People Operations

CHAPTER 17Making Remote Work, Work

The rise of remote work was gaining in popularity well before the pandemic hit. A not‐so‐hushed rise of distributed workforces, aided by an increasing number of virtual work tools, was taking hold. Recruiters were attracted to the prospect of hiring talent without the constraints of geography. And business owners liked finding top talent in low‐cost‐of‐living regions. Human resources thought leaders even named the expansion of remote and distributed teams as the number‐one work trend in 2019 (Suzuno 2019). That was a trend they expected would continue to gain strength in 2020. But when COVID‐19 hit, the adoption of remote work exploded at a speed and scale no one could predict. It became one of most drastic changes to work we've witnessed in modern history. And now it’s a topic we can’t avoid when talking about employee experience and workforce productivity.

Indeed, Gallup reported that at the pandemic's peak, 51 percent of US working adults moved to at‐home offices to avoid spreading the virus. And though that number fell to 33 percent by December 2020, early research suggests that the shift to remote work will be a lasting phenomenon, particularly for highly paid jobs that require higher levels of education (Brenan 2020).

Researchers at the University of Illinois and Harvard Business School estimate that 16 percent of American workers who once worked from offices will permanently switch to at‐home work, at least two days per week. A “dramatic ...