A lot of clients and candidates have spoken to me over the past few weeks about what kind of ‘new normal’ will we return to once we return to a more normal state. Viewing things through the talent lens in my role at AC3, I have a particular interest in what this means for the concept of a full-time remote workforce. Throughout my career, I have seen varied appetites for remote workforces. AC3 has long been managing a remote workforce, well before the current circumstances. It hasn’t always been simple and has required nuanced, sophisticated management to ensure success.

As I’m starting to have conversations with my customers around this new normal, I thought I would talk to some of the leaders inside AC3 who have been successfully managing a remote workforce, to get their take on the benefits, as well as, some practical tips. Perhaps maintaining some of these current arrangements would be of benefit to our clients.

Benefits of managing remote staff

Remote working unlocks access to regional and international talent. It broadens the pool from which we are drawing our talent. We have found AC3ers in different regions both in Australia and internationally, who have diverse skill sets that we just couldn’t find if we simply looked in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Auckland, where our offices are. This is especially useful if you are looking for niche skillsets. Oftentimes, these roles would have otherwise remained vacant.

Employing staff from different locations from around the world can also improve your ability to service your customers. At AC3, this has allowed us to offer 24/7 support in a more sustainable way. You will often hear of many businesses employing a ‘follow the sun’ support model, and remote workers are key to this strategy.

Offering flexible work arrangements will allow your people to balance their time at home and at work which can lead to better engagement. By creating an environment that prioritises work-life balance, you will likely find that you have staff who are dedicated to the task at hand resulting in a more productive and healthier workforce.

The simple fact that remote workers in different time zones have more uninterrupted time can lead to increased productivity. While this isn’t true for every role, we sometimes see that engineers, developers or research-based staff can benefit being on different time zones as less of their time is spent in meetings and phone calls. And sometimes, it can come down to this being a personal preference! For more introverted personalities, they may succeed in an environment driven by chat or online communication channels like Slack. We try and balance hours so that they have time to check in with local employees for at least 2-3 hours of the day. The remainder of their time is uninterrupted, free to push out architecture roadmaps or large coding projects.

Tips for successfully managing remote workers
  • Remember that there are some great employees, who won’t thrive working in isolation. Permanent remote working won’t necessarily work for everyone. Consider the individual and make an assessment on a case by case basis.
  • The process of hiring someone to work remotely is a different from hiring someone to work in the office. Considerations need to be made on why people are motivated to work from home and whether that sounds like a good decision for their personality, career, type of work and the organisation.
  • When you aren’t in the same physical office as your staff everyone must put more effort to build personal relationships. With the right level of focus, you can still build genuine connections remotely, but it requires attention and effort.
  • It is important for both employers and employees to create a sense of online community to retain immediacy. Especially when managing millennials – making your employees wait for four hours for information because you haven’t checked your emails will be disengaging. That is a generation that thrives on instant gratification, so finding a way to service that need for information (that can no longer be sourced at the water-cooler) is key.
  • It’s natural to worry about productivity. To combat this, it’s essential to have the right processes in place to gauge whether people are doing what they need to be doing. Building outcome focused deliverables and milestones for employees can help drive that autonomy when physical presence can’t be seen.

After we make our way out of the current situation and find that ‘new normal’, I would encourage every organisation to consider talent outside of their geographical region. You might just find a competitive edge that supports the growth of your business.