Our work-from-anywhere future

2020 taught us that a great many of us don't need to be on-site to do our jobs. Photo / 123RF

Before 2020 a movement was brewing within knowledge-work organisations. Technology had advanced so fast that people had begun to ask, "Do we really need to be in an office to do our work?" We got our answer during the pandemic. We learned that a great many of us don't in fact need to be with colleagues on-site to do our jobs. Now we face new questions: Are remote organisations the future? Is work from anywhere, or WFA, here to stay?

To get a better understanding, I studied several companies that have embraced all- or majority-remote models. They include the United States Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO (which has several thousand WFA workers); Tulsa Remote; Tata Consultancy Services, or TCS (a global information technology services company that has announced a plan to be 75 per cent remote by 2025); GitLab (the world's largest all-remote company, with 1,300 employees); Zapier (a workflow automation company with more than 300 employees, none of them co-located, around the United States and in 23 other countries); and MobSquad (a Canadian startup that employs WFA workers).

I've spent the past five years studying the practices and productivity trends of these companies. The upsides are clear:

• FOR INDIVIDUALS: Workers greatly benefit from WFA arrangements. For those in dual-career situations, it eases the pain of looking for two jobs in a single location. Some cited a better quality of life. Cost of living was another theme. WFA also helps knowledge workers deal with immigration issues and other restrictions on their ability to secure good jobs. MobSquad's coworking spaces enable talented knowledge workers to bypass the onerous US visa and green card system and instead obtain fast-track work permits from Canada's Global Talent Stream. Thus they can continue serving clients in the United States while living in Canada.

• FOR ORGANISATIONS: WFA programs increase employee engagement and productivity. When USPTO transitioned to WFA, the move boosted individual productivity by 4.4 per cent. Fewer in-office employees also means reduced real estate costs. The USPTO estimated that increases in remote work in 2015 saved it US$38.2 million. WFA programs also expand an organisation's potential talent pool to include workers tied to a location far from that of the company. WFA can also reduce attrition: Leaders at GitLab, for example, pointed to employee retention as a positive outcome of the company's decision to be all-remote.

• FOR SOCIETY: WFA organisations have the potential to reverse the brain drain that often plagues emerging markets, small towns and rural locations. Tulsa Remote was established to attract diverse, community-minded newcomers to a city still healing from historic race riots a century ago. With an offer of US$10,000 to relocate to Tulsa, the company attracted more than 10,000 applications for just 250 slots from 2019 to 2020. Remote work helps the environment as well. In 2018 Americans' commute time averaged 27.1 minutes each way, or about 4.5 hours a week. Eliminating that commute can generate a significant reduction in emissions.

Despite the benefits, legitimate hurdles exist to making all-remote work successful. However, the Covid-19 all-remote experiment has taught many organisations that with time and attention those concerns can be addressed. In the companies I've studied, several best practices are emerging:

• COMMUNICATION, BRAINSTORMING AND PROBLEM-SOLVING: When workers are distributed, synchronous communication becomes more difficult. Tools such as Zoom and Google Hangouts can work for those working in similar time zones but not for those spread farther apart. WFA organisations must therefore get comfortable with asynchronous communication, whether through a Slack channel, a customised intracompany portal or even a shared Google document in which geographically distributed team members write their questions and comments and trust that other team members in distant time zones will respond at the first opportunity.

• KNOWLEDGE SHARING: Distributed colleagues can't tap one another on the shoulder to ask questions or get help. The companies I've studied solve it with transparent and easily accessible documentation. At GitLab all team members have access to a "working handbook," which some describe as "the central repository for how we run the company." It currently consists of 5,000 searchable pages. All employees are encouraged to add to it. Ahead of meetings, organisers post agendas that link to the relevant sections to allow invitees to read background information. Afterward recordings of the sessions are posted on GitLab's YouTube channel.

• SOCIALISATION, CAMARADERIE AND MENTORING: Another major worry, cited by managers and workers alike, is the potential for people to feel isolated socially and professionally, disconnected from colleagues and the company itself. In my research I've seen a range of policies that seek to address these concerns. Many WFA organisations rely on technology to help facilitate virtual interactions. Some use artificial intelligence and virtual reality tools to pair up remote colleagues for weekly chats. Another solution is to host "temporary co-location events," inviting all workers to spend a few days with colleagues in person. Prior to Covid-19, Zapier hosted two of those a year, paying for employee flights, accommodation and food.

• PERFORMANCE EVALUATION: How can you rate and review employees you're never physically with? All-remote companies evaluate workers according to the quality of their work output, the quality of virtual interactions, and feedback from clients and colleagues. Zapier, for example, uses Help Scout for customer support replies; a feature of this software is that customers can submit a "happiness score" by rating the response as "great," "OK" or "not good."

• DATA SECURITY AND REGULATION: Several managers told me that cybersecurity was a big area of focus for WFA programs and organisations. All-remote and majority-remote organisations I have studied are experimenting with a wide range of solutions to protect client data using predictive analytics, data visualisation and computer vision. As TCS transitions to a majority-remote model, for example, it has moved from "perimeter-based security" (whereby the IT team attempts to secure every device) to "transaction-based security" (whereby machine learning algorithms analyze any abnormal activities on any employee laptop).

With the right strategy, many more companies, teams and functions could go remote. The question is not whether WFA is possible but what is needed to make it possible. If leaders support synchronous and asynchronous communication, brainstorming and problem-solving; lead initiatives to codify knowledge online; encourage virtual socialisation, team building and mentoring; invest in and enforce data security; work with government stakeholders to ensure regulatory compliance; and set an example by becoming WFA employees themselves, all-remote organisations may indeed emerge as the future of work.

The shift

The Covid-19 lockdowns proved that it is not only possible but perhaps preferable for knowledge workers to do their jobs from anywhere. Will this mark a long-term shift into all-remote work?

Benefits and challenges

Studies show that working from home yields numerous benefits for both individuals and their organisations, most notably in the form of enhanced productivity and engagement. But when all or most employees are remote, challenges arise for communication, knowledge sharing, socialisation, performance evaluation, security and more.

The research

As more companies adopt work-from-anywhere policies, best practices are emerging. The experiences of GitLab, Tata Consultancy Services, Zapier, and others show how the risks associated with this type of work can be overcome.

Written by: Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury
© 2020 Harvard Business School Publishing Corp. Distributed by The New York Times Licensing Group