Christopher J. Dwyer

Many friends and family, upon hearing about my remote work habits, may not understand how I can be so productive. There’s often music playing in the background, or, sometimes, like this week, television simulcasts of popular sports radio shows. The truth is this: background noise isn’t just noise but serves a sometimes-interesting link between our business world and other arenas. Today’s article, in fact, was sparked by overhearing a sports radio show that was, up until that point, serving as a mere backdrop to pouring over new research data.

Last week, sports radio icon Colin Cowherd, on his daily “The Herd” show (simulcast on Fox Sports One), brought in legendary NFL wide receiver Greg Jennings (former standout wideout for the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings) to talk about the cultural fit between high-paid free agent players and their respective new franchises.

Cowherd brought up several examples of unique team culture, such as Green Bay’s “lunch pail” mindset of “show up everyday and work hard” to my hometown New England Patriots’ mantra of “do your job.” Jennings, a Super Bowl-winning wide receiver when he was with the Packers in 2010, signed a big money deal with division rivals (Minnesota Vikings) in early 2013. Cowherd pressed him on the balance between being a big-name, highly-paid free agent star and adapting to a new team’s overall culture.

Jennings’ response echoed the same sentiments as many of us in the business world feel when it comes to talent and culture: it doesn’t matter the depth of a player’s skillset nor their pedigree or experience; if the culture isn’t a proper fit, the player will not be productive. No, we need not traverse through the very, very long lists of sports free agents who were hailed as franchise saviors and ended up hurting their teams more than helping.

It is quite true that workplace culture plays a pivotal role in the ultimate success of a new worker or candidate. In-person onboarding, frequent chats with cubicle mates, and proximity collaboration around the water cooler or in the office kitchen are all very valuable elements in indoctrinating a candidate to an organization’s workplace environment and culture. Even though an anticipated “fourth wave” of COVID-19 cases is predicted for the spring, there seems to be a heavy balance between businesses that are slowly welcoming workers back to the office and those that continue to offer a fully-remote workplace structure.

If there’s one thing that we’ve learned over the course of the past year, it’s that workplace culture permeates within even those organizations that maintain a work-from-home environment. In fact, we could even argue that culture is more important than ever given the unique circumstances of today’s work setups, the majority of which are following a remote-lead environment:

• Businesses that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion are more apt to drive true innovation…even remotely. DE&I initiatives aren’t just limited to supplier diversity, but rather a larger movement that pushes for equity across the entirety of the talent supply chain. Businesses must spark innovation across all functions and roles, and the only way to do that is by instituting boundaryless structures that are inclusive and open to voices of all genders, cultures, and backgrounds. The deepest talent pool is a diverse talent pool…and because we are (mostly) working remotely today, that shouldn’t change a bit.
• The “moments” that we relied on in-person, even transferred to video- and conferencing-led collaboration, are still critically important. Imagine being a new worker (FTE or contractor) at a new organization during pre-pandemic times. You’d wander the halls, the kitchen, the break rooms, the conference rooms, etc. and run into a variety of voices, with each positive interaction, be it a smile or some words of encouragement, helping you feel more comfortable with your role in the organization. It is critically important that businesses push a culture of openness regardless of it is in-person or via a remote infrastructure. Even the best and brightest workers can feel their productivity drain if they don’t feel like they’re a valued player on the team. Fostering a culture of connection, communication, and collaboration is the key.
• Culture permeates along the lines of every facet of management, so, leaders take note. As I noted much earlier in this article, culture in sports boils down to a teamwide “feeling” that is experienced across the board. Some teams have their own unique spirit that players either buy into…or not. This is why it is so crucial for business leaders, no matter their functional role, to promote a positive “talent experience” for all of their workers (both FTEs and non-employees). The further on down the line that culture and positivity is experienced, the better off the business will be. And, that shouldn’t be paused because of a remote work environment. An enterprise’s workers are essentially its brand ambassadors. Just like a major sports team doesn’t want a current or ex-player complaining about a toxic environment, not does a business when it pertains to the overall level of employee experience and engagement of its workforce.
• The adoption of work models that promote productivity, growth, and balance will be the ones that are ideal in a remote environment. Business leaders must be flexible in how they push their workers to be productive; work/life balance has never been more complicated than it was over the past year. It is important for executives to create an environment, even in a remote setting, in which their workers feel like they are enabled to take the personal time they need while also having the space, equipment, and communication necessary to get work done. Similarly, there must be opportunities for growth. Just because traditional performance reviews have been on pause does not mean that hardworking individuals shouldn’t have a clear path to the next steps ahead. Self-directed learning, reskilling, and upskilling should all be critical elements of the remote workplace handbook.

During the course of my professional career, I’ve worked in both remote/virtual and traditional office environments. I’ve spent time in seemingly-endless conference room meetings and hours-long conference calls. Water cooler talk about Game of Thrones, office kitchen conversations about whether the Patriots were still a dynasty, and mid-hallway “hellos” to peers were all typical parts of my work days over the past two decades, as have been writing research at 2:00am, whiteboarding ideas at my home office, and silently hoping that the dog wouldn’t bark at the UPS driver while I was on a webinar.

In short: I’m one of many business professionals that understands and respects the many forms of workplace structure, be it traditional office settings or fully-remote, home-office-led environments.

Several months into a pandemic and a cursory scroll through a LinkedIn news feed will uncover swaths of articles and how-to guides on being productive while working from home and the best ways to effectively manage a newly-remote team (Ardent, of course, is no stranger to contributing to these displays of thought leadership).

Based on over 15 years of covering, research, and analyzing how businesses engage, acquire, and manage their talent and how that talent addresses how work is done, I’ve come to a stark conclusion about the “office vs. remote” debate that has now been raging for weeks and months.

The workplace of the (near) future needs both structures to truly thrive.

In essence, the workplace of the future blends the core benefits of an in-person model with the flexibility enhancements and productivity gains of the remote environment. Today, obviously, it isn’t the safest bet to bring back any more than 25% (or less) of a workforce to traditional office environments given health and safety concerns and out of respect for social distancing guidelines. Businesses that can continue to drive productivity from a remote workforce must do so until the pandemic begins to fade. In the greater discussion of how to approach the future workplace given what we have experienced and will continue to experience in business over the next several months, however, there is inherent worth in balancing a hybrid workplace structure to drive the most value from both traditional and remote setups:

• Bi-weekly or monthly team meetings are often catalysts for new and innovative ideas. A research organization like Ardent Partners is heavily reliant on my team and I hunkering down to develop, organize, and write research and content, sometimes without meeting in-person for a week or two at a time. The pandemic’s forced remote work structure has resulted in many business leaders struggling to recreate “proximity collaboration” that only happens in-person and losing the “spark” of a room filled with eager voices, something I often crave after two consecutive weeks of home office work. Hybrid work structures should require some frequency of in-person team meetings to capture those new and innovative ideas and ensure that collaboration between leaders, workers, and stakeholders can drive fresh concepts.
• Workers are human, and, rightfully so, crave human connection. Today, we are ensconced in video meetings and conference calls. Many of us have had to, in an age of social distancing, cancel birthday parties and family gatherings in favor of FaceTime conversations and Zoom meetings. From both the business and personal perspectives, none of these outright replace the face-to-face, human connection that is made in an in-person environment. Simply put: humans need human connection. It’s energizing when we can see someone standing in front of us, smiling and receptive to our thoughts and ideas. Remote work has been transformative over these last several months, but the biggest missing element has been that level of human connection.
• Sanity! There are various points throughout the year when I am working on a large-scale research project and spend a week or two confined to my home office. I can take quick breaks to recharge, eat lunch while listening to a podcast, and pop downstairs to say hello to my kids before getting back to work later in the evening. After 10 or 11 business days within this routine, it is incredibly beneficial to “step outside” of this environment to be around like-minded individuals who share my passion for this profession. Fatigue is a real factor for fully remote workers who find that everyday home office routines often grow stale, resulting in a lack of motivation or drive. Likewise, traditional office workers can feel the same without a standing “work-from-home day” or something similar. Changing up the routine and the environment can help prevent mental fatigue.
• The spirit of camaraderie. Many business leaders are passionate about their professions and how they approach their goals and objectives. Sharing that energy with like-minded colleagues is what builds true camaraderie between functional groups and teams. Although a weekly team video call may be efficient in today’s new normal, holding an in-person meeting (when it’s safe to do, of course) can help team members level-set on expectations, ask questions, and address concerns in a close-knit environment in which everyone is striving for the same outcomes.

There is incredible merit to the engaging discussions happening in businesses across the world. The so-called “biggest remote work experiment in history” happened out of necessity and has taught so many lessons about business trust, productivity, and flexibility. Some businesses will find that they can move significantly larger numbers of their workforce to remote work infrastructures, while others will attempt to reclaim traditional office environments. The value, however, lies somewhere in the middle: the ideal workplace of the (near) future is one where businesses can enhance productivity, provide flexibility to their workers, and maintain some semblance of human connection and camaraderie.