Four months ago, if I had told you that remote work would be the global norm by July, I am sure you would not have believed me. As the COVID-19 pandemic is settling down, nearly all technical jobs are remote-jobs, all teams are distributed teams, and virtually all hiring is remote hiring.
In this post, we will take a quick look at the trends that have accelerated this progression beyond all expectations, we’ll consider what to expect once we’ve made it to the other side of the coronavirus crisis. Lastly, we’ll dig into the fundamental changes in leadership, management, and mindset that will allow people to weather this period of extraordinary change and come out the better for it.
The shift to remote work has radically accelerated
Fully remote distributed companies used to be rare but now its a necessity. As a result of COVID-19 and the government set rules of social distancing, everyone is working from home.
Why remote work will persist after the disease dies out?
What’s fascinating is that this global experiment in remote work has been a surprising success. Coronavirus may have accelerated this change, but remote work to stay even after the pandemic is over. Remote work is more than just concerns about health and social distancing. Shifting a new way of working, the way we hire, and the way we communicate with teams in the future.
The perspective of running a company that specializes.
From my perspective, as someone that runs a company specializing in hiring high-quality remote engineers, matching people with opportunities, and managing remote teams, there are three key drivers.
The Coronavirus pandemic is undoubtedly a cause for this sudden movement, but there are several underlying factors supporting this change
l Employee preference to work from home
l Companies can save costs when they eliminate expensive office rents and the payroll costs associated with the salaries required for people to live in major metropolitan cities.
l The fact that the internet and remote work apps are finally fast and uninterrupted make seamless remote collaboration is possible.
Many people are more productive working from home
During this sudden lockdown, almost all the major companies switched to work from the home protocol. A recent study that surveyed 10,000 people working from home found that productivity increased. People have discovered that working from home works is more time saving and productive for many of us. It turns out that working from home has some benefits such as skipping a hectic commute, living in an affordable community, a reduced need for childcare, and the chance to spend more time with our families.
The trend will continue since it saves companies money
Another driver of this shift is financial. In today’s economy, which very likely reflects a severe recession, companies need to prioritize efficiency. Eliminating big office rents and the costs associated with operating in major metropolitan areas can help companies to save cost. If your people can deliver the same performance from the comfort of their homes, why make them commute, ride crowded elevators, or share space with other people. 74% of employees who worked from home because of the COVID-19 will continue working remotely after the pandemic ends.
The technology today is ideal for working from home
Ten years ago, having the whole idea of work from home was unthought of. The internet itself, and low connectivity, would not have supported the sudden change but with our current infrastructure and high-speed internet connectivity, several hundreds of people can streaming video in one platform, share screens, and run multiple connected applications.
Even in developing countries, fast connections are now available and anyone can get access to fast internet. Applications that support all this working from home have also made this change possible. Multiple user collaboration, asynchronous communication, and project management tools have made works from home a lot easier.
After the crisis
We have no clue when the pandemic will end, nor how long it will have an impact daily life, but it is sure to bring a change especially in the area of how companies operate. The companies that will survive the pandemic will be the ones that are particularly effective at cutting unnecessary expenses, adding or maintaining talent, or identifying new niches. Many companies will hire managers that are skilled at managing remote people and teams. In short, the post-coronavirus world will be efficient than ever before.
Managing to Win
There are already a ton of great resources online for helping companies get a handle on running a remote operation. If you need to choose better tools or want a primer on communication best practices for remote teams, there’s no shortage of options. But there are many company-wide processes that you must build and maintain to achieve success.
Firstly, you need a clear plan for your company. Next, you need to communicate that plan with all the shareholders in your business.
If you are the CEO of the company, you need to have feedback loops, with checkpoints to track how well you are executing relative to that plan. Before the Coronavirus crisis, this would have happened in a meeting in your office or in a conference room where you’d come up with a plan and build those checkpoints, but today, you will be doing all this online.
We used to make these adjustments synchronously through a lot of meetings and a lot of face to face communication. Now, we’re doing this using Google Sheets and video conferences, and other asynchronous forms of communication which is highly efficient.
What’s particularly important at this time, is also to make sure that the leadership team in the company is present, and over-communicates with everyone on the team. Whether it’s reassuring the team about the short-term and long-term future of the company, staying positive, and making sure you substitute for all the social connections that would have otherwise happened in an office.
Building a Process for Managing Distributed Teams
If you are trying to plan a process for managing distributed engineering teams, you should remember the “CAPE” framework.
The “CAPE” framework consists of:
C – Communication. Communication is the key to keep your employees and your company functioning because if you are not communicating the reality the right way, then everyone cannot be aligned on the same plan.
A – Alignment. Make sure everyone is aligned and has their priorities set. See that you’ve communicated those priorities to everyone who is involved and make sure that the whole team shares a similar view of what needs to be done.
P – Prioritization. During times of crisis, you need to prioritize your work and don’t focus on things that don’t create immediate business value. You must aim at growing revenues, predicting revenues, and reducing expenses.
E – Execution. Have clear goals and targets that have high chances of success. Now is not the time to have quarterly targets, especially during challenging times. You need to have a monthly target and track it weekly to see if you are heading to the current course.
If you apply the general concepts of the CAPE framework in the context of a fully distributed team, you’ll achieve a much higher level of efficiency throughout your organization.
Hiring in the Time of COVID-19
If your company is in the fortunate position to be expanding during this time, you’ll find yourself surrounded by talent, especially when you’re able to recruit from anywhere on earth. Sorting resumes, checking a reference, and setting up interviews is very easy over the internet with your favoured candidates.
Hiring Challenges
Hiring can be particularly challenging if you want your hiring agency to consider talent from all over the globe. While people rely on recruiters for help, the challenge comes when you try to find a recruiter that can operate without meeting candidates. You should also be aware that it takes an unreasonable amount of time to identify the best candidates, and a substantial percentage of your hires will likely fail in their new roles.
Recruiters and Resumes
If someone worked at Google, or Facebook, or Apple, or a highly regarded venture-funded startup, you can be reasonably certain that the person is skilled. You can also be reasonably sure that they have advanced English communication skills. But you can’t assume that these things are true if an applicant is coming from a small company.
How to Find the Best
Finding the best candidate may appear to be a big problem. Even today, during the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of newly jobless people are actively searching for opportunities, getting to the best of them is still a challenge but not as challenging to AI. You can consider one of a number of the work-from-home platforms that undertake the task of sourcing candidates.
Conclusion
While it may take some while for all companies to understand and plan out work from home protocol and hiring processes, all companies and employees will soon be aligned with the new system of work.
Digital Presence Today can help you choose the best tools for remote work that can help get communicate within the company uninterruptedly. We strive to provide you solutions that are fully customizable to your requirements. For more information visit www.digitalpresence.today.
