How To Make Your Company Run Virtually, Not Remotely

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If you’ve been reading the business headlines, you might think the age of remote work is ending. Big corporations like Yahoo, Aetna and even IBM, one of the first proponents of telecommuting, have reversed or reduced their policies for remote work.

In particular, IBM announced in 2017 that it would colocate its marketing team, gathering a smaller workforce in just six locations across the U.S. The reasons given for colocating spanned from workers wanting to feel more motivated and engaged and to learn from older peers, to the need for workers to be present to respond to a 24/7 marketplace and to collaborate and innovate in person.

However, remote work is by no means dead. Depending on what workplace survey you use (Gallup, Bureau of Labor Statistics or Society for Human Resource Management), between 22 and 43% of the U.S. workforce are working remotely part or full time.

What is clear is that despite a few big companies (and some smaller companies) making headlines by reversing remote work policies, the practice is still alive, well and popular across the U.S, helping to increase worker satisfaction overall. In fact, for many companies, including my own, remote work not only works but makes a lot of sense -- if done properly.

Virtual, Not Remote

First of all, don’t use the term remote for your out-of-office brothers and sisters. We like to call out-of-office work “virtual.” Remote seems to imply your colleagues are cut off, when in fact each virtual member is a vital part of your team and can be incorporated in many of your activities.

Virtual Inclusion

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/05/18/how-to-make-your-company-run-virtually-not-remotely/