Can a Company Go Completely Remote?
Things to keep in mind when considering a WFH model
Several industry-giants like Amazon, Adobe, Twitter, and Facebook have decided that they are either working from home permanently or for the foreseeable future. Facebook has even announced its plan to shift at least 50% of its entire working force to a remote working set-up within the next 10 years. There’s a lot of buzz right now surrounding the WFH movement, either for or against it, and a lot of people want to maintain this method of work once it’s no longer a necessity due to the pandemic.
The thing is, work-from-home has its pros. Studies claim that employees are finding it easier to maintain a work-life balance, it allows any company or business to access a global talent pool, and they also save on utility and overhead costs that come with an office space. And these are just a few of the many advantages. But is it true that every single function that is essential to the smooth running of a business can be conducted online? Let’s find out!
It’s important to acknowledge, first and foremost, that not all industries or professions have the physical capability of going remote. Paramedics, firefighters, and sanitation workers, to name a few, cannot deliver their services remotely. We’ve all seen the changes being established to stay safer, in the form of social distancing and wearing masks, but the overall flexibility of these professions remains limited.
When it comes to a profession, business or industry that does have the luxury of going remote, there’s a lot of steps to be taken. It isn’t as easy as saying ‘Let’s go remote tomorrow!’ The task of going remote might be even more challenging for a company that has already been functioning with a more conventional business model for years. When you’re accustomed to running things a certain way, restructuring it all can seem daunting and foreign. Even if it does seem like quite the undertaking, if you really want to go remote, there are steps you can take that can bring you closer to that goal.
Let’s take a look at the most important things to get in order before a company is ready to go online:
Set-Up All Communication
Communication is arguably the most important element in any business. Without effective communication, things will not get done on time or even properly. Any business needs to communicate to collaborate on a project, to understand the needs of their client, to transfer the right information between departments or to extract the information they need. There’s also a huge difference between a phone call and talking to someone face-to-face. When we function online, we lack the comfort of body language and the ability to articulate ourselves as efficiently. To compensate, every company must set up their communication properly and completely. This involves choosing the right software, ensuring that all the employees know how to use that software, and training them to be able to communicate properly in an online setting. Only when all communication is online and ready for use can a company think about other aspects of going remote.
Choose the Right Software
As mentioned before, it is important to choose the right software, the one that caters to the unique and specific needs of different companies. The manner in which employees need to communicate differs based on profession and industry. For example, a design firm will deal with tons of material that is predominantly visual in nature and hence, they will require software that can handle high-quality images and has good memory space.
Security is another major point of consideration. It doesn’t matter if it's via chat or phone call- a lot of information can be highly confidential in nature. Companies must take the time to investigate the data privacy policy of every software they use, and they must invest in software that is trustworthy and reliable. Therefore, it is important to choose the right software, be it for communication, planning, scheduling, sales, or customer relations, amongst many other things.
Allocate the Budget for It
This might seem counterintuitive, considering that by going remote a company is usually saving money in the form of rent, leases, utilities and overhead costs. However, these costs are now borne by the employees in their own homes, and as time goes by, these costs add up. It is only fair, therefore, that they are duly compensated for the same. This means adding a predetermined, fixed amount of money to their salary that is dedicated to setting up and maintaining a home office space. Facebook announced a $1000 bonus for all full-time employees to support their WFH efforts this year, as did Shopify (source). With some thorough research, a company should come up with an appropriate figure and dedicate it to supporting their employees.
Do a Trial Run
Every company functions in a unique way, and that’s why going remote cannot mean the same thing for every company. Once the communication is set up and all the software has been selected appropriately, it’s time to do a trial run. There are many ways to set one up-it could be a whole department going remote for a week, all employees at a certain level going remote for some time or a set of employees at different levels working on the same project trying to successfully complete it remotely. Without a trial run, the company might realize that they are in over their heads. A trial run can expose any kinks in the armour, and it can help determine whether a remote working set-up will actually work. There’s a lot of difference between the theory of setting up a remote workspace and actually working in a remote environment and doing it successfully. So allocating the time and putting in the effort to develop and execute a trial run will prove to be a worthy investment of resources.
Going remote doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing kind of endeavour. Allowing it to happen bit-by-bit, and giving the company time to adjust to the changes before making even more changes is a great way to introduce something new in a sustainable way. Developing a hybrid model might also be the way to go. Ultimately, a company might complete an entire checklist of things that theoretically prepares them to go completely remote. But to actually make it functional is where the real challenge is, and the only way to solve this dilemma is to understand how a company functions and tailor the remote work set-up to fit those needs.
Thank You for Reading!
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Inheaden is a young IT and software startup based in Darmstadt, Germany. As an “Idea and Tech Factory”, we have set out to be a driving force of innovation, digitization, and automation with a focus on the areas of services, products, and research. Under the Inheaden brand, we work on individual “high performance” software solutions that bring a change. Modern designs, innovative technology approaches, and IT security for our partners and customers are important components of our work profile.
