Success Factors for Remote Work: Top Performance
despite Physical Distance!

The World of Work is changing

Swapping the open-plan office for a paradisiacal beach in the Caribbean and sipping a cocktail (non-alcoholic, of course!) while answering emails and calls… Sounds tempting, doesn’t it? Nowadays, this is actually a reality in some jobs - and technically feasible, as employees are connected to each other via digital tools and data can be accessed from anywhere thanks to cloud services.

In the past, the term “office” was usually associated with a specific physical location: that’s where you arrived every morning and stayed for around 8 hours. And this could not be done any other way, because only in the office all work tools such as computers and telephones as well as all the necessary information were available. Going to the printer, filing cabinet or data archive was part of daily business.

Today, the “office” is more like a digital construct. Remote work is part of everyday life: some colleagues now work mainly from home, while others are based abroad, including their home office, and can only be found on site two or three times a year.

Remote Work: from a “Nice-to-have” to a “Must-have”

While the ability to work remotely was a “nice-to-have” a few years ago, it has become a “must-have” benefit for companies. This development has been greatly accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left companies with no choice but to enable remote working in the shortest possible time.

The whole thing has become so well established that (potential) employees are now “demanding” that employers allow flexible working. And vice versa: some companies have started to advertise some jobs only as remote jobs - this allows them to access a larger pool of applicants and save costs.

8 Success Factors for Remote Work

In addition to some opportunities, remote work of course also poses challenges. What conditions must your company meet so that remote work not only sounds promising and helps to attract new employees, but also leads to the same (or even higher) performance among your employees?

Technologies

• Digital technologies: first and foremost, your company must have a modern IT infrastructure. This includes desktop virtualization, which provides the functions of your employees’ workstations via a central server. Your employees then only need an existing network connection and a client to run the virtual desktop - e.g. a thin client. A simple Internet browser often serves as a client. This makes it possible to work from anywhere.

  The technology must also work flawlessly - otherwise it can become exhausting over time if the picture in the team meeting is constantly jerky or the internet breaks down every few minutes when you share your screen.

• Selected communication tools: since your employees can’t “just pop in” to the colleague on the other floor to catch up on a topic, this has to be done using digital tools. However, a lot doesn’t always help a lot: make sure that you don’t add too many different tools over time - this can lead to confusion, chaos and inefficiencies.

  In addition, not all tools can be easily integrated into your existing system, so stick with the tried and tested and use Microsoft Teams. In addition to ease of use, you will find other useful functions here: for example, you have the option of selecting an individual background for your meeting and can integrate other applications.

Processes

• Clear rules: remote work can only work with clearly defined framework conditions and agreements - working hours and activities should be transparently documented. To indicate their availability, employees can permanently update their status - this is possible with a virtual telephone system or in Microsoft Teams, for example. So all employees can immediately see who is currently on a break or who is in a meeting where they must not be disturbed.

  Despite all the transparency, there is one thing that counts above all else: trust. And not to forget: at a distance, regular (positive) feedback and praise from managers are just as important as with traditional teams.

• Intensive communication: Communication is more planned in remote teams, as working hours are usually very flexible and not all employees are always in the same place at the same time. Overall, there are simply fewer opportunities to spontaneously catch up with colleagues. Communication therefore needs to be even more targeted to prevent misunderstandings.

Communicate efficiently in an Asynchronous Working Environment Why you shouldn't
just start the Chat
with a “Hi” 👋

• Extensive onboarding: extensive onboarding and a good familiarization at the beginning are crucial, especially for remote teams. You should be well organized and prepare sufficient training material. Provide all employees with the most important information about the company in a central folder as a digital “knowledge base” - everything from data protection principles and correct vacation approval to best practices for completing daily tasks should be available here.

• Different time zones: of course, this point only applies to companies where employees work from abroad. If your project manager’s home office is in Singapore, you must always bear in mind when planning your schedule that it is already 9 p.m. when you return from your lunch break.

People

• Strong team spirit: strengthen the connection with the company and the team spirit - it must not happen that everyone does their own thing and forgets that a team actually still exists. It helps to introduce routines - regular team meetings are mandatory anyway. But how about a virtual lunch break together every Tuesday? And if you order a large pizza to the office for everyone involved in the project after a successful go-live, simply do the same for your remote team - Pizza Hut also delivers in Singapore.

  Despite everything, face-to-face meetings should still take place at longer intervals. Remote teams can work together excellently, but they still miss the small talk next to the coffee machine from time to time.

• Learning culture: in a digital world, it is essential to acquire some skills independently. These learning processes are continuous and take place in “daily doing”. Therefore, promote a corporate culture that includes lifelong learning.

  Perhaps try the gamification concept. Your employees learn content playfully, for example while collecting coins in invincible mode and jumping over ravines to free the princess from the clutches of the villain. The days of summarizing 300-page lesson scripts in writing are over.

• Disruption-free workplace: also an often underestimated “gamechanger”: a separate workplace with a door that can be closed. 😉

It comes down to Technologies, Processes and People

For your team to achieve high performance with remote work…

• …the technologies must be prepared.
• …the processes must be prepared.
• …the people must be prepared.

Remote ERP Implementations

What applies to day-to-day teamwork can also be applied to the implementation of ERP projects. Due to the coronavirus, ERP implementations have also had to be carried out remotely in many cases in recent years. If technologies, processes and/or people are ill-prepared for this, the consequences are swift: projects can be delayed or even fail. However, with good preparation and after overcoming a few initial difficulties, remote implementations have long-term future potential.

Trend Metaverse: only Virtual Offices in the Future?

Remote work has long since found its place in the present working world - and remote ERP implementations are nothing new. This raises the question: what will the office look like in the future?

A current trend that could play a role and go a whole step further is the so-called metaverse - an “alternative universe” in which you can interact with other people.

In the context of work, meeting rooms would also be a thing of the past - instead, only virtual meetings would be on the agenda: you sit at a meeting table with your team colleagues and look through documents together. But nobody is physically present: there are avatars sitting at the table to simulate the scenario. The real people are wearing virtual reality glasses and are actually somewhere completely different - possibly on a dreamy Caribbean beach. But it will probably be a few years before this becomes everyday life!