Council Post: The Importance Of Cultivating Trust In A Remote Workforce

Putting all your eggs in one basket has never been the best idea, so maybe the same could be said of putting all your skilled workers in one place. There’s a shakeup that’s happening in the way we think of work, and it’s happening across every industry: remote workers.

The demand is strong and growing, and I believe there will be winners and losers in the race to adapt. When you let people choose a place (and even build a schedule) that works for them, your reward is an exceptional commitment to both you and the work because true flexibility is a benefit that has no price tag.

As the founder of a subscription staffing company, I’ve learned that if your company wants to embrace remote work, it’s important to look underneath the surface and understand exactly why this change is happening and what it really represents.

Why might remote work be a good option for your people?

Eight years ago, when I started my subscription staffing company, we embraced a fully distributed team. Today, we have 120 W2 employees in 23 U.S. states. What I’ve discovered from being so immersed in remote culture — both internally and through helping clients find remote employees — is that it’s much less about the ability to work from anywhere, and much more about the ability to make work truly work for you (and being trusted to do so).

From my perspective, it’s an understated truth that some workers are excluded from or struggle to succeed in a traditional work environment. Parents, caregivers, military spouses and people with physical disabilities are just a few examples of the pools of talented people with excellent skills who can’t easily balance the restrictions of a traditional office setting with the realities of their life situations.

I saw this firsthand with one of our team leaders. Although she is an exceptional and experienced project manager, she had difficulty maintaining a stable career path as a military spouse and mother. Remote work with a flexible schedule provided the perfect avenue for a rewarding career. Another team member attends autism therapy appointments for both of her sons. Although they are often during typical working hours, her schedule allows her to be there while still excelling at her job — and helping our whole team thrive.

Remote work requires an investment in trust.

There are a few reasons companies still aren’t all-in on remote work, and some of them are very legitimate. For example, if you need a human being present at a certain time in a certain location, that can’t be substituted.

One of the biggest reasons I’ve observed leaders are reluctant to offer remote work is that it requires a new level of trust and autonomy — a challenge when a remote culture meets a legacy culture of control. The idea that remote workers sit in pajamas and watch TV instead of working still lingers.

Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence that shows this stereotype is not true. One survey of 1,004 full-time employees at Airtasker, an outsourcing company, found that the company’s remote workers were more productive than in-office workers. Another study by Stanford, which included 16,000 participants, found that remote employees had a higher output than their office-based peers, even when they only worked from home a few days per week.

Having a successful remote workforce isn’t about controlling them; it’s exactly the opposite. Remote work is about creating an environment where you can trust them fully. This trust stems from focusing on quality and output of work, instead of micromanaging the process or hours worked.

How do you build a foundation for cultivating trust in a remote workforce?

At companies with a high trust culture, where all people are treated as capable professionals, measurable financial performance is greater. Below are my tips on how to create a culture of trust:

1. Hire the right people. It can seem counterintuitive in today’s fast-paced world, but taking the time to find responsible, self-motivated team members makes all the difference in establishing a culture of trust, especially if you’re building a remote workforce.

When interviewing, ask yourself:

• Is this person consistent?

• Do they have a history of delivering quality work on time?

Ensuring you get these questions answered upfront could pay dividends later.

2. Adopt a management style that complements remote workers. This means letting go of all micromanaging tendencies and focusing instead on coaching. Coaching sets clear outcomes that enhance performance and helps others be successful, while not simply monitoring performance to maintain a sense of control. For the coach, the key outcome is empowerment and success, and this is why a “coaching” approach to remote management creates trust.

3. Have a plan in place to avoid some of the more common pitfalls of remote work. Issues with isolation, communication gaps and setting appropriate boundaries can be common in remote work environments. Your solutions here can get creative; just make sure they match the culture of your team.

For example, our company has a virtual “watercooler” on Slack for people to share personal photos, stories, memes or anything else nonwork-related that helps us all feel connected as individuals. We do almost all of our internal meetings as video meetings and have very clear processes for communication.

Remind your team — and set an example from the top down — that working hours are for working and nonworking-hours should be protected for personal time.

For my team, making remote work truly work has boiled down to a very simple formula: Find and hire the right people. Trust them to perform their jobs when and where it works best for them. And watch our remote workforce thrive personally and professionally. I firmly believe it can work for your company, too.