1st Edition
The Remote Work Handbook The Definitive Guide for Operationalizing Remote Work as a Competitive Business Strategy
The Remote Work Handbook: The Definitive Guide for Operationalizing Remote Work as a Competitive Business Strategy is for readers seeking to leverage the business benefits of a flexible, remote workforce. It is a practical guide for building and implementing remote work at any size organization. C-suite executives, operation leaders, business owners, or entrepreneurs who recognize the workplace is changing can use it to re-tool their operations for a strategic business advantage. Mari Anne Snow, the author, is a recognized remote work expert with over 20 years of experience leading remote teams and has re-written the rules of leadership to unlock the potential in remote and distributed teams. In this book, she shares all her secrets.
The book explores the untapped potential of remote teams and lays out the business case for adopting a new, flexible workplace model to build organizational resilience and a competitive edge. It takes the reader through the step-by-step process of constructing a remote work operating model, staging an implementation, then institutionalizing and sustaining the change. It includes down-to-earth professional and personal stories that alert the reader to the top priorities and operational realities they will face as they craft their own implementation plan for operationalizing remote work at their company.
Chapter 1: Workplace flexibility is a smart business move
Testing your assumptions - what is a remote team?
Competitive advantages of remote teams
Why adopt remote work as a business strategy now?
Chapter 1 Highlights
Chapter 2: Build it right
Identify the remote work operating model that is right for you
Start with the end in mind, then recruit help
Take a multi-discipline approach, but assign a remote work champion to lead
Recruit from the top, middle, and line level
Seek support and buy-in from executive sponsors and key stakeholders
Chapter 2 Highlights
Chapter 3: The 5 organizational components of remote work
Chapter 3 Highlights
Chapter 4: Component one: Infrastructure
Networks, the cloud, and business system access
Devices, apps, and backups
Systems, data, IP security
Legal, compliance, regulatory considerations
Role of the helpdesk
Business continuity and disaster recovery planning post-2020
Chapter 4 Highlights
Chapter 5: Component two: Operational protocols
Work processes and workflows
Communication protocols
Work schedules and defining availability
Software and business systems
Remote workforce and system user security responsibilities
Remote workplace safety
Chapter 5 Highlights
Chapter 6: Component three: Performance accountability measures
Organizational mission and core values
Business goals and deliverables
Universal performance metrics
Job descriptions
Functional requirements and existing KPIs
Interpersonal interaction protocols
Remote team meeting protocols
Chapter 6 Highlights
Chapter 7: Component four: Talent Management Systems
Universal remote work skills and competencies
Compensation, benefits, and employee policies
Remote team recruiting and hiring
30-60-90 onboarding systems
The leader-led accountability cycle
Performance review process
Career paths for remote employees
Disciplinary process
Chapter 7 Highlights
Chapter 8: Component five: Remote workforce training
Integrate new hires thoughtfully
Upskill leadership
Rethink mentoring
Build team resilience
Incorporate contractors into your culture
Institutionalize continual learning
Chapter 8 Highlights
Chapter 9: Operationalizing your remote work business model
Leverage pilots to test your plan
Build a network of remote work experts
Recruit engaged executive sponsors
Collect and analyze data to measure progress
Create a robust reporting process
Expand the rollout past the pilot
Chapter 9 Highlights
Chapter 10: Managing change
LISTEN: Conduct a listening tour and shop your ideas
EXPLAIN THE "WHY": Shape the narrative
OVERCOMMUNICATE: Share information freely
RECRUIT: Focus on the convertibles
CELEBRATE: Celebrate progress strategically
STAY ALERT: Assess, iterate, and adapt
Chapter 10 Highlights
Chapter 11: Multi-channel communications
Leverage the online to offline (O2O2O) communication flow
Communication in remote teams works differently
Build communication systems then standardize them
Create touchpoints that build remote team engagement
Teach yourself and your people channel etiquette
Recognize digital communication limits
Reduce message distortion by connecting directly to your audience
Chapter 11 Highlights
Chapter 12: Institutionalizing remote work
Plan beyond the rollout
Budget to support the new model
Build business goals tied directly to remote work
Hire and promote using the new model
Align the performance review process
Track progress, communicate, and report gains
Chapter 12 Highlights
Chapter 13: Build on team achievements
Recognize achievements, become a spokesperson
Keep iterating
Up the ante over time
Chapter 13 Highlights
Biography
Mari Anne Snow, CEO of Sophaya and Remote Nation Institute, successfully led remote/distributed teams for over twenty years. Early on, she sensed the growing strategic business implications of remote work as a global financial services executive where she launched an online corporate learning university that served 28,000 people in 32 countries. And as a professor at Bentley and Suffolk Universities during the early days of digital/social media, she helped position her students for success by helping them craft a place for themselves as the first digital professionals at Reebok, Mike, the New England Patriots, Fidelity Investments, and other notable organizations. Early on, she saw the strategic implications of these new technologies on remote/distributed teamwork. A passionate businesswoman committed to people-centric leadership; Mari Anne recognized both the enormous potential of these emerging technologies to support remote work. She developed new leadership approaches to meet the needs of the people impacted by this seismic shift. Then she left corporate life in 2010 to launch her remote work/distributed team consultancy, Sophaya, to help visionary early adopters transform their organizations to accommodate the structural needs of their growing remote/distributed workforce. Over the next ten years, Mari Anne devoted herself to refining best practices for leading a productive, engaged remote workforce. During this time, she focused on two questions: 1. How do we maintain meaningful human contact over distance? 2. What actions can smart leaders take to build trust and engage people who work remotely? Her research spanned multiple continents, testing alternate operating models, and gathering input from hundreds of remote work practitioners worldwide. The results? A new set of business principles for creating highly productive remote teams to support the workplace revolution that’s happening right now.
