There’s been a lot of talk lately about remote work being unproductive or causing a lack of results. None of it is true.
Before we talk about why, let’s establish that remote work obviously does not work for all industries and types of businesses. But if you are in a standard office environment, it’s likely it can work for your business.
The benefits of remote work are undeniable but if you need a refresher, here are a few of my favorites:
Flexibility
lotus823 was not always a remote company. We adjusted to this new environment like many businesses did during the pandemic and decided to stick with it.
Before the pandemic, if you asked the team what their favorite benefit was, they may have said the pet-friendly office, the team celebrations, or our supportive, career-growth-focused managers.
Today, they’ll tell you it’s flexibility. Flexibility that they wouldn’t be able to have without a remote environment. They create their schedules, they stay in contact when needed and they get their work done on their time.
It’s the number one benefit I recommend to anyone looking for something to add and remote work makes it very easy.
Working environment
Your employees get to choose their working environment.
For example, I love a quiet working environment. It’s the only way I can do deep work and focus. So a busy, open office environment actually made me less productive than my remote work environment.
What about the people who thrive in a busy environment? There are coffee shops, shared office spaces and a bunch of different ways to handle collaboration and brainstorming virtually.
No commute
Did you know that 66% of Americans struggle with driving anxiety? The road is a scary place sometimes.
Personally, not having a commute has been life-changing. I didn’t realize how much damage I was doing to my body during a commute. I would be so tense that I was in chronic pain – lower back, neck, and constant headaches. Not having to put my body and mind through that stress has been a 180 for my health and I can assure you that I am not the only one.
Stress and anxiety do real damage to our bodies. Not to mention the actual hard costs of having a commute – money on gas, wear and tear to vehicles.
It is very likely that having no commute can literally make your employees happier, and healthier and save them quite a bit of money.
All of these benefits have a common theme – they make your employees’ lives easier.
When you have happy employees, you have a productive working environment.
If you have a remote work environment and it isn’t working or you’re wondering how to set up an effective remote work environment, there’s a few things to consider.
Trust Your Team
If you don’t trust the people doing the work, a remote work environment is not going to work for your business. Leadership needs to have complete trust that the work that needs to get done is getting done. You do this by hiring people right for the job and holding them accountable to results and goals.
Connections and Purpose
In all industries across all business types, connection and purpose are necessities. Every person on your team needs to understand why their work matters, what impact they have on the company, and how they are making a difference. This can be done through development plans, career roadmaps, and full team goals so you all know what you’re working towards.
You need to establish ways for your team to connect virtually so they can maintain healthy relationships. Do things like host virtual happy hours with games, schedule team brainstorms, and have routine “coffee chats” to catch up on personal things.
Processes
A strong process system will be essential to remote success. Your processes speak directly to your team’s consistency, productivity, accountability, and scalability. So, more likely than not, if you’re unable to sustain a remote working environment, your processes are to blame.
What should you have processes for? Anything that requires consistency. Here are some examples for general business – how to submit expenses, request time off, interview, or review cycles.
Processes can get as specific as you need them to. If there is something that needs to be done on your company Instagram’s account every day or there is a regular report that needs to be pulled in Quickbooks, you should make a process document for that and share it with whoever on your team may need it.
We’ve created a “process library” in our Google Drive that covers a variety of things like onboarding at lotus, shipping products, and distributing press releases. Your processes should be custom to your business.
Remote work has a lot of benefits and for us, it’s definitely outweighed any cons. If you want to learn more about remote work operations, feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or join lotus connect for ongoing consulting.