By Paul René Pelland
The pandemic forced a democratization of telecommuting, whereas prior to the COVID-19 period, there was a tendency to reserve it as a reward for the few most reliable and productive employees. The current context shows us that many more employees seem to adapt better to telecommuting than to working on company premises.
The majority of employees report that their productivity has increased while telecommuting. A few statistics from a publication by the CPQ (Conseil du patronat du Québec), “Practical Guide for Implementing Telecommuting in Businesses” (using statistics from a recent survey by VMware Canada conducted in June 2020 among Quebecers currently working from home):
- 62% of employees say they wish to work from home more often in the future, even 100% of the time;
- 74% say they are more productive;
- 60% say that it provides a significant advantage in terms of personal-work life balance.
- 80% of responding employers indicated that their company will maintain “a certain degree” of telecommuting after the crisis.
Les Affaires — teleworkingCPQ — Practical guide for implementing teleworking
In the context of labor shortages accompanied by the challenge of retaining our human resources, this forced democratization of telecommuting opens up a new perspective for both employees and employers. Telecommuting has become an undeniable reality to which we must adjust. Now that we have had a taste of it, we cannot do without it.
This adjustment requires a significant paradigm shift. The reference points have changed. The POSDC concept (Plan, Organize, Staff, Direct and Control), well established in management, must adjust further towards organizational values based on trust and autonomy. This implies an adjustment both in terms of using information technology and in attitude towards POSDC concepts.
Controlling the number of hours employees spend at work is a thing of the past in the context of telecommuting. It has practically become incompatible with maintaining a healthy environment of trust where employees must be empowered. According to the CPQ, this empowerment, where collaborators are given a certain level of autonomy, is essential for the success of a transition to remote work.
The CPQ publication on telecommuting indicates:
Being more limited in their ability to control working time, the manager must shift from valuing time worked to assessing work results.
The challenge for businesses is to support their managers to help them develop, in real time and in crisis situations, the skills required in a telecommuting context.
It goes without saying that to be able to develop skills, we must first assess our capacity to demonstrate them. Only after measuring our level of ability to demonstrate them can we modify, master and integrate them.
Part of the mission of the M3I Institute and PRsPectives is to provide the tools that allow managers to adjust to this new reality and to support them in their quest for effectiveness to demonstrate the essential skills to manage human challenges in telecommuting.