Most companies planned on a full-time return to the office once the pandemic subsided. That was in 2020 . . . and maybe the first half of 2021. As more time passed, many of those companies saw the benefits of remote and hybrid work environments outweigh those of full-time in-person office environments.
SDI Presence , Envoy Global and Aprimo are three such companies. In embracing the benefits of remote and hybrid work, they have cultivated collaborative networks and sustainable solutions to ensure their employees’ success.
Today, the vast majority of US employees are averse to returning to the office full time, with an October 2021 Gallup survey finding that a whopping 94 percent of work-from-home employees prefer a remote or hybrid work environment. Respondents cited avoiding commutes, better wellbeing and flexibility to balance family and other obligations as their main reasons for preferring remote positions.
Despite the widely favorable consensus on remote work, the transition away from the office has not been without its pain points. PwC research shows that 68 percent of executives said employees needed to be in the office at least three days a week in order to sustain a strong company culture. Meanwhile, workers cited feeling unable to unplug, loneliness and difficulty focusing as challenges they experienced working from home.
Overall, though, the pros have outweighed the cons, and employees and companies alike have been surprised by how positive remote work has been. As increasing numbers of jobseekers are drawn to remote positions, employers’ ability to adapt to long-term remote work strategies and solutions will set them apart from their competitors.
Built In Chicago interviewed executives from SDI Presence, Envoy Global and Aprimo to discuss how they successfully developed a separate-yet-interconnected workforce. Here’s what they had to say.
For two decades, SDI Presence has provided strategic managed services, IT consulting and hybrid infrastructure solutions to clients across multiple industries. Throughout the pandemic, SDI’s hybrid workforce has maintained its commitment to providing in-person support. By fully adopting remote systems, SDI is able to accommodate clients’ varied on-premises preferences.
Imagine you’ve stepped out of a time machine into March 2020. Knowing what you now know about remote work and the challenges associated with the transition, what would you do differently?
There isn’t much SDI would have done differently leading up to the pandemic. SDI was already working for several years to mobilize our workforce by moving our critical business applications to best-of-breed SaaS providers on the cloud.
Early in the pandemic, we strengthened our mobilization capabilities by fully adopting remote video and collaboration systems such as Teams, SharePoint, and Zoom. We moved our office phone system to a Voice over IP (VoIP) system in the cloud with softphone and mobile phone capabilities.
And, in an effort to increase security and provide ease of use for our workforce, we implemented an identity and access management solution that provided a Single Sign-On (SSO) portal for our business applications while increasing the security of all of our applications placed behind it.
At what point did you realize your company should permanently become a remote-first or hybrid workplace?
SDI has maintained a hybrid workforce throughout the pandemic. The hands-on technical nature of SDI’s business has always included having teams in the field, working from client sites as embedded expert resources and trusted advisors. In fact, at the onset of the pandemic, SDI guided one very large municipal customer to a 100 percent remote work environment within a month of taking over the managed infrastructure services contract.
Throughout the pandemic, our teams have worked with our clients to deliver critical IT support services while factoring in our clients’ on-premises requirements. As client preferences continue to vary, SDI has continued to work with both our clients and employees to achieve the right balance in our hybrid remote workplace. We anticipate that this will continue for the foreseeable future.
Several years ago, SDI added the word “Presence” to our name to signify commitment to being present for our clients, our colleagues and communities. Through the pandemic, we have learned that you can be present while working remotely, but we still believe being physically present is an important part of providing exemplary service to our clients.
Build a technology transformation plan with the goal of replacing insecure and difficult-to-maintain legacy systems.”
What advice would you offer to a fellow leader thinking about transitioning to a permanent remote or hybrid workforce?
The advice I would offer is to embrace technology and the modernization it brings. True mobilization is about more than just allowing your workforce to connect back to the office through a VPN. Build what makes sense for your business, but make sure to keep security at the forefront of everything you implement. As we saw during the pandemic, the world can change in a hurry—you can’t always see or predict what’s around the next corner.
Build a technology transformation plan that accommodates the needs of all your stakeholders and the technology they depend on every day, with the goal of replacing insecure and difficult-to-maintain legacy systems. Work towards implementing technology that will facilitate mobilization and reduce the dependency on a physical office space while ensuring the security of the enterprise network.
Envoy Global offers the only enterprise immigration management platform. The immigration services provider combines expert legal representation with proprietary technology. Envoy Global’s flexible approach to remote work gives employees the freedom to choose an arrangement that best suits their individual needs.
Imagine you’ve stepped out of a time machine into March 2020. Knowing what you now know about remote work and the challenges associated with the transition, what would you do differently?
Flexibility and adaptability should have been at the forefront of all decisions. It felt at the beginning of the pandemic that organizations were trying to put a square peg in a round hole with this mindset that we could automatically return to pre-pandemic life after the initial lockdown. There was so much unnecessary and additional stress put on employees, their families and their leaders about “coming back to the office” even though all signs were pointing to the need for flexibility and putting our energy towards finding the best ways to work remotely as successfully and productively as possible.
At what point did you realize your company should permanently become a remote-first or hybrid workplace?
Envoy’s number one goal throughout the pandemic and even today has been: Protect the team. That doesn’t matter if you are working from home or coming into the office. We found that there were few positions and roles that required anyone to be onsite. Additionally, we were hiring and growing tremendously during this time period and the opportunity we found to attract and acquire talent outside of one designated location was incredibly beneficial to us. So we simply continued to allow remote and hybrid work at the employees’ discretion, not ours.
Ensure lines of communication are open and frequent to prevent employees from feeling siloed or on an island.”
What advice would you offer to a fellow leader thinking about transitioning to a permanent remote or hybrid workforce?
Ensure lines of communication are open and frequent. Do your best to prevent employees from feeling siloed or on an island. Envoy keeps the lines of communication open through weekly all-hands meetings, as well as meeting frequently for manager meetings to discuss what’s happening across the organization. Also, be mindful of time zones employees are working in.
Aprimo provides enterprises with cutting-edge marketing automation software and digital management software. Aprimo’s SaaS solution streamlines content planning, creation and distribution. Aprimo empowers employees to create their ideal work environment and had adopted remote tools prior to the pandemic in order to support its international offices.
Imagine you’ve stepped out of a time machine into March 2020. Knowing what you now know about remote work and the challenges associated with the transition, what would you do differently?
Prior to March 2020, Aprimo already had a global presence, with offices in the United States, Europe and the Philippines and a staff that was already working in a mixture of onsite, hybrid and remote roles. As such, we were at an advantage and ahead of the curve since we were already collaborating using productivity tools and techniques that have now become the staples of the work-from-home world, which alleviated technology and process challenges. So, in a way, we had already embraced hybrid and remote work before it was trendy. What was difficult was the feeling of being in a state of transition to either permanent work from home or back to the office, but unsure which direction to pivot toward.
Ultimately, we settled on a high level of flexibility with hybrid or remote work based on individual roles and what works best for individual staff members. Looking back, I would have more quickly embraced our new reality and acknowledged our working environment was permanently altered, which would have created a stronger feeling of certainty within our staff.
At what point did you realize your company should permanently become a remote-first or hybrid workplace?
In late 2020 and early 2021, we were already hearing from some staff that they had no desire to return to a traditional office setting. Remote work was also trending in recruitment practices, as the software development industry at large began to fully embrace the concept and use it to entice developers. Coupled with fewer applicants in the hiring pool for strictly onsite roles, by mid-2021 the message was clear: the modern workplace has evolved and to remain competitive we had to adapt. We fully embraced and continue to advocate for our employees’ right to create an environment that works best for them. If that means they want to come into an Aprimo office, we will have a space for them. If work-from-home is a better option, we will embrace that as well.
We fully embraced and continue to advocate for our employees’ right to create an environment that works best for them.”
What advice would you offer to a fellow leader thinking about transitioning to a permanent remote or hybrid workforce?
First, look at what your competitors are doing and listen to your employees. Hybrid and remote options are generally seen as a highly coveted perk to most individuals. If you are not providing that option, expect that your employment offers will lose significant perceived value when compared to your competitors that are. Second, collaboration tools are key. If you haven’t aligned around something like Microsoft Teams, you should consider doing that before moving to virtual environments. Other point solutions like ticket management software are essential to keeping everyone on the same page. Finally, put the focus on results and outcomes. Measure everything. Set targets. Fail fast.