People Post #5: Remote Working
When I said it was infrequent, I wasn't lying...
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The last issue of People Post hit your inbox about three years ago. So, when I said it was going to be infrequent, I wasn’t making it up. A lot has happened in that time, I’ve changed jobs several times (as have you I imagine), had another baby and moved to a completely different country. Wowzers.
Still, throughout that I’ve kept up with adding people to the #people slack group and there’s been a good amount of chat. I still get between three and eight new subscriptions a day (and, I apologise, I don’t always have the bandwidth to add them on the same day) so having some real-time chat is still a requirement for all you people people out there. It could definitely be busier, and I’d love to hear any ideas on how we could make the slack group more engaging and useful.
I did start a People Post #5 three years ago, so I thought I’d pickup where I left off with an issue dedicated to Remote Working,
Remote work: where are we now?
It’s not new any more, many companies now offer “flexible working” which is code for “remote work”, but this usually means “working from home”. Remote work means just that, working remotely, wherever you are in the world. Technology and society makes this much easier than it has been in the past, but there are still hurdles to jump until remote working is the norm (or viewed the same as office working).
As you’ll read below, most of the hurdles revolve around cultural change. The way remote workers are viewed by office workers and how remote workers view themselves are key to making a successful shift to remote work. What’s key in making this happen well is a move from focusing on the doing to focusing on the done - measuring outputs, which is valuable, instead of measuring the inputs, which is not (or not as) valuable.
There will always be roles that cannot work remotely - baristas, doctors and nurses, construction, reception jobs (unless you’re a virtual company) and so on, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be pushing for more remote work. The net benefit for humans and society in general outweighs the negatives.
Frankly, it doesn’t matter how hard you work, what really matters is what you submit at the end of your efforts. For me, I don’t really think about how long, how hard or how often you work, I only think about what you can deliver by the time we’ve agreed you will deliver it. That’s the crux though, we still measure people by how long they sit at their desk, warming their seat (have you ever turned up 30mins late to calls of “afternoon!” from your colleagues?), how long they spend in meetings or how long they spend at work (I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard people complain how tired they are because they’re working so hard or so long, being tired shouldn’t be a badge or honour!) and we’re not measuring people on their outputs.
Remote from the web
Remote working, it gets a lot of press, good and bad, but it’s here to stay (hooray!), makes you healthier, happier and more productive, but watch for the common pitfalls.
It’s time to factor remote work into our urban planning
“Crowded streets. Awful commutes. Stressed infrastructure. Poor air quality. High cost of living. While this does not describe every city today, it is a likely future for most.
By 2030, the UN predicts that 60% of the world’s population will be living and working where the best jobs tend to be—in large cities.”
It’s no surprise that current technology allows more people than ever to work remotely, meaning they don’t have to get in a car, or on a train and travel to a city to work. But this means we need to take account of this when designing our cities and towns. The HS2 project in the UK is designed to link London and Birmingham with a high-speed train. It’s horrendously over budget and will be delivered late. Would that money, for example, have been better spent on co-working spaces, free wifi and business hubs in Birmingham, to turn it into a remote friendly city?
Read more here: https://qz.com/work/1641664/remote-workers-are-the-solution-to-urban-crowding/
The benefits and challenges of working with remote employees.
“Hiring telecommuters can be rewarding in many ways. However, you can’t access the benefits without going through some challenges. There are factors that can prevent the expected advantages from materializing or turn them into disadvantages. “
This is a good article, it sets out the advantages of remote working, but tempers them with some possible pitfalls to watch out for. Essentially though, it all boils down to ensuring you hire the right people. That is probably the single most important thing you can do to be successful with remote workers. Not everyone is cut out for it, some people prefer working in an office, surrounded by colleagues, while others need the flexibility to work their own hours while still getting the job done.
More people are working from home than ever before, but a hidden drawback can keep them from getting promoted
“To some, working remote means never having to leave your house or put proper pants on.
In reality, new research finds, many remote employees work harder than in-office employees for the same benefits and promotions.”
Something to be very mindful of: workers who are in the office are seen as more committed, productive and harder working (yeah sure, all that office banter and solitaire!) than their remote counterparts. This makes it much harder for remote workers to get recognised. Have you ever sent late (or early) emails to make sure people know that you’re working? I know I have. This boils down to measuring the wrong things. Measure outputs, not inputs.
What We’ve Learned Building a Remote Culture
A lovely post from Help Scout, they write about how building a remote culture was one of the best things they’ve ever done.
“The 75 people on our remote team hail from more than 50 cities in over 12 countries around the world. While the benefits of a remote culture are tremendous, being successful requires radical commitment from leadership on your team.”
The key point from this post is that communication is extremely important. Meaning you have to have a “remote first” culture. I did a similar thing with a team when I was working the UK. 25% of the group were in Europe. We found meetings where there was a floating head on a screen were the most unproductive, so we mandated that everyone be on the Google Hangout, even if they were sat next to each other. Engagement rocketed when everyone was having the same experience and we never looked back.
More here: https://www.helpscout.com/blog/remote-culture/
From the channel
There’s often some great links to various things in the #people channels, so I’ve picked out a couple that caught my eye:
Although somewhat of a marketing channel, the report from fatj.com (find a trucker job), is eye-opening. We’re mostly immersed in the spangly eyed world of tech, so interesting to see things like this from other sectors: https://fusionrl.drift.click/fatjreport
From standuply, a great post about ice breaker questions (which, of course they have a slack bot to ask), but some really good ones here, eg: Do you have collections of things? (yes, a lot, LOT of records) and What’s the weirdest thing in your workspace?
https://standuply.com/ice-breaker-questions
Events
Couple of events I’ve seen (not remote related however) that might be of interest:
Revolutionize The Employee Experience By Increasing Engagement & Innovation: looks like a way to sell a platform, but some interesting speakers, so might be worth checking it out.
https://www.crowdquestion.com/blog190610.phpGartner ReimagineHR Conference: MASSIVE conference here in Sydney in August run by Gartner, looks pretty special
https://www.gartner.com/en/conferences/apac/human-resource-australia/why-attend
Other
The 2019 Tech Salary Report: https://go.vettery.com/2019-Tech-Salary-Report
You’ll need to enter some contact details, but worth a look if you work in tech and want to see how your company compares with others (and who doesn’t?!).Emotion at Work Podcast: https://www.emotionatwork.co.uk/podcast/
This is a fine podcast, the most recent is a nice review of EQ at work by reviewing a bunch of previous episodes, it’s a good place to start and decide if you like it.
Twitter
End #Post
Hope you enjoyed the remote edition of the #People Post. I’d love to know what you think; love it? hate it? like it a little bit? Let me know, I love getting email. If it’s not for you, you can unsubscribe at the bottom of the page. Either reply to this mail, or get me on mike@hashtagpeople.co.uk
If there’s something in particular you’d like to see in here, then let me know. I enjoyed putting together the remote working issue, so any other topic you’d benefit from hearing about would be great.
In the mean time, tell your friends about the email and the slack channel: http://hashtagpeople.co.uk/ .