Insights from the remote work trenches

Peter du ToitI'm the founder of FutureWork IQ where I spend my time assisting businesses to improve their climate literacy so as to understand the projected impacts from the expanding climate crisis and how to adapt their workplaces in the face of these impacts.

Having led a few online training sessions recently I have been struck by how many people have just been tossed into the remote work deep end by their companies without any guidance on how to swim!

Now, in the initial stages of all this no one really had much of a choice, but now, 100 or so days in to still not provide help to employees on how to successfully navigate the new work-from-home situation seems counterproductive.

My recommendation to leadership teams is – just take a brief pause and determine how your people are doing and what they need to do their work more effectively.

Do you need to formalize your “office in the cloud” or digital workplace?

Are you using the right tools?

Have you found an effective way to focus on output?

What skills are your people lacking? Are there Digital Literacy competencies that need to be improved?

How skilled is the team in communicating and collaborating online?

Are you as leaders able to be as visible online as you are in a physical office?

Do you know how to work out loud?

These and more are crucial questions to answer if you are going to be successful at remote working, which by many indications is going to be with us for much longer than anticipated.