Designing an effective structure for remote working

According with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) the coronavirus pandemic is causing large-scale loss of life and severe human suffering. Most importantly, it is a public health crisis without precedent in living memory, which is testing our collective capacity to respond. Remote work is the next massive challenge.

   This new pandemic turbulence is the third and greatest economic, financial, and social shock of the 21st Century, after 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis of 2008. However, this unprecedented “deep freeze” state for the total of global economies is something that may happens once a century.

   Starting with the most urgent priority to minimize the loss of life and health, the magnitude of these conditions is having a solid impact on employee relations as well. Indeed, we need a new blueprint for remote working. People must work from home, but remain productive, and mind-healthy at the same time.

   Such remote working at a global scale is unprecedented. Remote workers are not just some millions anymore. It is the first time ever that remote working could exceed one billion people. Globalization, technological progress, and crises such as a pandemic are having a profound impact on society and labor markets.

   Remote working offers advantages including lower employee turnover and less expenses for organizations, such as for facilities and equipment, increased productivity through flexibility, and the chance of sourcing labor and talent that is difficult at a local level.

   However, there are disadvantages of remote working as well. The most important one is employee availability. For instance, workers have mentioned that their workday changed from “996” to “007,” meaning from nine to nine, six days a week, to all the time.

   Furthermore, it is critical to deploy an advanced and intelligent structure. Working remotely does not mean that people can have fun and work at the same time. Employees must be cooperative, flexible, and do their job at the same amount of concentration.

   Communication is the key for remote success. Managers must have some advanced leading attributes, as the challenge is to inspire and direct other people to do their best and be well-engaged. Working patterns must include new methods of generating value. There are many communication channels, including e-mail, video conference, chat, voice notes, video captures, and calls.

   Managers must decide whether to use one service. They must consider factors such as synchronous vs asynchronous channels, 1:1, 1:N, or N:N communication, where N is the number of people connected, formal or casual style of communication, while making clear and discrete urgent or important deadlines and tasks.

   Finally, there are many tools online already. For content creation, the best and well-known software comes from Microsoft and the Office 365 suite (Microsoft Office platform). Google offers the Docs (G Suite). For video conferencing there are many popular platforms such as the Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, and other solutions from Viber and Skype. Document sharing could be done through Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, and SharePoint.