According to the recently published 2021 American Community Survey, the number of Americans primarily working from home tripled from 2019 to 2021 (from roughly 6% to 18% across the board). Of course, some geographical areas and certain segments of the workforce were more affected by this shift than others. Most notably, the District of Columbia saw nearly half (48%) of its workforce working remotely in 2021.

This major transition was fueled by the global COVID-19 pandemic as businesses and government agencies scrambled to figure out new ways to keep the wheels of commerce and industry turning while also protecting their employees and customers. The workplace and the marketplace have long acted as central hubs for American communities, so this sudden change is something social scientists and business leaders will be studying for years, and even decades, to come in order to fully understand its impact and ramifications on modern society.

The more immediate concern for many businesses, however, may appear to be a rather simple question at first: how do leaders manage these new teams? Unfortunately, the answer is not so simple. The good news? A wave of new technology has sprung up to help address this rapidly growing need. Successful businesses in this new era will work to reframe the way they think about staff and labor, will familiarize themselves with the many tools available to facilitate remote work, will create virtual environments that are effective and secure, and will utilize the technologies and strategies that work best for their organization.

Rethinking the Management Approach

There is a popular concept in leadership development referred to as “management by walking around” or “management by wandering around” (MBWA). It encourages managers to keep their ears to the ground by being regularly up-close with their staff and where the actual work is taking place, as opposed to being unreachable and shuttered away in their office. This same concept can be found in the gemba walks, a strategy taught by Lean Six Sigma, that originated from the Japanese manufacturer Toyota.

Remote work, however, makes both of these strategies conceptually impossible. The three main challenges this presents for leadership are: how do we continue to track and promote productivity; how do we maintain clear and open communication with staff; and, how do we build and support company culture without in-person social events? Thankfully, the right technology can provide the solution to these complex problems.

Choosing the Right Software

Project management software has been around for a long time, but with the recent spike in remote work, its use has equally grown. Managing people has become more about managing tasks and there are plenty of options to choose from: Asana, Trello, Todoist (to name a few). All of these programs allow users to create tasks, assign responsibility, create approval chains, set deadlines, schedule reminders, book appointments, and mark items complete. Even Gmail or Outlook, with their built-in calendar functions, can accomplish some of these things without having to add additional software. Decision-makers will need to carefully consider the needs of their organization and the features being offered before selecting which software to implement.

Despite social distance, good communication remains paramount to success. Unsurprisingly, Zoom saw its annual revenue increase by more than $3.5b from 2018 to 2021. MS Teams also allows for meetings and team (group) chats. Meanwhile, Slack – which functions a lot like Discord, a popular app amongst geeks and gamers – has found growing popularity in the workplace as a more instantaneous form of communication.

While others exist, Google Drive seems to have a monopoly when it comes to file sharing in the professional world. Little harm there, however, as it is a fantastic option that is fairly easy to use.

Another thing to consider in this arsenal of options is software for creating presentations (i.e., Canva) and video recordings (i.e., Loom or Screencast-O-Matic). These programs can really elevate and ease certain aspects of the remote business, especially areas like on-boarding and training.

Lastly, another approach may be purchasing and implementing a staff platform. Hubstaff (and Hubstaff Tasks), for example, attempts to roll up many of these different functions into a singular entity, which hopefully makes managing them easier for the employee and management.

The Role of Cybersecurity

Whether employees are logging in from home using their own computer or one provided to them by the company, remote access to servers and systems presents new risks in the cybersecurity landscape. Likewise, a growing number of companies are now choosing to allow staff to Bring Their Own Device (BYOD) to the office and complete their work using their own laptop or smartphone.

Any company that allows remote work or BYOD will need to have extra policies and security measures in place to assure safety and security for their staff and customers. Chris Botha at Dialpad provides an excellent guide to creating a BYOD policy and a list of 8 tips for reducing security risk. If drafting security policies from scratch sounds like a monumental challenge, SANS Institute provides a whole array of security policy templates that can be adjusted to meet your needs.

Conclusion

The workplace is currently experiencing its greatest transition since the mid-twentieth century. Whether employees are working remotely from home or bringing their own devices into the office, the environment for many is distinctly different today from what it was just 5 years ago. What remains true is that successful businesses and leaders will continue to adapt, listen to their staff, gather feedback, adjust accordingly, and step forward into the future.