14/7/2020 Now That We Know Remote Works, What’s Next?

| Bain & Company

Brief

Now That We Know Remote Works,

What’s Next?
Companies have to decide how—or whether—their employees will return to the
o ice.

By John Hazan, Dan Schwartz, Nate Anderson and Andriana Diez

July 02, 2020 • 5 min read

At a Glance

 Forced to work remotely, many companies have noticeably improved speed,

innovation and employee satisfaction during Covid-19.

 Looking forward, companies will seek to maintain this success while striking a
balance with in-person interaction.

 By following certain principles, executives improve their chances of hitting the

right balance.

Roughly 70% of white collar workers are now working remotely, recent Bain &
Company research has found. By forcing so many people to work from home,
Covid-19 has created a time machine of sorts, one that’s taking companies into the
future of work.

Much about that future looks bright. Teams are more agile, adaptable and better
able to prioritize since Covid-19 struck, according to respondents to our global
survey. Companies are adopting the latest technology, with the use of
collaboration platforms up an estimated 30%. Globally, employee satisfaction as
measured by Net Promoter Score® has increased too.

These positive results—perhaps surprising to some—have quickly elevated

working from home to a credible long-term option for companies and employees.

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Now, as countries and cities begin to reopen, companies face not only the
question of how to return to offices, but whether to do so at all.

Across a diverse group of industries—technology, telecommunications, consumer

products, financial services, and even manufacturing—companies are
considering a permanent shift to remote work for some staff. Twitter and
Facebook have announced a move in this direction, and Facebook recently posted
the job requisites for a “Director of Remote Work.”

Organizations have shown remarkable strength in a number of important aspects

over this extraordinary period of remote operation. There has been a willingness
to adopt necessary changes that has led to greater agility and collaboration.
Companies have quickly adjusted to the crisis, prioritizing more effectively and
empowering teams and individuals to make decisions faster. Some 65% of
surveyed employees highlighted more effective deployment of employees to
critical tasks, and just as many see a greater focus on innovation and new
solutions for customers.

Speed and innovation are clearly on the rise as organizations like General Motors,
currently ramping up to produce 30,000 ventilators, launch new products at
unprecedented speed, sometimes without previous experience. One remarkable
aspect of this period has been how remote work has enhanced collaboration. More
than half of survey respondents agree that team collaboration across functions
has increased. With travel largely on hold, a perceived barrier to communication
across teams and regions has been removed.

This is all good news, but for many people, distributed work has also brought a
surge of stress and reduced productivity as the lines between work and life blur,
connection becomes 24/7 and the urge to multitask proves hard to resist. While a
third of those surveyed report no reduction in productivity and a quarter report an
improvement since going remote, more than 40% do feel their productivity has
dropped (see Figure 1).

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rooted not only in the lessons of Covid-19, but also in company strategy and
culture. If closing offices is simply to save on rent, a company may soon find
the benefit short-lived as talent seeks more flexible employment elsewhere.
Different rationales will dictate different approaches.
. Recognize that one size won’t fit all. No two companies, business units,
functions or teams will have the same objectives, requirements or constraints
for remote work. For example, French automobile and motorcycle
manufacturer Groupe PSA will make remote working the benchmark through
its “New Era for Agility” initiative, but only for nonproduction activities. Some
are adopting hybrid approaches. A European telecom provider now allows all
employees in support functions to work from home up to 40% of the time, if
they choose to. Whatever the goal, workforce assessment is best done at a
granular level, focused on why remote working might be helpful and its
potential impact on each employee and role, and on the connections between
roles. The future offers a range of possible work arrangements: fully remote,
fully on-site, or a hybrid.
. Look to reorient how work is done, not just where it is done. Avoid
boomeranging into old ways of working by taking stock of what has changed
for the better in recent months. In May, the president of Toyota Motor, Akio
Toyoda, noted that working remotely had reduced document creation for
meetings by half. He hopes this time will instead be “invested for the future.”
Some consumer products companies have cut SKUs by 30% or more during this
period, a rationalization that would have taken years to accomplish before
Covid-19. In your organization, how has the role of meetings changed for the
better? What new ways of working have you adopted? Has your company
rediscovered simpler, but equally effective, ways of collaborating? The answers
to these questions hold important lessons for companies as they reformulate,
rather than replicate, office work.

For many, remote work is here to stay. Today organizations have the historic
opportunity to design the optimal distributed workforce model, the one that will
get the most from employees while also helping to retain and attract great talent.

Net Promoter®, Net Promoter System®, Net Promoter Score®, NPS® and NPS Prism®
are registered trademarks and service marks of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred
Reichheld and Satmetrix Systems, Inc.

TAGS

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14/7/2020 Now That We Know Remote Works, What’s Next? | Bain & Company

Change Management Co-creation and Team Collaboration Coronavirus

Leadership & Talent Operating Model & Org Design Organization

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Figure 1

Remote working due to Covid-19 has had a mixed impact on productivity,

but many are as productive as ever, or even more so

How has your work Why has your productivity increased or

productivity changed decreased?
during the crisis?
Top reasons for Top reasons for
25% increased productivity decreased productivity
Increased

33% 64%
Same
55%

37%
33%
42%
Decreased

All respondents working from home No commute time Ability to focus Lack of Lack of dedicated
better in my home "work mindset" workspace
Note: Survey conducted April 28 to May 20; excludes "I don't know"
Source: Bain Global Retooling Survey (n=953)

An intentional approach to remote work

Almost all of those surveyed—about 95%—expect the greater agility that has
characterized this Covid-19 period to continue. But there will be challenges as we
enter a period of (presumably) less urgency. Now is the time for organizations to
fully capture the lessons of Covid-19 as they begin to plan for the future.

Companies are seeking to tap the benefits of the work from home experiment:
speed, innovation, employee satisfaction. Over the long term, more permanent
remote work options may also yield benefits to a company’s access to talent,
retention rates and employee engagement, while still creating options for those
employees who work best from an office.

When thinking through the future of remote work, executives should keep three
principles in mind.

. Articulate the rationale. From the outset, clearly make the case for why
remote work serves your organization. The most effective approaches will be

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