Making a Success of Managing and Working Remotely

By Sarah Cook and Alice White (Female Synthesized Voice)

Manage your team successfully so you can all reap the rewards of remote working The rise of remote working

The world of work is changing. Many employees no longer hold the traditional nine-to-five job. Instead, working time is increasingly flexible. Technology has enabled a rapid rise in the number of remote workers in recent years; the TUC estimates that the number of UK people working from home increased by a fifth in the ten years to 2018, and now stands at around 2.5 million people. This number is expected to continue to rise – as a result of changing attitudes and technological developments – with half the UK workforce expected to be working remotely by 2025.

Benefits of remote working

Remote working, flexible working, working from home – whichever terminology you use – allows employees to change the locations they work from and their working hours. For the organisation, proven benefits include improved employee retention, a wider pool of applicants, reduced costs, increased productivity, lower absenteeism and carbon footprint reductions. For the individual, the flexibility brings a better work-life balance, reductions in costs such as those associated with commuting, less stress, increased well-being and less time spent travelling. For a manager, it can help them empower team members to give their best, improve well-being in the team and improve job performance and satisfaction.

Making a success of managing and working remotely

This book will help managers and team members alike who are about to or have already started working remotely. It will enable managers to comprehend the challenges of managing remote workers and put strategies in place to overcome these, and will advise employees how to approach their work when doing so remotely.

• For the manager, this book provides practical advice on how to manage remotely, with emphasis on the use of technology, creating team cohesion and avoiding isolation factors.
• For the team member, the book provides tips and techniques on how to work remotely, balance work and outside-work demands, and deliver desired outcomes.

Using case studies, diagrams and tables, with a good balance of research and practical advice, the book discusses both the technological and psychological aspects of remote working, helping employees and managers understand how they should approach and evaluate working remotely.

Ensure you make remote working a success with proven, practical advice – buy this book today.

About the author

Sarah Cook is the managing director of The Stairway Consultancy Ltd. She has 20 years’ consulting experience specialising in leadership and management development. Before this, Sarah worked for Unilever and as head of customer care for a retail marketing consultancy.

Sarah has practical experience helping managers to manage remotely and create high-performing teams. She has also worked extensively with team members to help them effectively transition to new ways of working. Sarah is a business author and has written widely on the topics of leadership, management development, team building and coaching. She also speaks regularly at conferences and seminars on these topics.

Sarah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and is a Chartered Marketer. She has an MA from the University of Cambridge and an MBA from The Open University. She is an accredited user of a wide range of psychometric and team diagnostic tools.

• Language: English
• Publisher: itgovernance
• Release date: Jul 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781787781306

Sarah Cook

Sarah Cook is the Managing Director of the Stairway Consultancy Ltd. She has over 20 years’ consulting experience specialising in team building, leadership and change. Prior to this, Sarah worked for Unilever and as Head of Customer Care for a retail marketing consultancy. As well as having practical experience of helping to create high-performing teams across the globe, Sarah is a business author and has written widely on the topic of team building, leadership, management development and coaching. She also speaks regularly at conferences and seminars on these topics. Sarah is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and a Chartered Marketeer. She has an MA from Cambridge University and an MBA. Sarah is an accredited user of a wide range of psychometric and team diagnostic tools. She may be contacted via [e-mail].

Book preview

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CHAPTER 1: BENEFITS OF REMOTE WORKING

The rise in remote working

The world of work is changing. Many employees no longer hold the traditional nine-to-five job. Instead, working time is increasingly flexible. The sophistication of today’s technology means that businesses are no longer limited to specific geographical locations to manage their workforce. Technology is the primary enabler of flexible and remote working, allowing employees to change the locations they work from and their working hours. With high-speed connectivity and the right technology, people can now work not only from dedicated office locations but from their homes, a café or hub, shared working spaces or, indeed, anywhere in the world.

More people are working remotely

Both in the US and Europe, more people are now working remotely. In the US, Gallup’s 2017 ‘State of the American Workplace’ report found that between 2012 and 2016 there was a 4% increase in the number of employees working remotely – from 39% to 43% of the workforce – and a 7% increase in the number of employees working partially remotely.²

In Europe, a 2018 study by serviced office provider IWG found that 70% of professionals work remotely at least one day a week, while 53% work remotely for at least half the week.³

Skills shortage is driving remote working

Hiring people with the right skills, knowledge and experience has become increasingly important to the long-term success of organisations. In freelancing website Upwork’s 2018 ‘Future Workforce Report’, 52% of hiring managers reported that a skills shortage was driving more flexible working.⁴ In order to hire the best people, in-company recruiters anticipate that up to a third of their full-time staff will be working remotely in the next decade. They report that hiring people with the right skills is more important than hiring people who can work in the same office location.

The number of self-employed people is on the rise

This rise in ‘telecommuting’ is also fuelled by the increase in the number of people who are self-employed. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics reported a 45% increase in self-employment from 2001 to 2017, with numbers rising from 3.3 to 4.8 million.⁵ In the Upwork report mentioned above, in 2019, 59% of hiring managers said that they use freelancers and contract workers, up from 24% in 2017.

Employees choose to work more flexibly

A further reason for the popularity of remote working is that it appeals to both younger and older employees alike. Millennials value organisational structures where they can collaborate, innovate and be most effective. More than two-thirds of millennials in a study by AfterCollege reported that the option to work remotely would greatly increase the attractiveness of specific employers.⁶ Likewise a 2012 report from Boston College The Sloan Center on Aging & Work called Flex Strategies to Attract, Engage and Retain Older Workers, found that as people are both living and working longer, they seek organisations where they can work flexibly.⁷

Many predict that the trend of creating remote, agile teams is the future of work. The World Economic Forum’s forecast of employment trends called flexible working and virtual teams one of the biggest drivers of transformation in the workplace.⁸

So, what are the benefits of remote working? Based on my experience of working with organisations that have embraced remote working, I have listed the benefits from employee, manager and organisational perspectives:

Benefits to the employee

The major benefit of working remotely is having a flexible schedule.

Other benefits include:

•Less time spent travelling;

•More time to concentrate on work without interruptions and distractions;

•Not dealing with office politics;

•Better work–life balance, including:

More time with the family/the ability to better manage childcare arrangements; and

More time to exercise, attend to the necessities of life, such as doctor and dentist appointments, and do home-based chores while being able to make up the time