As business and technology evolve, so do the tools for getting the job done. The benefits of technology have been exploited through these operational and strategic transformations across industry. Remote work has become increasingly popular in this digital world for encouraging a sense of connection, while potentially being hundreds of miles separated. This decentralized approach to operations has allowed businesses to retain and even boost productivity, all while saving overhead costs. Though the benefits of implementing remote work are apparent, the execution can be much tougher. But before we take a deeper dive into the benefits of a remote workforce, let’s take a look at the current state of remote work in the United States.
Current State of Remote Work
In the United States alone there are over 4.7 million people who work from home at least half the week. Due to the spread of the dreaded Covid-19 virus, this number has skyrocketed in the last 3 months. Statewide lockdowns across the country have led to thousands of companies closing their office doors and moving to remote workforce tools. Departments are quickly adopting new technologies in order to maintain a state of normalcy throughout their day-to-day responsibilities. Another study by Global Workplace Analytics estimates that by 2025, roughly 70% of the nation’s workforce will be working remotely at least a quarter of the year. However, before a company can adopt this modern operational model, they first need to recognize what remote working looks like.
What Does a Modern Remote Team Look Like?
Before diving into what a modern remote team looks like, there’s something to note first. No team is the same, and because of this, no remote team will function exactly the same as the next. There are however some key factors that all successful remote teams practice. An article by Blogin outlines these key ingredients well. They’ve broken down the strengths of a productive and organized remote team into 5 main components:
- Communication
- Inclusivity
- Organized and Delegated
- Focused on Outcomes, Not the Activity
- Mind the Technology (Tech Savvy)
Now communication is an obvious answer – all teams need to have clear communication, but the other 4 factors are a little more complex. A remote team that succeeds often is one that fosters a sense of community and inclusivity. Feeling included will boost Employee engagement and creativity – and after all, a happy company can’t be without happy employees. Organization and delegation is a necessity for executing well in a remote environment. Creating clear cut goals, responsibilities and expectations aids well to the success of employees, teams and the company as a whole. With remote work, it is important to focus on the outcome and not worry about the activity. More for supervisors and managers, it is important to develop relationships of trust and reliability by allowing employees the freedom to organize work how they’d like and honoring deadlines. And finally, a more literal strength of remote teams, is the ability to work with technology. A remote employee must first have the ability to use the technology that is allowing them to work remotely before actually working remotely.
State-of-the-Art System
Remote working demands a high level of autonomy, while preserving traditional collaborative methods. Face-to-face interaction is one of the most important factors of teamwork and group success. Retrieve offers a system that unites employees, in an easy-to-use, digital ecosystem. With live or asynchronous video conferencing capabilities, employees are always one click away from face-to-face interactions. File storage and management enables a team to add, remove, update and distribute files. Support and onboarding tools ensures fast adoption of this modern tool.
Build your remote workforce today, with Retrieve!
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