Rodney Davis: This is very interesting, because a business has sort of the infrastructure implications and that is, how do I provide the infrastructure necessary for my staff to work outside of the office. 

How do you maintain a workplace environment when people are never in the workplace? And so there’s a cost associated with that. You’ve got to buy technology that enables you to communicate more often and or effectively with your team. You’ve got to invest in measures that allow your team to still feel as if they’re part of an organization, and then there’s simple things like, do you keep your place of business? 

How do you know you’re getting the most productivity from your employees?
Rodney Davis: The subject of out of sight out of mind, is a very difficult issue for some employers to grapple with. In other words, what the end product is that they need to get from their resources and their staff, have a much easier time with remote workers. So, how do I measure productivity in my business? I know what I expect my people at the various levels, on the various assignments to deliver within the specified timelines.

You have to trust a lot more. You have to put a lot of less emphasis on the how, and make sure that you’re measuring the what and the when.

So there are different productivity measures. But then I say to some employers who want everybody in every day, all the time, “Are you really getting more productivity because they’re sitting in front of you? 

Are there financial benefits to having your company work remotely? 

Rodney Davis: Travel costs. So employees who get travel allowances for traveling to and from the client premises. A lot of that has been cut out, significant savings across the board for travel and entertainment for clients over the last year. 

Those are probably the biggest areas of savings companies have had, but something as simple as office supplies, when you’ve got 200 to 300 employees in a workforce and you’re burning through office supplies and everyone’s working from home, all of a sudden, there’s a lot less printing. There are two sides to that as well. I’ve seen some employees who, working from home means they never know when to turn it off, and so they’re actually working more time on their employers matters.

They feel guilty because throughout the day, they’ve had to tend to issues that they wouldn’t ordinarily tend to when they’re in the workplace, and so instead of calling it a day at four, they’re giving the kids dinner and spending another 45 minutes. And so as an employer, it’s only fair that you focus on the output, because if you focus on the time and set blocks of time, you really are going to put a lot of undue pressure on the people who work for you.

What have been the financial implications of hiring during this time?

Rodney Davis: I think that this issue will be a real issue for companies, because there is a financial cost of getting people to choose to work in different locations and so, think of the company that has offices in San Jose, where it’s very expensive to live, it’s very expensive to work and their employees say, oh good I can work remotely, and they move to Cincinnati or the outside of the suburbs of Cincinnati, where it’s a fraction of the cost to live and they’re delivering the same service. I think that there’s going to be a rationalization and a reconciliation of that. I think we’re going to see situations where people expect you to give them a workstation or whatever other tools are necessary for them to work in a work at home environment, to put them in a position where they’re not having to incur costs in order to do their jobs. I might get a desk or I might get the chair, or I might get monitors, or I might get compensated for using my own tools or workstation at home. Well in home environments, the level of comfort and the amount of space you have dedicated to working affects your productivity. We’ve got to create a situation where somebody can still be productive and there’s going to be a cost to that. I think employment agreements are going to start to reflect that.

I think a lot of those things are going to find their way into discussions with employees when you’re hiring, going forward.

Is there a financial impact on company culture?

Rodney Davis: One of the most difficult challenges companies are facing during COVID, is how do you maintain that sense of collegiality, and just empathy among your work staff? 

I know many companies have hired a number of people who haven’t met their work colleagues. I mean, that becomes very difficult after a period of time because no matter how much we want to deny it, knowing someone gives you a predisposition in some situations to going above and beyond.

And so that work relationship can in fact change the way that people deliver services, the urgency with which people deliver services. So there is a value to that collegiality, that sense of belonging, that sense of loyalty that comes from interaction. I’ve seen companies try a lot of innovative ways to try and recreate or to provide an alternative to that. I’m not sure I’ve seen it done in a way that yet replicates the simple benefit of people actually interacting with people directly. The thing I would say the most about working from home is, I think it’s here to stay. I think we’ve been doing remote working long enough that it’s become a habit and it might be very different to rebottle this.