Part of becoming a digital business is a willingness to encourage employees to be more digital. One aspect of that is trust and a willingness to experiment with some new approaches.
I am a remote, or as I prefer to believe, an anywhere worker. I can work anywhere. And I do.
It works for me and a lot of my colleagues and friends. We are a very productive and motivated group. I love it when I find evidence to support what I do and believe.
What do you think? Are you more productive being an “anywhere” worker?
Telecommuting is no longer just self-led. More than 23% of remote workers surveyed (2018 data) said their employer’s organization is fully distributed.
Businesses big and small are jumping on the ‘flexible work’ bandwagon and recognizing the value of sourcing quality workers from anywhere. Companies like Invision, Stack Overflow, Toptal, and Zapier boast fully remote workforces, with many other organizations starting to realize the value of allowing workers to ‘telecommute’ as necessary.
It’s no shock that employees love to work remotely. Deciding when and where to work is liberating and eases work-life balance stress, after all. But it comes as more of a shock to some bosses that study after study shows remote work can actually increase productivityas team members find the right conditions for focus and creativity.
But co-located teams have plenty to recommend them too. Employees who work together can bounce ideas off each other more easily, serendipitous encounters lead to fresh thinking, bonding is easier, decisions can be made more quickly.
So which do you choose — a remote team or the traditional setup with everyone in the same office? You don’t have to pick just one, insists Mike Del Ponte, CEO of water filter company Soma. Not if you follow his example and opt for a “Work From Anywhere Week” for your team, at least.
If you work from home, you’ve probably gotten an eye roll or two from your office-bound friends. But as consultant Scott Edinger explains, working from home or in a remote office can lead to increased productivity, more effective communication, and better teamwork.
Who is more engaged and more committed to their work and rates their leaders the highest?
A. People who work in the office
B. People who work remotely
If you picked A, you might be as surprised as the investment firm I worked with recently, which found in reviewing results of a 360-degree feedback process that the answer was, in fact, B.
The team members who were not in the same location with their leaders were more engaged and committed— and rated the same leader higher—than team members sitting right nearby. While the differences were not enormous (a couple of tenths of a point in both categories), they were enough to provoke some interesting speculations as to why this might be happening.
Scott Edinger
Digital Business