Discussing ways to ensure remote work policies are inclusive and considerate of different work styles and needs.

The year 2020 shook the world. A ripple that was felt and still being felt across most parts of the world. A lot of people may never recover from the trauma of the covid year. One of the major shifts in daily life was rethinking the concept of work and ultimately how we work as people. The pandemic forced management teams to think of ways to manage people and processes. It forced employees to look inward, to think about value and productivity in a different way.

It’s been almost 3 years since the pandemic and the world has picked itself off the floor and is moving on, leaving a bunch of things behind and taking a few with it. One of which is remote work.

Remote work or work from home has been a blessing to employees; as it’s given them the opportunity to better manage their lives, to be better parents, partners, friends and siblings. More importanCan be isolating: while work from home gives the peace and quiet required for a clear-head and meaningful work, It can often be a lonely or isolating experience to work from home as many feel disconnected from the office culture, losing out on those all-important coffee break chats and building relationships with colleagues.tly it has forced us to focus on productivity rather than work; value addition and not activity. For employers it has given them the opportunity to save on physical space for work and all the bills and taxes that come with managing an office space, it has helped them hire more hands to do more value driven work.

Like everything that exists, there’s an up and a downside. We’d look at the downsides of remote work;

Lack of boundaries: working from home blurs the lines between home time and work time making it difficult for people to ‘switch off’. Leading to longer work hours, burnout and mental fatigue. A study found that 41% of remote workers felt stressed compared to only 25% of those who continued to work in the office. Of the same group, 42% had trouble sleeping, while only 29% of office workers reported the same.

Can be isolating: while work from home gives the peace and quiet required for a clear-head and meaningful work, It can often be a lonely or isolating experience to work from home as many feel disconnected from the office culture, losing out on those all-important coffee break chats and building relationships with colleagues.

Multiculturalism: with the global nature of work, employers are at liberty to hire staff from all over the world who are qualified to join their teams and contribute. This can be challenging for existing employees as they have to breach cultural barriers, bypass time zones and find a fitting way to communicate.

Increased need for meetings: Once a company’s employees are spread far and wide, leadership will want to keep tabs on them to some extent. In a remote work world, this means managers can no longer walk across the office to check in on their employees. Instead, they need to schedule virtual meetings to discuss routine project management tasks. While digital meetings can be less disruptive than in-person meetings, they are rarely the highlight of the workday. And having too many meetings often causes frustration among employees.

To this end, management teams have pondered on ways to ensure that employees have proper work-life balance, have fun doing their work, create ways to collaborate and co-create as well as establish a work culture that is inclusive of all races, age groups, physical status etc., The pandemic permanently shifted the way many people work, and remote work has remained the norm for numerous companies over the last three years. While remote work has its benefits, it can also lead to feelings of isolation and disconnection among remote workers. To combat this potential problem, companies must prioritize creating an inclusive remote work culture, where remote workers feel valued and connected to the larger team.

Implement Inclusive Policies: Craft inclusive policies that allow for flexibility while holding employees accountable. Ideas can include asymmetrical access to executives and information, unconscious bias training, scheduling collaborative meetings in advance and ensuring team-building activities are accessible for all employees. Authentic communication around hybrid work programs is the key to success.

Create A Shared Experience: Creating a shared experience is a cornerstone of a great culture. Ensure that communication forums are universally available to team members, regardless of location or work-from-home status. Provide opportunities to collaborate across geographies, such as hack-a-thons, virtual fundraising events and fitness challenges.

Have A Mentorship Program: Mentorship makes remote work better by providing remote employees with guidance, support and a sense of community. Mentoring programs foster connections among remote teams, helping to mitigate the potential feelings of isolation and disconnection that can come with remote work.

Enact the face to face experience: companies can achieve this by organizing quarterly physical meetings or hangout sessions to foster team bonding and networking opportunities which help break off the tension that comes with official work communication. Management can also make it part of their culture to turn on cameras during meetings.

Create a D & I team: A dedicated Diversity and Inclusion team will help in setting, measuring and improving inclusive work policies. The team will also help in opening up the lines of communication across the company for employees from all walks of life to share their experiences, nuanced needs that help them feel seen, appreciated and enjoy the work they do.

Provide Opportunities For Team-Building: Provide regular opportunities for remote team members to connect, collaborate and network. Actively cultivate a sense of community and belonging by providing more frequent opportunities for virtual team-building activities and virtual check-ins to ensure everyone is heard and feels included.

Align Remote Work With Micro-Cultures: Have a multi-work arrangement strategy in place that takes into account feedback from talent employed across multiple formats. Align micro-cultures and remote working practices with your organizational macro culture and policy-process framework to allow for a seamless replication with a level of customization at the local level to allow for enhanced employee experience.

Create Innovative Activities: Besides hosting bi-monthly “All-Hands” meetings to give an update on the state of the company, we also provide employee engagement events to include all of our remote workers. From hosting a pet day to wellness challenges (that are inclusive), book club, trivia, drawing challenges, photo contests and many other activities, we include as many workers as possible by connecting with others.

Diversity is a powerful tool and companies who harness it well always win. In order to maximize the potential of remote work management teams must come up with innovative ways to drive inclusion around the company to ensure that; employees provide value, are held accountable for their work, enjoy their work and can freely network across the company. While each team and company have their own peculiarities the above points can serve as a blueprint to build upon.