One in three US employees who can work remotely do so. Just four years ago this number stood at a mere 7%. Like with many other things, the COVID pandemic turned work on its head. Both employers and employees realized that they don’t need to be sitting in an office to do their jobs.
As a result, entire industries are re-thinking whether they need to have their staff on-site constantly — if at all. Market giants such as Apple, Amazon and HubSpot are among those offering remote work opportunities, despite having physical offices all over the world.
However, don’t jump head-first into a company-wide announcement that all employees can now carry out their professional duties from home. And certainly don’t close your office space just yet. There are several things you need to address first.
In this article we are going to delve deeper into the steps you should take when introducing a remote/hybrid work model, and the benefits of such an approach. Strap in.
Benefits of a remote/hybrid approach
Cost savings
Companies can save up on average $11.000 per employee annually — if said employee works from home 2-3 days a week. Expenses on gas, parking and airline/train tickets (for conferences or meetings) all go into that number.
You can also downsize your office space if your onsite workforce numbers drop, massively reducing expenses on rent, cleaning, electricity, furniture and everything else that comes with the physical workspace.
However, some expenses are still in order when transitioning to a remote model. Consider properly equipping your employees: this might be as simple as providing them with laptops designed for work, or reimbursing their coworking expenses.
Coworking have become popular places for remote employees to socialize and do focus work
Access to a global talent pool
Finding people with specialized skills has never been easier. LinkedIn, GlassDoor and Indeed are just a few websites human resources departments can leverage when a company is looking for a new hire. It no longer matters if your offices are based in the same geographical location as your talent.
A remote-first approach also eliminates the need to compensate relocation costs. If your company’s offices move, there’s no need to move all your employees, too. Make no mistake: a relocation package is a costly endeavor: it can be anywhere from $19.000 per hire to an eye-watering sum of $100.000.
Increased productivity
Six in 10 workers feel they are more productive when they work remotely. That tells you a lot: offices were considered, for decades, the best place for focusing on work. This is where the paradox lies: the potential for distraction in an office might actually be higher, with co-workers buzzing around you. Open spaces are the worst of the lot, because employees are exposed to every single person in their company/department at the same time.
Meeting new people, managing others and having meetings are still considered worthy on-site endeavors by employees and employers alike. This is not the case for work that requires concentration and laser-like attention that is expected by companies: employers want to make sure remote workers have created the necessary environment for focusing on the task at hand.
Improved retention rates
Here is the scary part for the employer: two out of three workers who can carry out their duties remotely said they’ll be looking for a new job if the chance to work from home is taken away by their current employer. However, the opposite is true as well: employers who offer a remote/hybrid approach reap the benefits of increased loyalty and a reduced turnover. In fact, employees are twice as likely to stay at their current company if it offers a flexible schedule.
Employees with flexible schedules are twice as likely to stay at their current company (Accenture, 2022 Future of Work)
5 steps to transitioning your company to remote
Assess who can — and wants to — work remotely
Organize a meeting with heads of your departments to get a measure of whether their employees have both the ability and the desire to work from home. This will give you the initial understanding of who only needs a laptop and a working internet connection to carry out their duties, and would be happy to use these from the comfort of their homes.
The next step is asking employees directly. Survey them to get a better insight into the kind of work they do, and whether a remote/hybrid model would be an appealing arrangement, in terms of productivity and their work-life balance.
Address potential issues
These are the three main questions you should ask:
- How will remote employees collaborate with others?
- How will client data be protected?
- How will you ensure — and encourage — good results?
The last one is relatively straightforward: most employees would be happy to plan their own day, so you only need to make sure they stick to deadlines and attend important meetings. Setting KPIs is a good way to measure employee performance. As long as they meet deadlines and achieve their KPIs, odds are you won’t need to micromanage their day-to-day.
Data protection and team collaboration are separate issues. You will need a secure cloud and a task management system for those — maybe even hardware (i.e. laptops) with extra layers of protection from your IT department.
If you are still unsure whether everything is in place for a switch to a remote environment, you can fall back on our checklist as a reference point.
Implement new technology
This will likely be a combination of a video tech, such as Zoom/Microsoft Teams for meetings, an instant communication tool such as Slack, and a workflow/task management solution. You can also add to your communication stack any of the best video converter apps for asynchronous presentations.
There are plenty of project management software options on the market. The most notable ones are Jira and Asana, but there are industry-specific options too. Karbon, Canopy, Jetpack Workflow and TaxDome are all examples of practice management software solutions for accountants.
The need to give clients access to an online portal the firm itself relies on sets the accounting industry apart from most others. In other words, the work accountants do involves a significant amount of client communication and an extensive document exchange.
Naturally, it’s a two-way street: clients also need to contact their accountants and view documents from them. So, on top of standard features like workflow management and time tracking, accounting firms also require an integrated client portal and a document management software. Some features — requesting e-signatures and conducting ID checks — are also pretty popular in the accounting industry.
A schematic Kanban board in a project management tool
Downsize your office space
Or at least rethink how you use it. With a number of employees working full-time (or even part-time) remotely, odds are your current office is half-empty. What you pay for rent, utilities and maintenance simply eats into your budget.
So think of which employees still need a physical space, and what that space should look like. For example, you might still want to hold important meetings on-site — or make major announcements in person. Perhaps a hybrid approach will suit your company better — at least for some departments – and result in major cost-savings.
Gauge employee satisfaction
While a remote/hybrid work approach has its merits, there are challenges involved as well. The main one is the isolation and loneliness remote workers experience.
One good way to counter the psychological effects of working from home is to hold informal meetings between colleagues, both online and in the real world. These can come in the form of regular coffee breaks, lunches, retreats or team events.
Conclusion
Remote work was an exception before the COVID-19 pandemic — but now a huge number of employees have embraced it, and their expectations have shifted accordingly. Overall, it’s not a bad position for employers to be in.
A remote/hybrid approach doesn’t hamper productivity: on the contrary, research shows that remote workers feel they get more done in a familiar home setting. Employees value the chance to work from home, too. Offering such an option will foster loyalty and bump up your retention rates.
Transitioning some — or all — of your employees to a remote position also helps companies cut costs on rent, travel expenses and relocation packages. Finally, it gives companies access to the global talent pool.
The transition itself should be carefully managed. You need to first understand which arrangements will make your employees happier, address issues that come up — and monitor employee satisfaction levels after the switch. You should also plan how you’ll communicate with workers, set tasks and gauge productivity. Finally, consider rethinking how you use the physical office space.
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