What is remote working?
Remote work, telework or telecommuting is when employees spend at least some time working at a location outside of their office. Remote full-time opportunities, where employees can work at their own discretion, are still comparatively rare. Although the digital nomad movement is gaining momentum, remote employees typically choose to work from their homes, prompting the term ‘working from home’ (WFH) to become popular. However, not every job can be carried out exclusively online. White-collar jobs are well-suited, but tradespeople or manufacturing employees, doctors and nursing staff in hospitals or retirement homes – just a few industries – do not have the same capacity to work remotely.
Key steps to enable remote working.
Various measures must be implemented to allow employees to perform their duties at any time and from any location. These include resources that are inherently available in a traditional office environment, such as office materials, telephones, computers, laptops, internet connectivity and – ideally – ergonomic equipment.
The technical infrastructure needed for remote digital collaboration includes virtual private networks (VPN). VPNs do not rely on a physical connection to enable communication. Instead, they create a secure, encrypted virtual connection, i.e. a secure tunnel, for transmitting data between an employee’s remote device and their company’s network. The VPN gateway gives the VPN partner, i.e. the remote worker’s PC, direct access to the corporate network. The encryption is designed to ensure tap-proof and tamper-proof communication. If measures are implemented correctly, employees can work for their company remotely, whilst safeguarding data security and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.
Are there challenges associated with remote working?
Although the pandemic drove WFH, an increasing number of companies are enabling their employees to work remotely long-term with the help of digital tools. Here is a brief overview of potential challenges:
Limited experience in leading virtual teams.
If a company is planning to let its employees work increasingly remotely, managers will need to be trained accordingly.
Limited options for performance management.
Building rapport and trust can be challenging when team members are spread across different locations and time zones. Supervisors may find it (subjectively) challenging to monitor and oversee the performance of remote workers effectively, particularly when they are not physically present in the same location. It can be necessary to implement strategies to alleviate these challenges.
Compliance with employment law.
Being able to work outside the office does not mean being able to work outside the law. This goes for employees and employers alike. German labour law, for example, stipulates an eight-hour working day with an eleven-hour minimum rest period. Even though this may seem contrary to the recent push for more remote working arrangements, this legal obligation must still be observed. If an employer sends an important digital document after the end of regular working hours with a request for immediate review, they are operating outside the law. However, the same goes for an employee who checks their work e-mails remotely just before going to bed.
Performance evaluation and feedback.
As with any other employment arrangement, implementing a culture of well-founded positive feedback is key to ensuring employee satisfaction and retention. Management and HR should allay fears that a temporary absence from the office will impact their ability to receive promotions and new opportunities. Traditional performance evaluation methods, such as in-person reviews or observations, may not be feasible in remote settings, requiring alternative approaches for measuring and evaluating performance—such as more regular appraisals.
What are the economic benefits of remote working?
There are several potential commercial benefits to enabling remote work:
Successful recruiting.
Applicants today are looking for greater flexibility in their working arrangements. By adding remote work to a job description or employment contracts, employers make themselves more appealing to prospects. This can be particularly effective in sectors impacted by skills shortages, such as IT. Allowing employees to better balance their work responsibilities with personal commitments, family obligations, and lifestyle preferences may make attracting new employees to the company easier.
Improved employee retention.
Flexible working can improve the satisfaction of employees already working for the company. By eliminating the need to commute to a central office, employees save time, money, and stress, which makes for a better work-life balance. More job satisfaction leads to lower staff turnover and, therefore, keeps competent, motivated employees in the company and eliminates the need for costly recruiting drives.
More focused meetings.
Anyone who has sat through multiple online meetings will agree that they are generally more efficient than in-person sessions. Not only in terms of speaking time and topic focus, but also thanks to virtual visualisation and voting tools. This new culture of digital meetings not only facilitates and accelerates decision-making. It is also important to consider that ‘anonymous’ voting, i.e., by clicking on a button, will be more likely to reflect the actual opinion of the team than raising hands in face-to-face meetings.
Moving remote activities to other time zones.
Online work effortlessly bridges borders and time zones, enabling tasks to be delegated to other schedules. This brings companies closer to their foreign partners and customers, whilst also allowing them to offer certain services such as IT support or training “around the clock”. Increased globalisation and remote working options also give employees the opportunity to improve their language skills and gain experience abroad. These benefits can further enhance a company’s employer branding.
