Why Haven't Companies Fully Adapted To Operating Remotely?
Nate Nead is the CEO of DEV.co and SEO.co. Nate and his teams specialize in custom software development, web design and digital marketing. getty  For the past decade or so, remote work has gradually become more accepted, both among individuals and among company decision-making groups. Studies have emerged about the productivity benefits of working from home  and few would deny that its nice to skip the commute. Of course, in 2020, remote work went from being a fashionable rising trend to a practical necessity for businesses all over the world. To remain operational in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many corporate leaders scrambled to keep things running from home as much as possible. Today, 16% of people worldwide work for a fully remote company, and even more people work for a company thats at least partially remote. But theres a problem with this sudden wave of remote work interest in my opinion. Many companies transforming to adopt a fully remote model havent fully adapted to the new circumstances, and some might never do so, resulting in enormous lost potential. The Transition Problem  Let me describe what I see as the main transition problem. In a physical office, companies tend to adopt technologies, tools, procedures and habits that naturally fit well into a physical office environment. We use emails and instant chat features. We get used to short, passing conversations with our co-workers. We have morning roundup meetings and hire managers to make sure employees are on task for the majority of the workday. Many things get rigidly transferred from a physical workspace to a digital one. We keep emailing and chatting throughout the day. We contact coworkers digitally when we need a quick answer to a question. Instead of our in-person roundup meetings, we have morning video calls, and some managers are anxiety-ridden because they dont have enough to do  and their entire position is being called into question. The problem is this model wasnt designed for remote work, and its rife with inefficiencies. Video chat is currently being used by nearly two-thirds of Americans, yet many of us realize the limitations of the platform, dealing with interruptions, choppy feeds and difficulties reading expressions and body language. When time tracking and project management platforms can evaluate productivity and keep people on track, hands-on managers may be performing redundant work. Email can still be useful for some things, but its not the ultimate communication channel it used to be. And all of it boils down to the fact that these mainstays of the modern workplace were designed for a physical office environment, not a remote one. If we want to truly move forward to an era of remote work, I believe we need to redesign our organizations from the ground up  with remote work, specifically, in mind. What A Truly Remote Company Could Look Like  There are many viable ways to transform a business to be fully remote from the ground up. No surefire, widely accepted model has emerged because were still in the infancy of the remote work era. But there are some businesses with experience operating remotely that have set good examples. Take Automattic, the company behind WordPress. While their teams still use conventional forms of communication like email and video meetings, much of their communication unfolds over the course of open-source blogs and activity streams, allowing for asynchronous and spontaneous conversations  while simultaneously maintaining a permanent log that can be publicly reviewed. It hybridizes the advantages of email, blogging and social media. Another good example comes from Buffer, which has operated remotely since its inception. Buffer established a Mastermind program to connect individual team members to their peers, resulting in deep bonding (despite the constraints of remote work) and potential for collaboration. These are just a couple of examples of companies that are redefining their structures to better serve a new kind of workforce. The only limit is your own creativity. These action items are a good start:   Audit your meetings, workflows and processes. This can be hard to discern, as some office strategies work well in remote workplaces. Pay attention to how much time youre spending on things and how much value youre getting.  Collect feedback. Talk to your leaders and employees about their experiences working remotely.  Design from the ground up (and take inspiration). Consider designing new approaches from the ground up. This can be a hard mindstate to achieve, so consider looking at other companies that have done the same.  Experiment. The only way to tell if something works for your business is to try it. Put new approaches to the test and objectively measure the results in terms of productivity, morale and cost savings. Make sure to give each experiment some time so your team can adapt. This can lead to a somewhat volatile environment, but the long-term benefits are hard to overstate. Changing Old Habits  Of course, I do see why so many companies are reluctant to give up the mainstays of physical office routines and practices. Youre already paying for all those tech tool subscriptions  and convincing employees to go through an admittedly painful transition to a fundamentally new kind of workflow could be quite the challenge. But if were going to continue progressing in this new work paradigm, a simple translation from physical to digital isnt going to be enough. I believe we need to radically transform the workplace. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders.