Communications of the ACM
Why Remote Workers Are More (Yes, More) Engaged
Credit: iStockPhoto.com
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, IT workers who work remotely are actually more engaged and more committed to their work than their counterparts who work in the office. Not only that, but these remote workers also tended to rate their managers higher than team members who have daily contact with them. Why might this be happening? Proximity within the office often breeds complacency and leaders of virtual teams tend to make better use of technology tools to manage their far-flung team members. While this does not necessarily mean that virtual teams are better than traditional teams, it does mean that managers might need to re-think their potential biases against telecommuting.
Leaders who sit in the same office with those they manage can go for weeks without having any substantive face-time with them. In fact they may use e-mail as their primary source of communication when they sit less than 50 feet away. It's even worse if they sit in different parts of a building. Because the possibility of communicating is so easy, it is so often taken for granted. Absence makes people try harder to connect: they make a point of deliberately reaching out to each team member by phone at least once a week, and frequently more often. Most leaders make an extra effort to stay connected to those they don't ordinarily run into. They can see that taking even a few minutes to talk about what's happening in their respective worlds before addressing the tasks at hand makes a difference in maintaining the connection with a colleague. What's more, because they have to make an effort to make contact, these leaders can be much more concentrated in their attention to each person and tend to be more conscious of the way they express their authority.
Secondly, leaders of virtual teams make a better use of tools. Because leaders of far-flung teams have to use videoconferencing, instant messaging, e-mail, voicemail, and yes, the telephone, to make contact, they become proficient in multiple forms of communication, an advantage in leadership that their traditional counterparts could well develop but not so automatically. Leaders of far-flung teams maximize the time their teams spend together. Having had to make such an effort to get the team together, these leaders naturally want to make the best use of their precious time. They take care to filter out as many distractions as possible so they can focus on the work to be done together. They also typically spend more than an ordinary work day together, socializing at planned luncheons, dinners, and activities. This level of focused attention is hard to replicate day to day.
From Harvard Business Review
View Full Article
No entries found