3 categories of companies
In relation to remote work, companies can be divided into 3 categories:
The first ones are those who decided that it was not for them and died quietly by today (I would even say that they have rested).
The second are those who have adapted to the changes. And not just anyhow, but in a corporate way - right after the confidence that everything will resolve itself and people will return to the office has faded. At the strategic committee, it was decided that an office in another country is the most remote work. By order of the enterprise, responsible persons were appointed who researched the market, sorted out labor legislation, moved some of the staff in an organized manner, hired local managers, cleaned up processes and revised the organizational structure.
Now they are already on the right halfway to the desired globality.
Still others are those who “went into the cloud” and relied on distributed teams. “What difference does it make where to hire - people can work for us online from anywhere in the world” - sounded from all publicly accessible places.
But suddenly 2 subcategories were revealed here: conscious - those who had worked this way before, and impulsive - those who thus covered up fear, laziness and unwillingness to delve into the topic.
They will be discussed. Because the search for easy ways is busy with underestimated difficulties catching up and demanding restitution. That inconvenient moment when it suddenly turns out that hiring is not enough, you also need to manage (perform some sacred actions on the hired while they are being paid).
And the conflict of cultures and consciousnesses is so exciting.
Cultural conflict
Let's turn on the imagination and imagine a picture - here comes a small-town foreign company to the market with an offer to hire "on a remote basis". Who is the person who will go to work?
The person who took the risk of being hired is most likely a beginner digital nomad (he is also a digital nomad who works remotely between vacations and travels), which means he belongs to a different culture where corporate values, to put it mildly, are not assimilated.
He has his own values - freedom, entrepreneurial spirit (which he calls the spirit of adventure), hedonism. He will not become emotionally attached to tasks and the team, he will not seek approval. And he already painted development plans for himself and even managed to fulfill some of them. And in his plans, this company is only a temporary episode.
You can extract a valuable asset from it: freshness, maturity and a focus on quick results (this is how it saves its time and yours). If you know how to build relationships with him - adults, partnerships based on trust - and not try to control his time and productivity, expecting fidelity and stability in return.
But are companies ready?
The most interesting series begins when the company suddenly discovers that it is not the only one on his list of employers. And resorts to the power of micromanagement and the search for information about treason. With stubbornly unsuccessful use of the pressure sensor on the chair.
What to do?
All you need is:
- Let go of control. Control in the usual sense is just an illusion, in the end you either get a result or you don’t. There are many ways to motivate for results. Progress under violence.
- Set the destination and set the right task. Understandable, achievable, measurable? It will not work here “for a person to be available during working hours, communicate regularly with clients and fulfill their duties.” The nomad understands the language of the result. Lovers of control will find a worthy application here - to make sure that the task is correctly understood and taken to work.
- Follow communications. When adjusting the course to the destination (read - a previously set task or a running process), do not forget to coordinate changes, take into account interconnected processes, notify and educate. The entire team, and especially the remote team, not just the nearest available environment.
It would seem to change a couple of habits. But solutions look simple only as long as they do not affect your own comfort zone, ego and bank account. And all new approaches imply this.
So it’s better to think at the start whether the price of the solution is high enough for you? Although when it comes to survival, few prices can be considered high enough.
