When Does Remote Work Make Sense for Employers (and Employees) in Business and at Work?

When I gave birth to my son 18 years ago, I was medically required to be out for at least 8 weeks. I didn’t have anywhere near enough accrued paid time off at the time (NYS Paid Family Leave didn’t exist yet) and there was no one at my level (HR Director) to cover my job while I was out.  Fortunately for me and my employer at the time, I had a pre-approved birth-and-maternity plan to work remotely from home – it not only included my usual job duties, it also included a few special projects that needed attention. While we had a number of district and regional managers working remotely in the field nationwide, it was not part of the company’s culture to support corporate employees to work remotely on an everyday basis.

After taking 2 weeks of sick time, my doctor released me perform my job remotely from my home office. In gratitude, my productivity was higher than usual (I had minimal interruptions – my husband was in stay-at-home-dad training mode – and I typically handled employee relations issues by phone nationwide anyway). I consequently earned the best compensation package of my nearly 10-year tenure during our son’s first year.

Today, more and more employers are offering remote work option in a number of creative ways (e.g, one staff has set up a weekly rotation schedule to allow each staff member to work remotely 1 day a week), using a number of technology tools such as slack and Zoom (2 tools that I also use in my client work and as a member of several coworking communities) to support optimum team communications and work productivity both in-person and remotely. It’s becoming a key recruitment and retention tool, supporting employee work / life juggling.

If your organization is considering adding remote work as an option for employees, ensuring consistent policy and practice will in turn ensure its long-term success.

For those employers on the fence about instituting remote work, the following criteria support an effective trial method to test the waters, considering:

• That the employee’s job is conducive to remote work; for example, customer-facing jobs such as retail store managers and reception employees greeting clients are not suitable for remote work;
• The employee’s demonstrated ability to perform their job at a satisfactory or better level (strong performer) remotely;
• The importance of the job to the ongoing operation of the organization, including but not limited to employee recruitment and retention; and
• Drivers supportive of historically marginalized employees juggling pregnancy, maternity, elder care, etc. while effectively performing their respective jobs – making it an inclusive win-win for both the employer and the employee.

How has (or when will) remote work make sense for your organization, in business and at work?