Virtual Office Featured Article

A Global Remote Operation Requires Care and Finesse

December 21, 2015
By Steve Anderson, Contributing Writer

What business would ever turn down a chance to have the best talent? Talent knows no area code; the best programmers don't just live in Silicon Valley, any more than all the good farmers live in the Midwest. Remote workers are an increasingly large part of the workforce, and a fact of life for many firms. Keeping everybody together, though, can require some new lines of thinking, and that virtual office needs to be a powerful force for good in the business, not an excuse for disconnect.


An increasingly knowledge-based economy doesn't require workers to be in one place; the old saw about how work isn't a place you go to but rather a thing you do is more and more relevant these days. Employees love having the option to not spend huge amounts of time commuting—savvy businesses can turn that into a PR selling point for environmentalism—as well as being able to fit in all those little things life requires like runs to the bank and post office. That's a morale-booster, and companies can get that by allowing virtual offices.

Many companies are concerned, however, about how employees will work when not constantly watched. Few like to work, especially several hours a day every day for decades. Any activity done that long will lose its polish. Some choose to measure performance by output, others by routine reporting in via video conference or the like. One method used by Hypothesis is counter-intuitive, but seems to work: live meetings. The use of text and video works well, and is thus the main means of connection, but for a couple weeks out of the year, Hypothesis staff gets together in person and delivers good value in the process. That's hard to do, and as Hypothesis expands outward into other time zones and continents, will only get harder.

So what does a company do, many ask, to make the virtual office just as valuable as the regular office? First, focus on communication. Make it as easy as a real office to talk to one person,  a project group, or a whole building. Communications are easier in person, and these have to be as simple for remote workers. Second, keep accountability and transparency up front as well; the biggest objection is not getting the work done, but if the work is done, don't buck at any other point. Businesses need work done. Everything else is secondary to that. Finally, consider occasional physical meetings; it may not always be possible, but in-person face time can deliver effects like nothing else.

The virtual office can be a powerful tool for businesses, but only if it's used the right way. A focus on communications, on transparency, and on commitment will help the virtual office deliver the same kind of power and utility—maybe even more so—that the physical office would offer.




Edited by Maurice Nagle

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