As seen in Forbes

If you’ve been reading the business headlines, you might think the age of remote work is ending. Big corporations like Yahoo, Aetna and even IBM, one of the first proponents of telecommuting, have reversed or reduced their policies for remote work.

In particular, IBM announced in 2017 that it would colocate its marketing team, gathering a smaller workforce in just six locations across the U.S. The reasons given for colocating spanned from workers wanting to feel more motivated and engaged and to learn from older peers, to the need for workers to be present to respond to a 24/7 marketplace and to collaborate and innovate in person.

However, remote work is by no means dead. Depending on what workplace survey you use (Gallup, Bureau of Labor Statistics or Society for Human Resource Management), between 22 and 43% of the U.S. workforce are working remotely part or full time.

What is clear is that despite a few big companies (and some smaller companies) making headlines by reversing remote work policies, the practice is still alive, well and popular across the U.S, helping to increase worker satisfaction overall. In fact, for many companies, including my own, remote work not only works but makes a lot of sense — if done properly.

Virtual, Not Remote

First of all, don’t use the term remote for your out-of-office brothers and sisters. We like to call out-of-office work “virtual.” Remote seems to imply your colleagues are cut off, when in fact each virtual member is a vital part of your team and can be incorporated in many of your activities.

Virtual Inclusion

Our virtual workers aren’t passive observers in our weekly meetings. Include your virtual team by asking them to speak first. Also, check in to make sure each person can hear and see your presentations during video conferences.

Virtual Technology

We use two types of technology to make our virtual ecosystem work. For our daily work, we use a shared ACT database, a virtual desktop for our computers and shared Google Docs. This way we can easily collaborate with virtual team members and share data. For our meetings, we use the solid conferencing solution Zoom. When collaborating over distances, the visual aspect is always important for communicating.

Likewise, set up your virtual team with whatever technical tools they need to succeed. For example, we send everyone phone headsets to communicate hands-free with clients, or noise-canceling headsets so they can better focus on their work.

Virtual And Real Get-Togethers

Our virtual team is not 100% working from home. Recall your full-time virtual teammates periodically for company off-site meetings, Christmas parties or training sessions. This builds and maintains individual relationships, as well as increases your team spirit.

In the future, we have plans to create virtual get-togethers in which our company will send out food or drink to the virtual team so we can celebrate or socialize together, even if we’re not in the same room.

Virtual Success

Having up to 30% of the workforce who works virtually part- or full-time has yielded results. With teammates all over the country, we have been able to expand our business, not just geographically but in terms of the bottom line.

 

About the Author Ken Sterling