Managing a Team You Never Meet: The Remote Small Business

Small-business owners who offer remote work as part of their hiring perks packages may find themselves a step ahead of competitors who don’t in the search for talent in a tight labor market. But how can small-business owners be sure they’re prepared to manage a part-time or fully remote workforce?

To make the most out of remote-work policies, consider what jobs are best suited for remote work, the differences between the types of remote work, and how you can apply key organizational principles to your workforce to ensure it is effective, responsive, and productive.

How Remote Work Has Changed

Although remote work isn't new, just two years ago, the landscape looked quite different. In late 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shared a report based on the responses of 10,000 salaried workers in 2017 and 2018. It found that that only 15 percent of "wage and salary workers had days they only worked at home" and "just over one-half of these workers worked one day or more per week at home, and about one-seventh worked at home five or more days per week."

Among salaried and non-salaried workers alike, these numbers were about to change drastically. According to a June 2020 policy brief from the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, 42 percent of U.S. workers were working from home full-time, accounting for more than two-thirds of economic activity. (The report surveyed 2,500 employees in May 2020.)

The report also found that nearly one-quarter of U.S. employees expected to continue working from home full-time post-pandemic, and an additional 28 percent expected to work from home part-time. And after COVID-19 dissipates, the report indicates that most organizations will facilitate a hybrid of in-person and remote working.

It can be tempting to think these WFH trends mainly apply to large corporations with thousands of highly compensated employees, but that isn't always the case. In June 2020, an occupational analysis done by the University of Chicago indicated that 37 percent of all U.S. jobs could be done at home.

Some small-business owners seem to intuitively understand this. Also in 2020 (April), more than half (57 percent) of the 250 small and midsize business owners surveyed by Intermedia planned to adopt remote working options for employees in the long term. After shifting to remote working, employee availability went up 19 percent and life satisfaction 7 percent. The surveyed owners also experienced falling overhead costs and improved worker attitudes and productivity.

The Different Types of Remote Work

If you're going to run your business using remote teams, understand that a variety of arrangements constitute remote work. Many successful business owners know that remote work isn't a one-size-fits-all proposition, and that choosing the mix that works best for you and each individual employee will ensure a more effective team down the line.

For simplicity's sake, the primary types of remote work are fully or hybrid virtual teams—that is 100 percent virtual versus some mix of in-person with remote work.

Fully virtual teams describes arrangements in which all team members are 100 percent remote with no office time, explains Lauren Bidwell, senior research scientist at HR technology firm SAP Success Factors.

"Hybrid teams encompass some team members working remotely but coming in occasionally, and others working from the office all or most of the time,” she adds.

A fully virtual team may be preferable if your team members work independently and don't require the resources of a physical office space to do their jobs efficiently. After all, going fully virtual means you can offer your employees the maximum flexibility while potentially saving a bundle on overhead and expenses.

Whether you're starting a new company that will operate fully or semi-remotely or are reconfiguring because of recent events, the way you manage and structure your workforce can be critically important to its success.

On the other hand, if you have a business in which in person creativity and brainstorming are core components, you may consider requiring the regular physical proximity that hybrid work offers. 

Carlos Castelán, managing director of retail consulting firm The Navio Group, suggests some additional benefits of hybrid work.  “An in-person environment can be beneficial to build a company culture, to give younger employees more hands-on training and to foster innovation,” he says. 

The key for small-business owners? Don't just do what your neighbor or competitor is doing. Take the time to think through whether you really need people in the office, and if so, when, and how much. And there's no harm in asking others for their opinions as you strive to make sense of the issue.

“HR is often called in to decide on the most optimal arrangement, which is usually one that balances employee autonomy, cultural cohesion and productivity,” SAP's Bidwell says.

Jobs Suited to Remote Work

Many are familiar with traditionally remote jobs, including IT and programming, marketing and public relations, accounting and finance, professional services, and customer care. While these roles remain key remote-work candidates, other jobs are increasingly proving they’re remote-friendly. 

“There really are a variety of businesses that work well remotely," says Rachel Brenke of business coaching firm Real Biz Accelerator. Inspired by the location needs of her military spouse employees, Brenke has managed wholly virtual teams around the world for more than a decade and today leads an all-women remote team of 16.

As an example of a type of small business that is evolving with respect to remote work, Brenke cites law firms. "The mindset has always been that you must be in a suit and tie and in an office every day in order to provide value to your boss and or your clients," she says. "The pandemic has highlighted that this mentality is no longer needed in a world with the technology available at our fingertips, and the quality-of-life improvements that have resulted are very encouraging."

If you are a small-business owner embracing remote work, there are a variety of sources you can tap for ideas and potential employees. Specialized staffing firms, for example, can help you target appropriate remote employees in a variety of functions. You might also consider reaching out to former employees who left on a good note, who understand your business and whom you trust. Their circumstances may have changed, and they could be amenable to a remote work opportunity.

Keep in mind, though, that while remote job categories have certainly expanded this year, working in this way is still best suited to a specific personality: namely someone who can work and solve problems independently without a great deal of supervision. A hands-off, but supportive management style is may be best for these individuals provided they have demonstrated that they are reliable and trustworthy. 

There may well be times when you must manage employees who are not as well suited to virtual work but are doing their jobs to the best of their ability. Be prepared to offer more general assistance and helpful strategies, schedule frequent check-ins, and review their deliverables so excellent (or subpar) contributions don't slip under the radar.

Organizing Your Company in a Remote-First Era

Whether you're starting a new company that will operate fully or semi-remotely or are reconfiguring because of recent events, the way you manage and structure your workforce can be critically important to its success.

Bob Pozen is a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and the co-author of Remote, Inc., which explores how to think about management in a remote-first era. "Generally speaking, if you're a small business owner, I don't think it makes sense to run an all-remote team in most situations. Instead, consider how you might design a hybrid work structure," Pozen says.

To do this, Pozen suggests leaders consider five factors he calls FLOCS: function, location, organization, culture, and schedule.

Function

A team member function, for instance, plays into whether employees will be more productive collaborating in person or focusing quietly at home. Determine this by taking an inventory of what each of your employees does on an everyday basis, as well as their unique personality and preferences and customize work arrangements accordingly.

Location

Pozen says that location is critical because if team members are 100 percent geographically dispersed from each other already, there’s no point in making them come to a company location where they'd simply sit in an empty cubicle by themselves. On the other hand, if your employees are somewhat geographically proximal, a hybrid work structure could involve them traveling to an in-person get together a few times a month. 

Organization

In this context, organization refers to your degree of hierarchy, or how many levels of management, you establish for your company. 

“Some research has found that a flatter organizational hierarchy facilitates virtual work, and the more autonomy employees have to do their jobs without micromanagement, the higher their productivity outside the office will be,” Pozen says.

Culture

Be honest about whether your culture is conducive to remote work. The more traditional and bureaucratic your company is, the harder the adjustment may be. For example, Pozen says that companies with an individualistic culture make a smoother transition to virtual work as do companies with employees whose work doesn’t immediately depend on other team members’ actions.

"But, companies that stress collectivism, or have a "we" or "us" mentality, may struggle in a remote-first arrangement," he adds.

If your company isn't suited to remote work, all is not lost. You can still offer your employees other types of flexibility, such as self-scheduling and fluid hours.

Lisa Hudson, president of The Growth Coach, a firm that advises small-business owners on remote work. recommends that remote-first leaders set up clear expectations and timelines, as well as check-in points. 

“Launching a remote or hybrid team requires clear responsibilities, direct lines of leadership and a consistent communication tool,” she says.

“You have to be more strategic and stop relying on ‘drive-by conversations.’ Using virtual collaboration apps like Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, leaders can touch base face-to-face, build rapport with employees they might not have met in person and improve their coaching effectiveness.”

Schedule 

Consider the hours your employees currently keep. Are their schedules similar? Do they work in different time zones? These factors affect how appropriate remote work will be for your company.

Rob Abrahams, co-founder of carbon-neutral paint company COAT, shares that the key to his remote-first mentality is empathy. And that cultural value is reflected in the way the company treats scheduling.

“You have to understand and accept that people live different lives than you and you must trust them to play to their strengths,” he says. “They’ll contribute to the business more effectively if they can choose when and how they work, so if someone’s most productive time of the day is 6-10 p.m., let them work then.

“When hiring at COAT, we look for personal accountability and proactivity because they’re so important when it comes to a high-performance remote team,” Abrahams adds. “We balance that accountability by creating fixed anchors—for example, core hours where everyone is contactable and bi-weekly team meetings that everyone attends.”

Given changing expectations, remote work may no longer be a concept leaders can avoid. However, with careful evaluation of these factors, you can make the decision that's best for you, your employees, and your company.

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