Predicting the Future of Remote Work after COVID-19
Tammy Bjelland
Flexible work specialist | Helping teams thrive in the age of workplace flexibility | #futureofwork and #futureoflearning strategist and product advisor | #async #flexiblework #remote #hybridwork #learninganddevelopment
What will remote work look like after the immediate threat of COVID-19 subsides?
For many, the prediction is about numbers—how many people will work remotely? How many will leave cities and move to rural areas? How many companies will transition to more hybrid and flexible work arrangements? How many will go all remote? What impact might that have on the economy?
These predictions for remote after COVID don’t take into account one major variable: remote work effectiveness. The actual number of people who will work remotely in 2025 depends on how well organizations implement remote work in 2020 and 2021—specifically, the ability of leadership to address the following key issues that affect remote and hybrid teams:
Trust
Not just trust between people (although that is critical to remote success overall), but trust in the ability of leadership to develop a proper remote work strategy. Do your employees trust that your organization has genuinely adopted a Placeless Mindset? Or do they believe your remote work “plan” is just a bandaid for the current situation? Do they trust that you are investing the resources into making sure remote work works? And do you follow through with those investments?
Employee wellness
To put it lightly, 2020 has been rough. Are leaders in your organization prepared to support employees as they continue to juggle professional and personal responsibilities, ever-changing public health recommendations, health challenges, and all the rest? Or is your company culture itself harming employee wellbeing?
Connection
Besides interpersonal relationships, we need to feel connected to our work. When our entire lives are confined to our homes, monotony can put that feeling of connection at risk. Think of those who usually rely on face-to-face interaction to see the impact they have on others—how are they deriving meaning in virtual work? How are you helping or hindering finding that meaning?
Focus
Distractions are the number one concern among remote workers right now, and understandably so. Leadership has a responsibility to help employees focus by managing distractions: allow them to take ownership of their schedules, empower them to say no, and consider your own behaviors’ impact on your team’s ability to focus.
Career Progression
According to the professional network Blind, 53% of professionals claim that working from home has hurt their career progression. It doesn’t have to be that way—not if leadership provides remote career development resources and develops practices that enable remote and hybrid workers’ visibility and access to opportunities.
While 2020 has undoubtedly been a banner year for remote work, I predict that 2021 will be the year that determines the real future of remote.
Leaders of remote and hybrid teams: the future of remote work depends on you. Are you ready?
My futurist speculations... While I agree with your overall assessment, I believe it is highly premature to think of 2021 as "post COVID". 2021 may start the process, but it will take a long time before there is a sufficient drop in fear to declare the "COVID threat" over. I predict that the cases will continue to remain high enough for concern deep into 2021 and it will take a low case load influenza season before confidence reaches the threshold necessary to even attempt a resumption of ante-pandemic normal. That would put us into March 2022 with very low COVID caseloads before the current "normal" could be revised and by then, the sunk costs will be too great to even think about reversing course. Meanwhile, globally, we're looking at roughly 4 - 5 billion (with a b) people needing to be vaccinated before we reach sufficient immunity to bring case fear under control. From a shear logistical and distribution perspective, that could take a decade or more. In short, although we seem to be close to an available vaccine, we are nowhere near out of the woods from an economic and psychological perspective; especially when you start to think globally. My $0.02, FWIW - unfortunately.
Partner/CFO
3yInteresting thoughts.