Arch MI

Scott Lee

The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed the way we work. Remote work, which was once considered a perk for some employees, has become necessary for many companies to maintain operations during these challenging times. As of 2022, Gallup statistics show that 42% of employees work in remote or hybrid locations, which will increase by over 53% in the next few years. As we emerge from the pandemic, IT leaders face a new challenge—managing a hybrid workforce that combines remote and in-office work. While this approach offers benefits such as flexibility and increased productivity, it also presents unique challenges for IT leaders. In this article, we'll explore some key challenges of managing a hybrid workforce and provide strategies IT leaders can use to ensure their teams thrive in this new work environment.

Before considering a return-to-office policy, many leaders look to the balance of in-office collaboration versus the added productivity of remote workers. But improved productivity doesn’t just happen. It takes thoughtful planning and execution by IT leadership to realize the benefits of a remote policy. With over ten years of experience managing remote teams, I’ve found four strategies that might put the thumb on the scale toward a successful versus a failed policy.

Strategy #1: Provide Regular Feedback

Team members crave feedback whether in they are in the office or not. They want to know how they’re doing and where they stand. Once an employee starts working remotely (even part-time), they lose access to their managers' and peers' immediate body language. Managers need regular one-on-one meetings with team members to hear what they have to say and provide critical feedback on how they are doing. A recent Gallup study shows that employees who work remotely for less than 10% of the time and receive feedback a few times a week have an engagement rate of 51%. But that same study shows that employees that receive the same amount of feedback but work 80% or more remotely have an engagement rate of 63%. Creating a constant and regular conversation with your team members will foster trust, engagement, and increased productivity, whether in the office or not, and will give you a better chance of seeing success in your remote policies.

Strategy #2: Determine What Success Looks Like

Many leaders will create a work-at-home policy, implement it, and then have no idea what their effects really are. They hear from team members that people are happy, but was it a good business decision? A 2022 study from Microsoft coins the term “productivity paranoia” to describe leaders' feelings when they can’t visibly see busy employees performing. When in office, leaders can witness employees being “productive”. During the pandemic, these same leaders used green or red dots on their internal messaging system to witness their team member's productivity. The study used metrics from Office 365 applications to determine the number of meetings, emails, and other productivity numbers, showing a tremendous increase in actual productivity. This has led to a gap in productivity belief between managers and employees, where 87% of employees feel they are more productive in a remote situation, and 85% of leaders are not convinced that remote employees are productive. 

" Adapting to a hybrid workforce that combines remote and in-office work requires IT leaders to implement strategies that foster trust, engagement, and productivity among team members "

So how do we measure productivity to end productivity paranoia? The first step is to stop looking for business cues. Set the objective, provide guidance, and let the employee deliver the deliverable. Make sure it’s clear what is expected and by when, but leave it to employees to chart the path on how to get there. This will require a successful implementation of strategy #1 because the employee will need to ask questions and receive feedback to be successful. Once leaders start measuring the successful outcomes and not the hours worked, they will have one foundation for measuring the success of a remote worker policy. 

Another important metric that can be measured is around retention and recruiting. Sure, it’s easy to measure the employee turnover rate and use that as a basis to determine if your remote policies are working, but in this era of great resignation, that might not be the indicator you think it is. Employees are leaving companies for many reasons these days some of which are outside the company’s control. While keeping a healthy retention rate (typically between 10% and 15% turnover) is important, recruitment of top talent is equally important. Working closely with your recruiters to understand how many responses to openings and if they are seeing objections during screenings will help understand if the positions are attractive to potential talent. Work location will most certainly be a topic, so understanding how your remote policies are affecting recruitment will make a great metric. Those are just a couple of ideas. Before instituting your remote policy, get together as a leadership team to determine what other indicators can be measured to determine the success of the policy.

Strategy #3: Promote Your Policy

Once you have a new remote policy, use it to your advantage. Ensure this policy is prominently visible in job descriptions for potential talent. As reported in a Spiceworks article, a ZipRecruiter study found that more than 60% of job seekers are looking for remote positions. It makes sense to advertise to those potential new hires that your position comes with a remote policy. These days, training recruiters must promote the remote policy during screening as a benefit of working for the company. So training the recruiters not only sells as a benefit but also obtains data from candidates on what they are looking for and how the policy stacks up against others they have seen. But it’s not only important to advertise this to potential new talent; it’s also important to reinvigorate your existing talent. That same article found data from ADP Research that states 64% of employees would consider quitting their current job if the company eliminated remote work and implemented a “back to the office” policy. 

Strategy #4: Set the Stage

Once you have your policy in place, your statistics ready to measure, and your recruiting and talent management folks ready to go, it’s time to focus on how to manage a remote team. The first step is to ensure you have the right technology. With applications like Zoom and Microsoft Teams that enable easy video conferencing, ensure you have the right infrastructure to support these tools. For some, this may be a natural extension of what they are already doing, while for others, it will be a shift in work habits to utilize these tools fully. Review your network and desktop policies, and get advice from your experts (or hire them if you need to) to ensure you have a safe and functional deployment of virtual collaboration tools.

Once you have these tools ready, it’s time for training. Teaching your staff effective use of the tools will make them more productive and less frustrated with the changes. Training your leaders on using the tools to lead effectively is a new challenge. Leading virtual teams takes a new perspective, as leaders are used to the visual cues of being in the office to help determine employee productivity, engagement, and overall job satisfaction. Leading a remote workforce requires new skills that many leaders need help with. Without in-person visual cues, many leaders resort to the Dot Productivity metric; that is, they use the 'busy away' status from tools in Microsoft Teams to determine if the team members are actively working. Proactively training managers and leaders on effectively leading remote and hybrid teams will help close the productivity gap we’re seeing today.  

Conclusion

In conclusion, adapting to a hybrid workforce that combines remote and in-office work requires IT leaders to implement strategies that foster trust, engagement, and productivity among team members. Leaders should provide regular feedback, determine success, promote their policies, and invest in technology that supports remote work. By implementing these strategies, leaders can overcome the unique challenges of managing a hybrid workforce and ensure their teams thrive in this new work environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the trend toward remote work, and it is clear that remote work is here to stay. IT leaders who embrace this change and invest in the right strategies will be well-positioned to succeed in the future.