In a recent Business Insider opinion piece, UK millionaire and CEO of Pimlico Plumbers Charlie Mullins called working from home “bonkers” and called out the business world in their embracing of remote work. While Mullins makes some valid points in embracing of employees working from home, he makes some generalizations himself. In this post, we will talk about our own experiences working remotely as well as how our clients have responded to remote work.

Generalizations about Remote Work are Damaging

Articles like There’s a Perfect Number of Days to Work From Home, and It’s 2 and this Mullins “Bonkers” piece are perfect social media clickbait posts into proving or disproving what to do regarding work from home. Regardless of the intent of Mullins’ article, he is making the same bonkers claims on how remote work isn’t the future. He is right that remote working is not something that would work for his type of business. Having seen first hand by worked with plumbers, electricians and heating and air companies, it’s clear that there are several obstacles (some that could be easily overcomes and others that may be impossible) that even having back office staff working from home could significantly impair a company’s ability to operate. However, making sweeping statements regarding remote work doesn’t help. Business consultants saw this with the constant back and forth regarding the benefits problems with open office concepts. Something that may work for another company may or may not work for your company.

The Data Regarding Remote Work Isn’t Concrete

One of the problems with Mullins article was his mention of mental health concerns being a reason of why remote work would be damaging to their 125 London office workers. While that could be true for his staff, there’s little data to support this claim. There’s a myriad of stats that show that remote work increases productivity, increases retention, and creates a better work/life balance for staff. But if you look at the stats further you will realize that they are built up of surveys from employees on how they feel, rather than concrete stats. Even the stats that claim that there was a productivity increase can be misleading. How is productivity measured? What was the IT infrastructure like before remote work commenced? Were staff using outdated computers before remote work started and is the efficiency of those new machines being factored into the data?

PERMANENT Remote WORK SHOULD BE ASSESSED BUSINESS BY BUSINESS

Every business is different and a lot has to be considered to determine if remote work is beneficial or even viable for a business. We found that working from home when the pandemic started was extremely beneficial for our business because of the lack of a long term office lease and the ability for our staff to access broadband Internet speeds from their homes. We were easily able to adapt because our productivity software is a series of online custom web apps. The barrier for entry for us into remote work was almost non-existent.

Barriers of entry into remote work can be a little more complex depending on the size of business and types of managerial, productivity and communications systems in place. To work remotely could require a complete rethink of how employees are managed, how internal office communications is conducted and could require a complete transition away from the productivity software currently being used. And it’s not just cost, it is the immense amount of training and relearning of how work is conducted they can put a strain on remote work.

TEMPORARily Working From Home Needs to be Considered

Even before COVID-19, things like flu outbreaks, other illnesses, and even severe weather conditions can grind businesses to a halt. The ability to work from home on a temporary basis is a great way to maximize productivity and keep the business operating in some capacity. We have found by working with our education clients, providing remote learning has been a great way to keep students connected and progressing through their studies while they have had to quarantine due to health concerns. These same benefits can be provided to businesses as well to continue the work even as emergencies come up. Permanent remote work may be daunting, but it is worth looking into.

How McNair Media Has Helped Businesses Work Remotely

We have provided a wide range of services in helping businesses and organizations work remotely during the lockdowns of 2020. Our most beneficial service is our app development consulting service. What we find is that many businesses have a custom workflow in how they operate internally. When they go online, it is hard to find software that replicates this internal process. Depending on the need, custom applications can be far more affordable than using a pre-built system that doesn’t meet your exact needs.