Remote work is here to stay, but companies must ensure their culture remains intact

While the transition to remote working, driven largely by the COVID-19 pandemic, has mostly proved to be a positive experience for many companies, it has added an element of complexity, specifically around aspects of team management and business governance.

According to Justin Naylor, MD at specialist risks insurer iTOO, remote working is here to stay, with most organisations unlikely to switch back to a permanent office-based work force. Instead, most will likely embrace some type of hybrid working model, where employees’ time is split between home and the office.

As such, the concept of a traditional five-day work week and fixed office hours are a thing of the past, meaning that companies will have to adjust their approach to management and how they think about governance.

“I’m sure that many bosses would like to see employees back in the office, where a lot of management was traditionally done by physical presence and sight; in other words, seeing employees at their desks, doing their work. This meant that it was easy to keep your finger on the pulse,” says Naylor.

“But with the way the world is moving, most employees have gotten used to some element of flexibility. Essentially, this means that the world needs to move from measuring time to measuring output.”

More complexity
Naylor explains that this approach adds a lot of complexity to the traditional style of management and requires a different mindset, yet many companies are not geared for this. It is, therefore, critical that organisations adapt to managing a remote or hybrid workforce, based on output metrics.

One of the areas around which complexity has increased, he says, is company culture, which in turn has a profound impact on governance and employee performance.

“Company culture is more important than ever and basically guides employees in terms of how things are done within any given organisation. Yet, it is difficult to maintain company culture when you have an entirely remote workforce,” says Naylor.

“Employees need to be in the office at least some of the time to get a consistent demonstration of culture and shared messages, and yet companies also need to maintain a level of flexibility around hybrid work or risk losing talent.”

To this end, many companies are implementing flexible work models that require employees to spend a set minimum amount of days of the work week in the office, while being able to work from home for the remainder of the time. Often, additional flexibility is provided by allowing employees to draw up their own schedules and decide when they want to work from the office and from home.

Sensible approach
“This is a sensible approach to foster company culture, not only among existing employees, but also for those joining an organisation. In essence, employee engagement inculcates company culture, which is informed by governance, in other words: the right way to do things,” says Naylor.

However, he notes that governance has become far more complex in the age of remote working, where companies often have to rely on an element of trust in their employees. Hence, ensuring that employees embrace company culture has become more important than ever to ensure that they act professionally and adhere to governance standards.

“Creating an environment where employees embrace company culture is critical, given that remote work has increased the risks related to governance. The risk of employees not acting appropriately has been heightened significantly since people are no longer based in the office.”

Exponential increase
Naylor says that the claims related to commercial crime – fraud and theft perpetrated by employees against a company – have increased exponentially since the uptake of remote working models. This is because governance has become a lot more complex and many organisations have had to relax their governance and sign off processes remotely.

“Employees pose the biggest threat in terms of fraud. Hence the importance of inculcating a strong company culture, especially when management is not there to enforce it. Strong culture equates engagement and engagement equates performance. If you don’t have a strong culture, and there is a lack of engagement, you are creating an environment where performance can slip and this leads to weaker governance.

“Employees who are happy and engaged will do the right thing. We’ve seen how companies with strong cultures have thrived during the pandemic. Companies that are too loose with their work from home policies will slowly see an erosion of company culture, which leads to an erosion of performance and governance. This is the danger of fully working from home in the long term,” Naylor concludes.