personal struggles. An ASU research paper described the importance of transitioning from “home you” to “work you” as a result of boundary-crossing activities. This means “work you” would put on work clothes, make your coffee and commute to work. Experiencing these physical and social indicators of a change created an established boundary between the two aspects of your life. While it feels cozy and convenient to skip these activities, maintaining these habits is critical for well-being and work engagement.

 

Preventative Measure: Live As Though You Are In An Office

First, it’s key is to find a balance in your work space at home. Begin by implementing office hours, silencing notifications and activating an out-of-office response outside of predetermined time blocks. This way, no matter if you’re out running an errand, or winding down from the day on the couch, you (and your clients or co-workers) know that your office is closed for business. If possible, create a block of hours that you can consistently work within, and be sure to communicate this up front with staff and customers to avert any surprises.

Next, consider skipping the jammie workdays and put on a nice blouse; data shows that what you wear actually changes the way you think and improves your abstract thinking capabilities. Instead of driving into the office, go for a walk outside while you listen to the podcast or new station you’d typically enjoy while driving to work. This isn’t only good for creating that work-office divide; getting fresh air to the lungs increases oxygen levels in your brain to boost energy and improve concentration and memory. Once you finish your show, enter the front door of your home as though you are walking into your office.

At the end of the day, you need to establish boundaries for yourself and commit to honoring them. When someone tries to push back and schedule a late-night meeting, don’t be afraid to stand in your values: “I am unavailable during this time. How does [insert alternative date(s) and time(s)] work for you?” There is no need to explain yourself and dive into the details; keep it straightforward and simple. These are the hours you work. End of story.

 

2. Lacking Workplace Inspiration

Are you dragging your feet to hop on conference calls? Has your inbox begun to fill up, while your desire to respond diminishes? Often, when we’re feeling burned out at work, we suddenly want to do everything… except for work.

This isn’t simply an emotional response; the chronic stress that results in burnout actually changes the anatomy and functioning of the brain. These changes overwhelm one’s cognitive skill (ability to think, learn, reason and pay attention) and neuroendocrine systems (which releases serotonin and adrenaline). Living in a heightened state of stress spark our brains to switch into “survival mode,” impairing ambition and responsibility.

 

Preventative Measure: Take Creative Initiative

When you begin to ignore messages, procrastinate on projects or find yourself avoiding work altogether, take a moment to consider what got you jazzed up about your career in the first place. Ask yourself: What excites you most during the day?

From here, set a plan in place to implement this aspect of your work back into your life. If you loved presenting your work at quarterly meetings, ask to host a virtual session with your team. If you loved researching possible solutions or new products, carve out time to do this. Before you jump on email and get buried in the day-to-day workload, make time for this. Block an hour on your calendar every morning for an “inspiration session” where you work on what you love most completely uninterrupted.

If you aren’t sure what sparks your inspiration at work or where your greatest strengths lie, spend time defining this. When I work with new clients, I often have them take a few personality tests to identify what they do best and see where their natural gifts and talents lie. Check out the following tests:

• Gallup CliftonStrengths assessment: Uncovers your “talent DNA,” or your top strengths, which explains the way you naturally think, feel and behave.
• Myers-Briggs, or 16Personalities: Indicates your psychological preferences in how you perceive the world and make decisions. The results highlight how you work best with others and maintain relationships, and it even provides career paths to consider.
• Enneagram: A personality assessment that identifies your strengths, weaknesses and how you exist while living in a place of strength versus weakness.
  You control your career. It’s time to take pride in holding ownership over what you do best, and find joy in doing so.

 

3. A Supportive Environment Is Missing

Working without others can be a blessing and a curse. You no longer have to deal with co-workers “dropping by your desk to ask a question” or navigating out of lingering conversations in the hallway after a meeting ends. But now, those instances almost feel like a distant dream you miss. Instead, you’re alone, all day long.

If things go south at work, a project budget gets cut, co-workers are laid off or your manager isn’t the best at leading remotely, being socially isolated leads you to suddenly feel as if you have no one to turn to for support. According to Steve Cole, the director of the Social Genomics Core Laboratory at UCLA, losing a sense of community and connection changes a person’s perception of the world, leading one to feel threatened and distrusting of others and activate defense mechanisms.

When you work remotely and a problem arises, you’re alone in the isolation of your home office to cope with the impact and find a solution.

 

Preventative Measure: Communicate Your Concerns

Without the personal interactions on the office floor, it is more difficult for co-workers to notice subtle shifts in your behavior and address them with you. It is your responsibility to be aware of your behavior and speak to it with others. Concealing your concerns beneath a smile will only make them worse.

If you feel burnt out, communicate this tactfully to your boss or co-workers. And if the thought of this leads you to fear being let go, especially given the rate of layoffs and unemployment, consider addressing it in a forward-thinking tone: “I want to deepen my commitment in this role and would like to discuss with you ways to remain engaged and focused while working from home.” This comes across as though you are fully committed and want to do your best—then you can speak to what is and is not working for you in the current workplace climate.

There is a powerful link between social support in the workplace and reduced levels of burnout among employees. According to a UK study, the most important factor in workplace happiness is positive social relationships with co-workers. Just because you are no longer in the office, doesn’t mean you can’t maintain friendships remotely. Consider putting together a fun group call, or if Zoom fatigue is strong, set up a socially distanced meet-up in a park.

You are working independently, and that now means you are far more responsible for your career, and your health, than before. Begin to build a level of self-awareness around these warning signs of burnout and take preventative measures to stop burnout in its tracks.

You control your career; don’t let it control you.

Starting a new job remotely comes with a few challenges. You won’t be able to meet your manager or colleagues in person, and those relationships will feel different with everyone separated by screens rather than offices. The onboarding process will be more hands-off and much of your work will be self guided. You’ll have to take on more responsibility to get your bearings and get settled. Even though you’re working alone, you aren’t on your own. Your coworkers and manager are still there, just not directly.

To hit the ground running with a new remote job, here’s what you need to do.

 

Meet your manager and coworkers.

It’s incredibly important to build a relationship with your manager and coworkers from day one when working remotely. In an office, you have the luxury of casually chatting with people and more organically building relationships. With remote work, it has to be much more intentional due to the lack of face to face contact between people. Most of your contact will be solely focused on work rather than also including casual interactions that would happen in an office.

Consider sending out a quick ‘hello’ email as an introduction to everyone on the team, and let your coworkers know you’d be happy to chat to get to know them better. You could even suggest a Zoom happy hour or other informal video get-together after work hours to meet each other.

 

Set up a video call with your manager.

Hopefully, a video call with your manager will be part of the onboarding process, but if it’s not, you should absolutely reach out to your manager and request it. This allows you to both meet virtually face to face and get to know each other. It’s much easier to build a relationship when both people can see each other and put a face to the name.

 

Ask more questions.

When in doubt, ask questions. Rather than trying to figure things out on your own, ask someone for help. Remote work is new for most of the workforce, so chances are that someone else also had the same questions as you when they started. Save yourself some trouble and just ask – there’s no harm in asking questions, and it won’t make you look like you don’t know what you’re doing. In fact, asking questions to get yourself situated might actually make you look better in your manager’s eyes. It shows that you’re engaging in your new role and taking responsibility for your development.

 

Identify your go-to person for questions.

In an office, your go-to person for questions would typically be someone who works nearby. When your job is fully remote, your go-to person should be someone you’ll be working closely with who’s in the same time zone as you. Find someone on your team who you can quickly build a virtual connection with, and ask them if you can reach out when you have questions, especially in your first few weeks.

Establish the best way to get in touch with each other to ensure that there aren’t any big delays in communication. That can be by email, messenger, text, or even phone calls. Be flexible with how you communicate – if the other person has a strong preference for one method, it’s easiest to use that. Remember that they’re helping you, so it’s best to be accommodating.

 

Learn how your team communicates.

The best way to ensure your first few weeks of remote work will go smoothly is to ensure that you understand how people will be communicating. It’s important to know how important information will be sent out, what the expectations are for conference calls, and if email, Slack, text, or phone calls are the norm for simple communication. The only way to find out which methods of communication are used is to ask, so be sure that this is something that’s covered during your first few days.

Pay attention to how your team communicates. What’s the tone of the emails from your manager and between coworkers? When people are chatting on Slack or on Zoom, how formal are they keeping the conversation? Do people tend to email or Slack more often? What’s the policy on texting? Most of the questions can be answered simply by observing the way people communicate. If you’re still unclear, ask! It’s also worth asking your new colleagues what methods of communication they use and how things work, as the official ways aren’t always followed.

 

Set up your workspace.

If this is your first time working remotely, get your workspace set up so that you’re ready to go on day one. It can be tempting to work from the couch, but that isn’t going to help your productivity nor put you in the right frame of mind for working.

Ensure that you have a desk with a comfortable chair as well as any tech that you need. If your company will be providing you with a laptop or work accessories, get those set up the night before you start. This way you can focus solely on the onboarding process on your first day. The same goes for installing any necessary software on your existing computer, you’ll want to get it up and running before your first day so you don’t have to worry about it.

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about how employees will want to continue working from home long after government officials give the thumbs-up to returning to the office. Are corporate leaders ready to commit to long-term remote work arrangements for their employees? And what would it mean for managing the organization for the long term? Recent surveys give managers insight into the challenges they’ll face.

What Employees Like About Office Life

While it may sound like everyone wants to work from home indefinitely, that’s not quite accurate. In April and May, Gensler surveyed several hundred employees about why they might want to return to the office. Employees like the office environment specifically because of the types of activities they can’t easily do in their home offices. Here’s what workers told Gensler researchers about the positive aspects of office life:

• Scheduled meetings with colleagues 54%
• Socializing with colleagues 54%
• Impromptu interactions with co-workers 54%
• Be part of the community 45%
• Meetings with clients 40%
• Professional development/coaching opportunities 33%

Productivity Increases Linked to Remote Work

Forthcoming research from MIT shows that about 15% of U.S. employees regularly worked from home before the COVID-19 outbreak. In mid-March, some organizations transitioned 100% of their staff to remote-work situations.

For many employees, and this is documented by research conducted at Harvard Business School, productivity has increased by an average of 4.4% when they transitioned to a remote workspace and left their cubicles behind.

Why? Employees are no longer forced to commute, so they spend some of that time engaged with work tasks. Similarly, they may be socializing less frequently with work friends and have fewer interruptions from co-workers. It’s always been easy to drop by someone’s office or cubicle to get a quick answer. Now, employees aren’t sure if the co-worker is busy and they hesitate to interrupt using the office video chat system.

Other employees, especially those with very young children, find working from home to be especially challenging. They’ve come up with creative ways to get work done, often by taking shifts with their parenting partners. This new arrangement may work well for the short term, but these employees may face burnout if they have to manage both work and kids from home, fulltime, over a period of several years.

Costs and Benefits of Long-Term Remote Work Policies

In instituting permanent remote work policies, corporate leaders can expect to save money on real estate-related costs. If they bring employees together once or twice a year, they could do so at a conference center and therefore remove the obligation to rent or own office space.

While that reduced expense is a clear benefit to an organization, some costs are harder to measure. At some companies, all-hands meetings have served as a regular way for leaders to keep everyone informed. The style of the meetings, whether they involve sharing pizza during presentations or engaging in an informal question and answer session with the CEO, helps to establish culture. But when employees all regularly gather for online meetings, the video tool skews communication. Co-workers can’t always see each other’s body language and aren’t sure how to react to some comments. Managers find they may need fewer formal meetings in the age of remote work, having realized that some meetings weren’t necessary to begin with. However, when they do hold meetings, they may have trouble engaging some employees who will find it easier than ever to play with their phone when they should be paying attention.

The Cultural Impact

Other research shows that a company’s culture can quickly erode when it operates purely as an online entity. Ben Waber, CEO and president of Humanyze, reports that employees have ‘strong ties’ in some cases and ‘weak ties’ with other co-workers. Team members with ‘weak ties’ have spent less time engaging with each other since the pandemic started. And this outcome could negatively impact the bottom line. Why? Because team members who encounter one another in the break room or the hall may chat about concepts that will evolve into new product or service ideas. This in-person interaction is not easily replicated online because employees often stay siloed in the virtual world. As you ponder these issues, remember that up to 27% of employees will leave a company because they don't like the culture.

Ultimately, the spread of the coronavirus and the timing of the hoped-for vaccine may act as an invisible hand in the marketplace when it comes to determining when or if many employees engage in long-term remote work arrangements. In the meantime, managers and leaders may need to come up with new ways to help employees stay engaged and to ensure that corporate culture thrives.

Thanks to technology, more employees can work remotely from the comfort of their homes. And businesses are willing to make the change. About 69 percent of U.S. businesses now offer a flexible workplace policy, according to the 2019 IWG Workplace Survey.

 

However, working from home can also be tied to another trend in the workplace: diversity initiatives. Many businesses are making inclusivity pledges to attract, recruit and retain diverse teams. And it's a welcome change in white, male-dominated industries. Businesses and their customers benefit from the unique perspectives historically marginalized individuals can bring to the table.

 

But how does remote work factor into diversity initiatives? Primarily, remote work can benefit employees with disabilities in substantial ways.

The truth About Employees With Disabilities

Disabilities come in many different forms, both visible and invisible. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is the federal standard for defining disabilities. Enforced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the ADA also sets accessibility and anti-discrimination standards for private businesses in the United States.

 

According to the ADA, an individual with a disability "has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment."

 

The definition is broad. But examples can include a visible physical disability that limits a person's motor skills. It can also include diagnosed, invisible mental health conditions such as anxiety or major depression. Pregnancy and medical conditions that occur due to pregnancy can also be considered disabilities. Surprisingly, very few people who self-identify as having a disability are actively seeking employment.

 

Just over 19 percent of people with self-identified disabilities are employed, according to a 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report. Overall, about 8 in 10 respondents in the BLS report are not in the labor force. They're neither employed nor unemployed nor seeking work. The data doesn't account for undiagnosed workers or workers who choose not to disclose their status.

 

The truth is Americans with disabilities face a harder time finding employment and succeeding in the workforce. Many also experience workplace discrimination, fear of which could prevent them from disclosing their disability status to their employers. Stigmas around mental disorders also makes some people less likely to seek a diagnosis. However, there are workplace accommodation measures that employers can take to help existing and future employees with disabilities feel valued and welcome.

 

How Remote Work Benefits Those With Disabilities

Luckily, this is where remote work can come in handy for any employee with a disability. Working from home can provide many benefits, but below are three of the biggest.

1. Improved Productivity

Offices are full of distractions. Working from home provides an easy solution. In a 2019 TSheets report, 54 percent of remote employees rated their work performance as "above average," compared to those who work in an office. Additionally, 59 percent of employers rated remote workers' performance as "above average." Fewer distractions at home means employees can focus on their work and improve productivity.

 

Plus, for people with disabilities such as ADD or ADHD, working from home can be a serious productivity game-changer. They can cater their environments to their needs. People with other disabilities can benefit too. They may feel more comfortable working at home and less likely to experience microaggressions from their co-workers.

2. Shorter Commutes

For many workers with disabilities, traveling to work is difficult. This is especially the case for those who rely on mobility assistance like vanpools and wheelchair-accessible public transportation, which can add time to an already lengthy commute.

 

Working from home could help these employees tremendously. They can spend less time worrying about how to get to work and more time actually focusing on work. They can also have more freedom to decide where they live and work, as distance to the office won't be a concern - which can be a major competitive recruiting advantage.

3. Greater Flexibility

For employees with disabilities, the home environment  may provide them with access to much-needed medications, assistance apparatuses, emotional support animals and much more. Their home environment already caters to their needs, so it can also serve as a comfortable and accessible office environment.

 

Furthermore, working from home gives people the opportunity to have a more flexible schedule. In the TSheets survey, 64 percent of employees surveyed said they "sometimes take care of personal tasks during the workday." Employers were certainly aware of this. But they still thought their remote employees were more productive and provided "above average" work.

 

Working from home also allows people with disabilities to take care of personal tasks, as well as themselves. Working from home is no vacation, but it makes self-care much easier. Plus, for those who work from home and have a flexible schedule, they have increased accessibility to doctor visits and other medical appointments. Even if an appointment is in the middle of the afternoon, they can go home and make up their work long after the office has been locked up for the night.