Consulting in Sweatpants

1 Introduction

1.1 Working Conditions – The COVID-19 Impact

As a result of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many countries have embarked on national lockdowns, bringing economies to a halt. In response to the expected impact of COVID-19, McKinsey & Company revised their growth outlook for Africa from 3.9% to between -3.9% and 0.4%. Although these estimates do not consider fiscal stimulus packages or currency devaluations, they do allow for some insight into the devastating effect the coronavirus will have on the African economy. (Evans, 2020)

In countries like South Africa, where 20% of the workforce is in the informal sector, the impact will likely be more severe due to a shortage of capacity and resources required to rebound from a crisis like this (Evans, 2020), (Stith, 2020). Widespread job losses are expected due to the closure of multiple businesses, particularly SMEs, due to the forced lockdown measures (Jayaram, Leke, Ooko-Ombaka, & Sunny Sun, 2020). At least one million job cuts are expected from the formal sector alone in South Africa (Stith, 2020). Several support structures are needed to stem this, such as debt relief and budget supplements (Stith, 2020). In addition, companies need to develop new ways to keep functioning and generating revenue. One such way has been to increase their ability to accommodate remote working, which may continue.

At an online IDG Tech Talk on 12 March 2020, it was highlighted that enabling businesses to work remotely is not that easy. Businesses amidst the COVID-19 struggle mainly focus on getting the necessary collaboration tools to continue functioning. They should, however, also be training their employees on how to work remotely. Having the right tools doesn’t help if employees don’t know how to use them effectively. It was also pointed out that now is the time to get the correct systems and infrastructure in place to avoid similar challenges in the future. (Brown, 2020)

1.2 Remote Working

The demand for remote work, or working from home (WFH), has steadily increased over the last few years. Remote working regularly grew by 173% between 2005 and 2018 (Global Workplace Analytics, 2020). 98% of employees in the United States have expressed their desire to work remotely on a permanent or at least part-time basis (Buffer & AngelList, 2020).

A survey conducted by Owl Labs in the USA found that over 80 % of employees indicated they would be happier, feel more trusted, less likely to leave, less stressed and more committed to the company if allowed to work remotely. 91 % of remote workers felt they had a better work-life balance, and approximately 80 % felt less stressed and more productive. You can read up on the study here. (Owl Lab, 2019)

The World Economic Forum also stated that significant changes will be occurring in the future regarding automation and the requirement for companies to adapt their work environment and become more flexible. Younger workers prefer a decentralized work environment and more control and ownership of how things are done. (Bruce-Lockhart, 2020)

According to Hallway, at least 67 companies are completely remote or distributed, as it is also referred to. You can find the list here. Remote businesses pride themselves on their agility and ability to deliver better quality and more value to their clients. They are well equipped to deal with time zones and language barriers, allowing them to easily navigate these situations.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, businesses have had to adapt rapidly and set up their employees to work from home. However, PWC reported that only 16% of South Africa’s companies could work from home, indicating the significant lack of infrastructure and ability to equip our workforce to work remotely. According to Hern, COVID-19 is increasing the pressure on employers toward a permanent change in work conditions as employees question why they should go into the office (Hern, 2020). This suggests a spike in the number of permanent or regular remote employees in the future, which has been rapidly increasing since the start of the pandemic.

2 Remote Working – What Is the Business Impact?

2.1 The Bottom Line and Why Employees Matter

As illustrated in Figure 2, businesses are continuously required to change and adapt to meet market shifts and demands in order to deliver profit through the services, products, or intellectual expertise they provide.

The key to the company’s success is its employees, who are fundamental to the business’s success. Increasing productivity, reducing unnecessary costs, and improving efficiency are some of the ways a business seeks to improve continuously. However, it is important to maintain a good working culture and a team-oriented business amidst all these initiatives.

Glassdoor conducted six studies to evaluate the link between satisfied employees and the influence on business results. They evaluated employee satisfaction with the company’s market value, financials, stock performance and earnings. All the studies found a link between employee satisfaction and business performance. Confirming the significant contribution employees make to the success of the company. (Chamberlain, 2017)

Amidst the global trend of increased remote working, a business can improve its employee satisfaction by considering permanent or partial remote working conditions. However, this is not a possibility for a portion of the economy. Industries such as manufacturing and mining will always rely on a labour force working on-site to function and produce the required goods. Even in these industries, however, there is the possibility of exploring more flexibility in the working environment.

2.2 What Are the Business Benefits?

A remote or dispersed workforce offers significant benefits. The list is quite long, and this section provides a summary only.

• At the forefront is gaining access to a more diverse international talent pool of employees. You can appoint employees from across the world. This would not be possible if you are situated in a specific area and your company does not have the facilities or systems that allow collaboration of remote employees. (Jay, 2018)
• A business can save on remuneration packages as an employee does not have additional fuel expenses and eliminates the need to spend hours commuting to an office. Employees will also experience significantly less stress by eliminating exposure to traffic. This allows for a healthier and safer employee, increasing productivity. (Jay, 2018)
• A significant benefit is also a reduction in office renting space. A much smaller office can be utilized for contact sessions or in-person meetings. Even if weekly contact sessions are required, rotation of different teams could reduce the space required. For full remote working, coffee shops can also be utilized for contact sessions or workshop hubs that allow you to rent a meeting room on an ad-hoc basis as required. This eliminates the need for a dedicated office space. (Jay, 2018)
• Forbes recently wrote an article on some of the research findings from Gallup, Global Workplace Analytics and Stanford University (Farrer, 2020). The study found that remote work increased teleworkers’ productivity between 5% and 40 %. (Farrer, 2020)
• The article also highlights the significant performance improvement, with a 40 % decrease in product quality defects. (Farrer, 2020)
• Employee retention was also found to increase. 12 % of employees stayed with a company instead of leaving after being offered remote work. (Farrer, 2020)
• Employees are more productive as they can manage a schedule that works for them and allows them to decide for themselves when they work. This enables a more autonomous workforce, giving employees more buy-in and ownership. However, this has certain rules to allow collaboration between employees and different teams. (Hunkeler, 2018)
• Studies also indicate a reduction in absenteeism, as employees can fit work around their personal lives and easily catch up on lost time due to a doctor’s appointment or taking their child to a dance class (Hunkeler, 2018). The article by Forbes reported a 41 % reduction in absenteeism.
• It also needs to be said that building a suitable team is now much easier for international companies. It is possible to formulate a highly effective team to work on a project from across the world. Having all the infrastructure already in place makes this easy and highly effective.

2.3 What Are the Business Challenges and Risks?

Despite the numerous benefits of remote working, as with everything in life, there are challenges and risks that a company needs to consider. Timecamp, Lucidchart and Harvard Business Review share some insight into some of these challenges.

• As many companies have realized during COVID-19, one key challenge is access to stable internet connectivity. This is especially challenging in developing countries like South Africa and Africa, where most households don’t have access to stable, fast internet. This requires companies to supply their employees with data bundles and remote routers, which can considerably increase costs. Due to remote locations, the connectivity may still be very poor.
• Another challenge that must be managed is ensuring continuous and effective team communication. Once filled with conversations at the water fountain or the coffee station, your day is now reduced to topic-specific and brief conversations through tools such as Skype or Zoom. Employees lose out on some of the casual office banter and stress relief of sharing their experience with colleagues. Employees are also reluctant to ask a quick question that would save them a large amount of time. They may also waste time doing something no longer required due to a lack of proper team communication.
• A large portion of remote workers also raise concerns about overworking. Employees struggle with time management and separating personal and work life. Managing communication with team members is also difficult with platforms like WhatsApp, where switching off from work with messages constantly streaming onto your phone is challenging.
• Maintaining a company’s culture is also quite challenging. Remote work allows less time to develop relationships between co-workers and less visibility of a company’s values. If this is not managed appropriately, it can lead to a disjointed company.
• Employee discipline and distractions. A big concern for companies is how effectively an employee can work from home with all the distractions of television, laundry and kids. However, one valid point made in an article by Laurel Farrer on Forbes’s website is that office settings also have distractions, such as the coffee room and lunchroom, where employees spend a lot of time. In the end, it comes down to trusting your employees. (Farrer, 2019)
• Having a mix of on-site and remote employees may make remote employees feel disengaged and overlooked in terms of performance and contribution to the company. This needs to be actively managed to ensure remote workers are not overlooked or feel last in line when it comes to project assignments.
• Due to the introduction of different time zones and working cultures, companies lack the proper management systems to help different teams navigate these situations as effectively as possible.

Despite these challenges and risks, numerous companies have felt that the benefits outweigh the challenges and have developed innovative solutions and strategies to mitigate the risks.

2.4 Other Innovations Companies Are Using to Improve Their Work Conditions?

In addition to remote working, numerous businesses across the globe have been experimenting with different ways to operate contrary to old-school methods to increase their bottom line. These companies’ motivations aim to reduce costs, improve employee satisfaction, and find innovative ways of doing business—all in the pursuit of growing a more successful business capable of delivering high-quality value.

Google is probably one of the most well-known companies focusing highly on employee experience. Some benefits they provide to their employees are extremely flexible working hours, free lunch, the famous nap pods and many others. Google also heavily relies on data analysis to identify new ways to improve its productivity. (Patel, 2020)

Some companies have also experimented with a 4-day workweek concept. Business Insider recently reported that Microsoft’s Japan subsidiary experimented with this. It was found that productivity increased by 40 %. Quite a significant increase for only one less workday, although the study was conducted only over a month. The sustainability of this remains to be seen. In addition to the 4-day week, they also encouraged shorter meeting times of 30 minutes (Eadicicca, 2019). Perpetual Garden, a New Zealand-based company, also experimented with a four-day workweek, and the benefits were significant enough that they adopted this working strategy full-time, as reported by CNBC (Fox, 2019). Some unforeseen benefits Microsoft also found were reduced electricity and printing, adding additional cost savings (Eadicicca, 2019).

3 Overcoming Remote Work Challenges – Innovative Solutions

There are a variety of areas that businesses need to focus on to avoid the common pitfalls and ensure the successful implementation of remote working practices. The solutions below are ways your business can effectively implement common and new working practices when working remotely. The diagram below summarises the areas of focus and their key concepts:

3.1 Communication & Engagement

• Daily (or every other day) Check-in meetings allow you to catch up with your team and help team members focus on their daily priorities. This is also useful for communicating urgent changes to planning or schedules. Here is a video to help you host effective stand-ups or check-in sessions. (Development That Pays, 2015)
• Once or twice a week, contact sessions, if possible, where teams or groups meet in person can also be beneficial, which lends itself more towards partial remote working. This allows employees to prioritise their work, and all the necessary meetings can be scheduled for those contact days in the office. This is mainly for longer meetings or being physically present, which may be beneficial, like reviewing drawings or conducting a HAZOP study.
• Communication can be maintained using one of the available communication platforms. Platforms such as WhatsApp, Microsoft Teams, or Slack are useful for asking questions and giving quick updates on progress or project happenings. Some companies run a continuous “office space” by keeping an active meeting channel online during the work day or setting up social spaces where employees can dial in while drinking their coffee or taking a break to simulate “water fountain discussions”.
• It is important to develop and agree on communication principles and best practices across the different communication channels available. Deciding as a team which platform to use for which type of communication saves time and avoids confusion and unnecessary delays. This also aids in respecting each other’s time outside of office hours and is crucial when working with an international team, where time zones may also affect collaboration time.
• Host teleconferencing sessions with your team solely to build relationships and encourage socialisation and engagement outside of tasks and deadlines. Time Doctor and Snack Nation share some useful exercises you can do with your team remotely.
• Remote work requires basic rules of engagement and etiquette, such as teleconferencing. Have standards like muting your microphone if you’re not speaking or switching off video feed to prevent unnecessary interruptions and aid members with poor connectivity. Having No Agenda – No meeting rules also ensure effective and concise meetings.

• If internet connectivity allows, have the presenter keep their webcam on. This allows for richer communication informed by body language. Distant Job wrote a helpful article on how to use body language effectively when working remotely and what to remember when connecting with team members remotely. You can access the article with this link.
• Employees should be encouraged to engage during meetings and talks using the chat or message function built into most teleconferencing platforms. This allows feedback to the presenter and more engagement from those listening in.
• Collaboration with other companies is a powerful way to add skills to your company. It allows you to conduct projects for which your company does not have all the necessary skills. Being equipped for remote working makes these types of collaborations much easier and more effective, increasing the pool of collaboration partners.

3.2 Knowledge Sharing

• Hosting monthly informative sessions where employees can share knowledge and information is a good way to transfer knowledge and refresh each other’s memory on good practices for how certain things are done in the company. This is also an opportunity for people who attended a conference or external training course to share the lessons learnt with a wider group of colleagues. A useful platform that could be used for these sessions is Meetup.
• Monthly or weekly newsletters or flash reports are useful ways to inform employees about company events. These could include birthdays or new team members.

3.3 Performance

• Performance reviews and feedback are important tools for helping employees grow and develop. EPCM wrote an article on new ways to provide performance feedback, which you can read here.
• Clear performance measures must be in place to manage and measure a project’s progress and performance. This provides clear guidance to a remote worker on what needs to be done and when to enable better time management from their side.

3.4 Workspace & Infrastructure

• To allow remote working, it is critical to have effective tools that are fit for purpose and well suited to your company’s needs, such as good communication channels and teleconferencing tools.
• Hire a smaller office that can be utilized for required infrastructure, such as storing important documentation. This also provides a space for project team contact sessions to meet or have work sessions.
• Remote or floating license keys enable multiple users to access the software even though only one person can use it simultaneously.
• Implementing the necessary security measures and systems to protect your client’s information and ensure data backup is done appropriately is critical. Remote working requires internet access to business systems, which may require VPNs.
• Ensuring your workforce has a stable internet connection is a major challenge. Routers and 3G internet data cards can be supplied to ensure employees have the necessary connectivity to perform their work.
• Hosting cloud servers for computational power enables using computationally heavy processes whilst working remotely. Techradar surveyed the top cloud computing services for 2020, which is a good starting point for investigating what solution best suits a specific company’s needs. (Drake & Turner, 2020)

3.5 Management

• Managers must learn to respect the quiet and allow employees time to work. Constantly checking on your team is not going to improve their productivity. This might be a bigger challenge for remote working if managers cannot physically see their employees and may be tempted to check up on them more frequently.
• Continuous communication is key as a manager. Keep your team up to date on what is happening in the company and with other parts of the business so that employees are engaged and have a holistic view of the company. Having a monthly companywide teleconference to keep employees informed could be beneficial.
• Know who to hire. Remote working is not for everyone; therefore, it is important to know who to hire and what type of person will fit into the company’s culture and effectively manage working remotely. Autonomous working capability, quick learning and good communication are important skills to identify. (Atamaniuk, 2019)
• Utilize online progress management tools such as virtual KANBAN boards or progress trackers such as Jira or Redmine.

4. Remote Working – The New Normal?

The most important question businesses will ask themselves once the COVID-19 pandemic condition improves is: What now? Amid the economic uncertainty and losses, most companies will face additional pressure and focus on ensuring increased productivity and cost reductions to help businesses recover.

Due to lockdowns, many companies will have had the opportunity to evaluate how effectively their employees can work from home and how remote working impacts their bottom line. Having their employees work remotely may be the new normal for some companies. In a Gartner survey, CRN reported that 74 % of businesses indicated that at least 5 % of their employees will continue working remotely after the COVID-19 situation has improved. A major motivation for this was the opportunity to reduce costs for the company (Kovar, 2020). It will be important for companies embarking on this new normal to ensure systems and measurements are in place to monitor and manage this new way of working. Some measures that could be valuable are client satisfaction, timely deliverables, employee happiness, employee engagement, cost savings and performance evaluations, to mention only a few.

Since working remotely is not yet well established across all companies and industries, there will be many challenges and unforeseen situations to respond to, such as the unexpected security issues many have faced when using Zoom for teleconferencing in recent months. As with any business practice, continuous innovation will be required to find new ways to improve remote working productivity and effectiveness.

Despite the challenges, allowing employees to work remotely in larger numbers and more frequently during a normal work week seems to be the way forward. If the practice is implemented effectively, the benefits for both a company and its employees are numerous, and for many, they may outweigh the risks and short-term challenges.

5 References

Patel, N. (2020). Inside Google’s Culture of Success and Employee Happiness. Retrieved from Neil Patel: https://neilpatel.com/blog/googles-culture-of-success/

Bryant, A. (2011, March 12). Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss. Retrieved from New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/business/13hire.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Eadicicca, L. (2019, November 4). Microsoft experimented with a 4-day workweek, and productivity jumped by 40%. Retrieved from Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-4-day-work-week-boosts-productivity-2019-11?IR=T

Fox, M. (2019, April 23). Forget the 5-day work week—just 4 days results in a healthier, more loyal, more engaged staff. Retrieved from CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/23/a-4-day-work-week-results-in-more-loyal-more-engaged-staff.html

Chamberlain, A. (2017, December 6). 6 Studies Showing Satisfied Employees Drive Business Results. Retrieved from Glassdoor: https://www.glassdoor.com/research/satisfied-employees-drive-business-results/

Hunkeler, I. (2018). 8 Benefits of Allowing Employees To Work Remotely. Retrieved from Zippia: https://www.zippia.com/employer/8-benefits-allowing-employees-work-remotely/

Farrer, L. (2020, February 12). 5 Proven Benefits Of Remote Work For Companies. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurelfarrer/2020/02/12/top-5-benefits-of-remote-work-for-companies/#5bced5aa16c8

Farrer, L. (2019, February 28). Remote Reservations: Why Managers Are Afraid To Let Employees Work Virtually. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurelfarrer/2019/02/28/remote-reservations-why-managers-are-afraid-to-let-employees-work-virtually/#19cdb9ab335f

Smith, C. R. (2020, April 1). South China Morning Post. Retrieved from In Africa, an economic shutdown may devastate more lives than coronavirus infection: https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3077737/africa-economic-shutdown-may-devastate-more-lives-coronavirus

Jayaram, K., Leke, A., Ooko-Ombaka, A., & Sunny Sun, Y. (2020, April). Tackling COVID-19 in Africa. Retrieved from McKinsey&Company: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/middle-east-and-africa/tackling-covid-19-in-africa

Hern, A. (2020, March 13). Covid-19 could cause a permanent shift towards home working. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/mar/13/covid-19-could-cause-permanent-shift-towards-home-working

Evans, D. (2020, April 3). The Economic Impact of COVID-19 in Africa: A Round-Up of This Week’s Analysis. Retrieved from Center for Global Development: https://www.cgdev.org/blog/economic-impact-covid-19-africa-weeks-latest-analysis

Buffer & AngelList. (2020). The 202 State of Remote Work. Retrieved from Buffer: https://lp.buffer.com/state-of-remote-work-2020

Global Workplace Analytics. (2020, March). Latest Work-At-Home/Telecommuting/Mobile Work/Remote Work Statistics. Retrieved from Global Workplace Analytics: https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics

Jay, R. (2018). Benefits of Remote Work. Retrieved from Flex Jobs: https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/benefits-of-remote-work/

McGough, H. (2020). 12 Tips For Managing a Remote Team (And Loving It). Retrieved from Lean Startup: https://leanstartup.co/12-tips-for-managing-a-remote-team-and-loving-it/

Atamaniuk, M. (2019). The Power of Standing Out: Things CEOs of Remote Companies Do Differently. Retrieved from You Team: https://youteam.io/blog/things-ceos-of-remote-companies-do-differently/

Verbeemen, E. (2020, April 9). Why remote working will be the new normal after COVID-19. Retrieved from EY: https://www.ey.com/en_be/covid-19/why-remote-working-will-be-the-new-normal-even-after-covid-19

Kovar, J. (2020, April 13). Some May Work From Home Permanently After COVID-19: Gartner. Retrieved from CRN: https://www.crn.com/news/running-your-business/some-may-work-from-home-permanently-after-covid-19-gartner

O’Flaherty, K. (2020, April 10). Zoom Security: Here’s What Zoom Is Doing To Make Its Service Safer. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2020/04/10/zoom-security-heres-what-zoom-is-doing-to-make-its-service-safer/#4b31cba830fc

Brown, C. (2020, March 16). COVID-19’s impact on the enterprise and remote work. Retrieved from CIO: https://www.cio.com/article/3532812/covid-19s-impact-on-the-enterprise-and-remote-work.html

Owl Lab. (2019). State of Remote Work 2019. Retrieved from Owl Lab: https://www.owllabs.com/state-of-remote-work/2019

Bruce-Lockhart, A. (2020). Davos 2020: Here’s what you need to know about the future of work. Retrieved from World Economic Forum: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/davos-2020-future-work-jobs-skills-what-to-know/

Development That Pays. (2015). Daily Stand-up: You’re Doing It Wrong! Retrieved from Development That Pays: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H02BlTXpcto&feature=youtu.be

Drake, N., & Turner, B. (2020). Best cloud computing services of 2020: for Digital Transformation. Retrieved from Techradar: https://www.techradar.com/best/best-cloud-computing-services