Can you benefit from the rise of remote workers and companies?
From remote workers to all-remote companies, the face of work is changing. Which creates opportunities for hirers and businesses looking to operate more effectively in a fast-changing climate.
The benefits of remote working are well-known and easy to explain.
It costs less to have someone working from home than to provide a desk, eating area and the infrastructure to go with their office laptop. Estimates suggest some $2,000 in savings per employee per month.
Workers are more likely to use the flexibility and freedom of remote working to solve problems faster, be more productive and collaborate better.
Naturally, there is a need for trust and discipline when working remotely, but as the career landscape evolves, these are just as much a given as suitable dress and smart or safe shoes were to previous generations.
The right people for remote
To make a success of remote working you need to hire the right talent, identifying those with the experience, drive of skills that will make them a good fit. Good identifiers for remote workers include self-awareness, strong time management skills and that all-important discipline.
Use interview questions to identify these traits and for new hires keep a tight watch on their progress before taking off the brakes. Another of the benefits of remote is you can find people from all over the world to fill the right roles.
Set clear goals and expectations
Whether new hires are going remote or the business as a whole is turning remote, the leadership needs to set clear goals from the top-down, with ways of recording success and highlighting issues in a constructive manner.
To make a success of remote work, and to create a stress-free environment across the business, set clear deadlines, have regular check-in meetings for key activities or milestones, and encourage open lines of communication as part of the working day.
Starting the day with a virtual coffee can help highlight any imminent issues and help people set their schedules. Making the following clear is critical for a good experience for workers and the business:
- Just what are flexible working hours?
- How people should record knowledge and ideas.
- How should processes be adapted and built-up.
- What can be shared and kept private.
- A process for when things do go wrong.
Use the right technology for remote
Slack is the champion for remote workers and firms, but other collaboration tools like Teams, Trello and Google Office help empower people. A mix of scheduling, meeting tools, productivity tools and everything else needed to deliver success should offer integration and ease of use for non-technical people.
Monitoring project progress, sales objectives should become a key part of everyday activity, with goals celebrated and issues investigated in a detailed but non-confrontational fashion. Ultimately there are some people not suited to remote work, and the earlier they are identified and bought in-house or replaced the better.
Remote people and firms
Busy firms often hire remote freelancers to fill in capability gaps, from coders to copywriters, designers to HR and other roles. Firms can use hiring services like LeaddMe to fill in gaps that emerge as a company gets up to speed.
Many firms launch entire projects or spin-off companies as remote efforts to test their feasibility with a minimum of expense. There are plenty of firms offering all-remote packages to get these initiatives off the ground as quickly as possible.
One of the key benefits of remote firms is they tend to be very public about their success and people, which makes it easier for those following to set up similar systems and ways to engage. By learning from the remote experts, the chance of success is greater, and it is easier to find best practices to follow.
Remote work will only become more popular, especially among technology-led firms. Adapting your business or starting a new one to take advantage of the benefits can give you a huge edge, as long as you hire the right people to help you succeed.