What is the correct balance in work from home policy?

I have previously spoken about the continued evolution of the concept that is, Working From Home.  It has been fun to watch companies that were dead set against the practice, reverse their thinking in order to secure and/or engage top talent.

IBM made headlines last year when they decided to pull thousands of their workers back into corporate offices.  Some thought it was in an effort to rebound after poor results or deciding to “zig” as a company while other companies “zagged.”  Then other companies in the U.S. followed suit like Yahoo, Best Buy, Apple and Google.

There was suddenly an emphasis on collaboration and a sudden need to flex one’s corporate culture.  Physical meetings and interactions were finally being recognized as being valuable and sometimes essential.

So how should companies conduct themselves on this subject?

The key lies in how an organization balances itself.  The pendulum cannot go too far in either direction.  If your organization actively promotes telecommuting and virtual teams, it is essential that you still provide an opportunity for employees to have face-to-face interactions. 

 It is becoming more common for companies to provide balance in the following way.

 1. Allow employees (where appropriate) to work from home 2 days a week.  Metrics are everywhere and it is easy to see whether or not an employee is working. In cities such as Toronto, where the distance between work and home is becoming longer and more difficult to navigate, this ratio seems to be the measuring stick.

2. If employees are working entirely remotely, high performing companies that rank well in terms of corporate culture, usually target a two-day company meeting every quarter where multiple stakeholders get a face to face opportunity to interact with each other. This will often engage and recharge employees, bring back focus and meaning to the work the employee is doing and it will often remind employees as to why they chose to even work for the company. Use that time to celebrate wins and to build corporate culture and ideally form a second family for the employee. Keep reward meetings in place, but don’t only make company get togethers about celebrating President’s Club award winners.

Where companies seem to make errors when their employees work entirely remotely, usually occur when after a while, the employee no longer feels that they are part of a bigger picture. They may feel that the organization is NOT larger than the sum of its parts.  Making it as easy as possible for an employee to work from home does save considerable costs in areas such as office rent, but make sure to reinvest some of that savings into off-site meetings. Technology companies are often the worst offenders in this area.  If an employee is not feeling attached to a company, turnover tends to increase, and that combined with poor company business results will sometimes make it a lot easier for an employee to decide to jump off the company bus. 

Corporate culture and team spirit are important so make sure that you are analyzing the business properly.  You want to remind people why they are working for a good company, reinforce the values and ethics of that company and make sure that employees do not feel as though they are just another “number” in the organization.

Farewell,

Mike