Catalyst | Digital
D
The effects of
long-term
homeworking and
how to support
remote teams
Dr Will Venters Dr Enrico Rossi
As we move forward, organisations must look to create
balanced working practices for their staff, write the London
School of Economics’ Dr Will Venters and Dr Enrico Rossi.
One lesson in leadership is not to make long-term decisions based on
short-term experiences – while remaining ever mindful of world events.
The past couple of months have provided amazing examples of the success
of homeworking and have dispelled many criticisms. In the most part, the
technology works: we can talk via Zoom and Microsoft Teams with relative
ease (though we have also coined the term “Zoom-fatigue”) and most
office work has continued well. But companies that see this as a tectonic
shift towards a world where office space is rendered unnecessary may
be disappointed. While process and transactional work seems effective,
the socialising, team building, learning and networking have been
drastically reduced.
Our ongoing research has been examining how a large global company’s
high-level customer support staff went from being co-located in an office
to all working from home. The lessons, based on numerous interviews, are
stark, with some staff hoping never to return to the office (often those with
caring responsibilities at home, a long commute, or extensive experience),
and others desperate to get back (often those with small homes or partners
also working from home, and with social or learning needs).
Learning and knowledge sharing
Two of the key changes involve learning and knowledge sharing. In offices,
lots of knowledge is shared through serendipity; chance meetings in
corridors or by the watercooler, on tea-breaks, or a lunchtime chat. These
are crucial for generating new ideas, bringing new staff into communities
of shared practice and developing their identity as team members.
Another form of informal efficient knowledge sharing is the ‘quick
question’ where workers lean back in their office chair and ask the people
around them for help – a reason financial traders sit so closely together.
These two forms of informal knowledge sharing have proved hard to
replicate online. However, they can also prove distracting or stressful for
some people. The transition to homeworking, and the loss of informal
knowledge sharing, was therefore perceived as a negative for some, but
a liberation for others.
Companies that see
this as a tectonic shift
towards a world
where office space is
rendered unnecessary
may be disappointed
Given this, it was unsurprising that the very experienced staff we
interviewed saw their productivity rise. One told us, “I do more work at
home… my workload has gone up massively” because in the office people
were always coming up to her asking for help. Another told us “I am hitting
targets more… without the office distractions...”
With homeworking, this employee is able to choose which ‘Instant
Messenger’ queries to answer, and disengage herself whenever she feels
the need to focus. A consequence is that less-skilled staff must spend more
time finding out answers to their questions from manuals and support
tools which slows them down. As a junior person explained:
“[Homeworking has] pushed me to educate myself more on what I don’t
know… search for the information rather than just going ‘do you know
this’… It sinks in more if I have to find the knowledge myself.”
From a leadership perspective, this feels positive for fostering selfreliance,
but the impact on new staff still needs managing. More effort is
needed to help them become part of their work community and as online
training has proved less productive and harder to deliver, more time
is required for training. A sensible leadership response to this should
involve mentoring and regular-checking.
Double-edged sword
Our research also revealed the double-edged nature of digital technologies:
they encourage people to share problems with a wider community, beyond
their local desks, but also allow workers to disengage and disconnect
themselves from the wider social context by simply ignoring the chat, or
putting it ‘on mute’ – free riding on others.
It is also harder for managers to keep track of staff – in particular, managers
could not see the stress on people’s faces at home and so step in to help.
And the lack of visibility increased pressure on some staff who felt the
need to “prove something”, while others were relieved and “liberated”
from being overseen.
Homeworking is a great leveller – everyone had the same access to each
other, which proved a boon for staff who are usually located away from the
main office. At the same time, not all workers enjoy the same conditions
at home, and this can reintroduce disparities and injustices. According
to our research, work was impacted by different family and personal
conditions, quality of internet connection, and physical facilities such
as space for a desk, amounts of light, and whether other family members
were trying to work from home at the same time.
It will almost
certainly not be
enough simply to
replicate existing
team and office
structures online
Leaders need to balance the disparity between equality of work for both
office environments and homeworking. Consider, for example, the married
couple we interviewed who are both now homeworking – the husband
cooped up in the bedroom working for a bank, his wife downstairs in the
open-plan living space. Neither could enter the room where the other
was working and both worked long shifts.
Creating a balance
In summary, when designing physical office space, architects consider
balancing the need for efficient transactional work with socialised
knowledge sharing and such design is linked to a wide range of factors
including role and personality of the workers. For example, Silicon Valley
technology companies favour innovation over transactional work and so
invest in fun offices which foster interruption and informal gatherings
and interaction.
By contrast, many call centres are physically organised to limit this kind
of interaction and focus staff on processing transactional work. When
planning homeworking arrangements, the same thought for architecture,
team structures and support is needed. It will almost certainly not be
enough simply to replicate existing team and office structures online.
In the long-term, leaders should think about how to build a complex homeworking
and office-working mix which maximises efficiency, equity and
innovation. They will need to understand that this will vary considerably
from individual to individual.
Dr Enrico Rossi is a fellow in the Information Systems and
Innovation Faculty Group at London School of Economics’
Department of Management. Dr Will Venters is an assistant
professor of information systems at London School of Economics’
Department of Management.