Working remotely: What are the social costs?
Knowledge workers often collaborate using a distributed model of organization. It may be difficult for remote supervisors to assess the performance of workers who are sent to do field work with the clients.
Managing performance remotely is difficult and new strategies for the surrounding complexities are needed.
Also, we must ask ourselves, how we can keep those remote workers engaged?
Emotions can be tapped with good storytelling
A dispersed workforce must leverage technology when people can't be physically together. While online training can be combined with offline collaborative exercises after the learning event, online activities can also be well-supported by good storytelling. The practice of filming brief video profiles of leaders who tell their life and career stories is successful. The sense of connection is then strengthened.
Remote working also means that informal cross-fertilization is lost. That is, those small interactions when you hear someone talking about something and you're interested in what they have to say. Knowledge is shared in this way. It applies for both knowledge-based work and also for manufacturing. When people aren't together in a physical work environment, this is lost.
In some companies, colleagues are in different cities and work in a cloud, there is no office. Also, people often miss being around others. It's also about a sense of belonging, which is lacking in this kind of setting. That may encourage the formation of new organic networks, worktables and workstations grouped in cafés, restaurants and various hubs.
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