How to Make Remote Work Work?

Should companies create a new C-suite position to lead the virtual work experience? As we are all aware, remote work touches multiple area of a business. Some of them are:

• Recruitment: Hiring remote workers remotely.

• Diversity and Inclusion: Being able to hire people from different geographies may provide a good mix of different talents.

• Technology: Investing and implementing the right technology from a microphone to ERP software.

• Cyber-security: Increased risk comes with increased use of remote technologies.

• Sales: Changing the habits of a sales organization that used to work mostly face-to-face. Hiring a Chief Remote Officer may tie all these functions together to make sure everything runs smoothly.

But that does not mean that existing managers can leave all the responsibility to the head of remote work. They will still need to sit on the driver seat to manage their own teams. Recently, Facebook posted a job post with the title “director, remote work” who would “drive a company-wide shift toward remote-first ways of working”. The job posting said, the position would lead a team of “cross-functional” leaders across the company to help make the transition to remote work. When we look at the companies who have already employed a Remote Work Officer, like Twitter and GitLab, the major responsibility of the position is to promoting remote culture and helping employees and managers to become adapted to the remote work with defined procedures. What does an ideal Head of Remote Work candidate look like? Differences in companies remote work structures and needs should be considered when deciding. But in general, candidates who has strategic planning, workplace culture, and technology experiences are favoured.Job sites like Glassdoor and LinkedIn were not seeing much in their listings for similar job titles yet. Necessity of the role and job description is still open to discussion.

The only thing to make sure is, everyone from executives to entry-level employees should accept remote work as a normal part of doing business, rather than just a reaction to the pandemic.  ‍