Dear Founders, Here's How To Handle The Surge Of Remote Work
A letter to founders and managers, if you’re a startup founder or if you’re a hiring manager whose company has held a physical office with no remote employees, it’s sorta time for you to think about why this is.
As the wave of millennials starts breaking and changing the workforce (for the better) there are going to major changes in the way on-boarding, job descriptions, inclusion, communications and more start to evolve. I mean, we’re seeing it right now
Gallup’s State of the American Workplace Report concluded that 43% of employees work remotely at least some of the time. And among those who work remotely at least part of the time, the percent of employees who work remotely 100% of the time is now 20%, up from 15% four years prior.
This is HUGE. The more access technology brings the faster we’re going to see emerging and rising demand for opportunities that allow folks to have:
1. flexible scheduling
2. autonomy
3. PTO
4. no commute
5. freedom
6. settings that allow for optimal productivity
So, if you know of a company that is not keeping up with the trend of remote work or maybe you are someone who’s trying to figure out the space of remote work so that you can start exposing your teams to it.
Here are my actionable suggestions:
Take a step back
Pull up your employees, document their responsibilities, interactions with co-workers, and communications with customers - can any of these roles be done from home? That’s it. 1 simple question to ask yourself. Can all of the roles at my company be done from anywhere where this is solid internet connection? If you have a digital product, the answer is most likely, yes.
Educate
No team can be built without ground-work and attention. Remote work has been around for a bit and some companies have somewhat perfected what it looks like to manage and structure a fully functioning remote team. Some of my favorites are, Buffer and Gitlab. Read through the docs and share your findings with your team.
Find what progress and successes did these companies make by having a fully remote team? Let me tell you, a ton. Why? Because the setting where you work doesn’t take away the effort, intelligence and thought behind executing work.
Start with 1 employee or 1 team
When I first started working remotely I was the first in-office employee to go off and start working remote from another location 1,000 miles away from HQ. Starting with 1 allows companies to experiment, document and course-correct as they work to define expectations of having remote employees.
These 3 suggestions are suggestions. But those that commit to doing all three, starting right now are way ahead of the game.
About Me
My name is Irma Mesa. I'm a Product Manager in the ed tech space and I love love love talking to and meeting new people. I've learned a ton through my years being in tech, at times being the only woman on a team, working remote and having incredible mentors. Now, I'm paying it forward.
I run remote consulting for individuals, companies and teams of all sizes. Join our community and receive coaching to become successful at remote work here.
Talk soon.
Irma