CC RemoteWorkGuide
CC RemoteWorkGuide
At first, firms braced themselves for decreased revenues and productivity. But in most cases, firm
leaders found that remote work was productive, and their people were able to collaborate with each
other and clients to produce the deliverables needed, meet filing deadlines, and bill and collect against
that work. Remote work worked.
And many of those working remotely embraced it, too, with even die-hard opponents finding that they
liked the increased flexibility offered by working remotely, the more relaxed atmosphere, the ability to
put their heads down and concentrate, and the relief from their commutes. Their experience wasn’t
even “real remote work” because it was complicated by the pandemic, with all family members being
crowded in the homes with them, children not attending school or daycare in-person, and the need to
isolate and not go out in the evenings for a change of scenery. Even with these limitations, many U.S.
workers fell in love with remote work.
The proof of this is in the data coming out of countless studies including:
• “A recent FlexJobs survey of more than 4,000 people who’ve been working remotely during the
pandemic found that 65% said they would prefer to work at home full-time after the
pandemic.” Fast Company
• “Hybrid models of remote work are likely to persist in the wake of the pandemic…” McKinsey
Global Institute, November 23, 2020
• “A [December 2020] report from Upwork predicts that the number of remote workers will
almost double in the next five years: 36.2 million Americans will be remote by 2025.”
TechRepublic article on the future of remote work
• “As the recovery progresses…more and more people will return to their traditional places
of work…this doesn’t change the fundamental shifts we’re seeing toward more virtual and
remote operations…” Ash Noah, VP of the AICPA
• “52% of employed Americans would choose to work from home permanently, if given the
option.” SHRM Covid-19 Research: Returning to Worksites
• “A survey of Grant Thornton UK LLP employees found that 88% wanted to spend most of their
time working remotely, with broad support across age groups and locations…”
www.bloomberg.com
• “Deloitte will allow its 20,000 UK employees to choose how often they come into the office, if
at all, after the pandemic, making it the latest firm to throw out the rulebook and embrace
ultra-flexible working.” www.theguardian.com
REMOTE WORK:
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So, the new imperative is for progressive, future-focused accounting and consulting firms to commit to a
strategy of fully and enthusiastically supporting remote work. They must embrace a blended workplace
where people work from the office, home, and other locations. In addition, work locations will vary by
person over time.
This Guide is intended to help firm leaders who are embracing remote or blended work to deploy the
latest cultural commitments, strategies, and processes to maximize success. Within the Guide, you’ll find
tools and resources mentioned that are available as supplements to help you implement the ideas
contained here. And you’ll find contact information for your team at Allinial Global and the authors of
this Guide, ConvergenceCoaching, LLC. Both parties are supportive resources who stand ready to assist
you as you progress your remote or blended workforce strategy.
• Employee retention. NextGen talent especially expect more workplace flexibility. In fact, a
recent Accenture study found that 83% of over 9K workers surveyed prefer a hybrid (blended)
model where they can work remotely at least 25% of the time. If your firm doesn’t offer max
flex, including support for remote or blended work, you risk your team members finding another
employer who will
• Office space cost savings. A remote or blended workforce strategy will enable you to retool
your existing office space and save money there, which is ordinarily the second most expensive
line item on the P&L and critical as labor costs (the #1 most expensive) continue to rise
• Enabling client service. Your clients who appreciated the remote services offered in the last year
and a half may expect you to continue to offer remote service options, even after the pandemic.
If you don’t offer these options, they may seek a competitive provider who will
• Expanding your geography for client reach. When your firm makes remote client service and
remote talent management a core competence, you’ll find that you can serve clients wherever
they are located, expanding your geographic territory, and revealing new markets for your
services and specialties
• Increasing productivity and engagement. Gallup’s State of the America Workplace report found
that remote workers logged more hours than their office counterparts and were slightly more
engaged, while those who took a blended remote and office approach were the most engaged
With benefits like these possible for firms, leaders shouldn’t care about where work is produced if client
needs are met with quality and safety, teamwork and communication are happening, and financial
performance is where it should be.
Below are five essential mindset shifts to help you personally become more supportive of a blended
team and help your firm form a cultural commitment to remote or blended work.
When managing a remote or blended workforce, where people are working at different times and in
different places, we can’t always see all of those team members anymore. For some leaders, this raises
questions and even suspicions about what remote team members are doing or how they spend their
time. But the idea that “you must not be working unless I can see you” is antiquated and doesn’t reflect
the cultural feel you want or that your team members NEED to feel engaged and motivated. Instead,
great leaders start from a mindset of extending trust first to people, believing that their team members
CAN be productive and effective no matter where or when they are working.
So how do you extend trust in a way that is “real” and manages your risk that the person does not
respond in the positive way you expect? Use a combination of both good business judgment and
“people” judgment. When working with a person the first time:
• Extend trust in a way that allows you to test their competence to handle an assignment or
responsibility
• In defining the assignment, include clear measures of success or specifics on the deliverables
expected, like the form it will take, how complete it should be, by-when it is due, and a
reasonable “return and report” structure for reporting status
• Express your desire and intention to trust and empower your people more fully in future
assignments, by giving them feedback on their performance handling the first assignment
The importance of your leaders extending trust and avoiding distrustful statements and actions cannot
be overstated in the new blended environment.
For more information on clarifying expectations, see this section of the guide.
This Guide is not suggesting that we eliminate in-person activities, but instead asserts that many of us
think of business processes in an old, in-person paradigm first. But many organizations are discovering
ways to create blended methods for achieving important aims like:
• And more!
Consider the example of internships. During the pandemic, many firms paused internship programs
because they couldn’t see a way to create meaningful learning and bonding experiences for interns
without bringing them onsite or into an office. But other firms didn’t let the traditional 3-D internship
model stop them. Instead, they re-engineered and re-vamped their programs for the new remote
paradigm, hosting remote group training opportunities; mailing food gift cards and scheduling “getting-
to-know-you” coffee or lunches with interns, managers and partners; assigning each intern to an
experienced manager who checked in weekly or even daily to answer questions, sharing screens to
demonstrate concepts and ensure they felt connected; scheduling group remote fun activities and more.
These innovative firms stepped outside of the 3-D paradigm and created a model that could potentially
be leveraged after the pandemic, to onboard and train remote interns, first-year and experienced hires
from far-afield colleges and universities. They created a scalable model for the future, and for multi-
office firms, they found a way to create a consistent onboarding and internship management and
evaluation process across offices that they won’t abandon post-pandemic. So many of the innovations
created in this area will sustain long-term, even as firms move to more in-person contact with these
important entry-level team members.
To run a successful blended environment with team members working remotely and in offices, you must
identify where you are “stuck” in a 3-D paradigm. Acknowledgement is the first step toward building
new processes and approaches to manage the business across geographic boundaries.
Here are some examples of what sludge looks like in a remote or blended workplace:
• “I forgot you worked here! (ha-ha)” said to a remote employee who lives in a different city and
is attending your quarterly meeting in person
• “What’s the exceptional purpose that you need to work from home on Thursdays?” said to an
employee planning to regularly work away from the office on Thursdays
• “I’m not sure John has the drive to be a partner, because he just doesn’t seem to put the time
in. For instance, he leaves for dinner at home most busy season nights,” said by a partner to
the partner group about a manager who aces his chargeable and billing goals and more than
meets client expectations but leaves at 5:30 pm during busy season to have dinner with his
family. Even though he leaves the office “early,” he works from home after dinner, when and
where others can’t “see” him working
Sludge is often expressed as a joke or jab or statement said in a teasing manner. Behind the humor, real
feelings of distrust, frustration and irritation hide. Instead of expressing those feelings in a more direct
and constructive manner, the “sludger” makes jokes. This can make the subject of the sludge feel like
they are unsupported in their remote or blended work and leaves bystanders questioning the firm’s
commitment to flexibility. In this sludgy environment, team members could be afraid to take
advantage of the ability to work remotely without risking their career with your firm.
• Give sludge a name. When sludge happens, call it out. Teach about sludge at all levels of the
firm, starting with the partner group, and make a commitment to stamp it out
• Ask individual leaders to explore the ways that they participate in sludge. Ask them to identify
common irritants or events that spark complaining and notice what they say about those
negative feelings
• Teach your team members how to provide constructive feedback. Commit as a team to talking
straight about things that aren’t working
• Clean up the sludge. When sludge happens, kindly point it out with phrases like “Uh oh, is that
sludge?” or “I’m concerned that a statement like that might make staff feel like we’re not
committed to a blended work environment” or “Sally might be offended by that statement,
because she’s producing so much from home”
• Promote success stories. Highlight remote team members when they have successes. Share
best practices and strategies they use. Ask them to teach their methods to promote
communication and collaboration while working remotely. Publish client testimonials about
working with remote team members
Don’t let sludge muck up your office relationships or derail your transition to a successful blended work
environment.
As firms transition to a truly flexible workplace, they often encounter resistance and therefore
inconsistencies. Here are a few common pitfalls to watch for and mitigate:
• “Our people have to earn the right the work remotely, so we only allow managers and up to
take advantage of remote work.” This is outdated thinking that doesn’t apply when there’s a
tight talent pipeline. Firms across the country ARE allowing their staff and seniors to work
remotely, even as interns or first-year hires. After all, these young team members just did this
for over a year during the height of the pandemic. To remain competitive, firms must rise above
this concern and look for ways to make it work for all levels. Setting clear expectations for
performance and checking in with individuals regularly will ensure they stay on track. Also, if the
staff are in the office so they stay on task and learn from senior leaders, and yet senior leaders
are the ones working remotely and therefore unavailable, we defeat our own objections
• “Staff need to be onsite so they can learn from more senior team members.” With the
technology nearly all firms have in place today, learning and development can happen no matter
where people are working. More important than place of work is a commitment to learning and
setting aside time to intentionally transfer skills. Additionally, as partners and managers work in
a blended manner, they won’t necessarily be onsite or available in an in-person or 3-D manner.
Instead, staff and leaders will connect over the phone and video to further projects and transfer
skills
• “Our admin team members can’t work remotely due to the nature of their work.” This is also
based on old paradigms. Instead, group certain tasks that can be completed from anywhere and
allow your admin or operational people to work from home to manage those specific tasks.
With most phone systems, even incoming calls can be forwarded and answered from a non-
office location. Challenge your admin team members to develop more digital processes to
facilitate an increased level of remote or blended work
Parity: Ideally, you’ll create an environment where onsite and remote employees have a similar
experience and comparable opportunities when working for the firm. Contrast that with the old
paradigm where the remote employee might work hard “behind the scenes” but was not considered a
viable option for progression into a leadership role. In a blended environment, these old ways of
thinking must be discarded so firms can truly leverage all team members independent of their
geographic location.
To put parity into practice, firms must look at how they offer opportunities to advance and ensure that
remote talent are given fair consideration. For instance, are the firm’s “A” clients only managed by
people working in the office? Are people in the office given preferential treatment when the firm is
scheduling or assigning work? If so, why? When you create a new committee to implement a technology
stack in the CAS department, are remote members of the team allowed to participate in the selection
committee or the pilot of the new technology?
In addition to these philosophical refinements, there are tactical changes to make that will support a fair
experience for those working remotely:
• Going forward, all meetings should be hosted with a video and dial-in option
• Conference rooms must be updated with additional cameras and microphones to allow those
connecting remotely to see who is talking and hear what is said. A larger screen may be required
in the conference room so those onsite can see the remote meeting participants. If this isn’t
possible, then all participants should dial in individually so that there is a level playing field on
the call
• When hosting firm-wide “fun” events, include a blend of in-person and remote activities
Encourage your leaders to work remotely on a regular basis to learn from the experience and gain
empathy for those working outside the office. Some leaders might work a few days a week from
elsewhere, while others may do so only once a month. Either way, it will help move your leaders away
from saying “I can’t work remotely” to “I’m trying out remote work and parts of it are working for me.”
To be a firm that truly embraces a blended environment, it takes leaders who are shedding old stories
and striving to understand and successfully employ team members no matter where they work.
Transparency: There are times when in-person work is required, like in-person, traditional networking
events, an annual lunch with a client’s finance team, or when working with a key client whose
documentation is highly paper-based. In these instances, firms may need to make assignments to team
members who can be easily onsite. Be transparent about those in-person or proximity-based decisions.
Explain why in-person is being required. When leaders “talk straight” and disclose their thinking, it
builds trust among team members.
In addition, when the team understands the thought process behind a decision, they are better able to
input to it or offer alternative suggestions for how to handle it. Transparency is critical to building a
trusting blended team that works together toward successful client and team outcomes.
In principle, leaders might agree to flexibility, but in practice it isn’t easy. Leaders can slip into thinking
that they KNOW how it must be done. They might think “I couldn’t produce work in that environment,
or under those conditions” and immediately jump to the conclusion that others couldn’t either. From
there, it’s an easy next step into being overly prescriptive for how to work.
• A staff person is working at the kitchen counter on a stool. His girlfriend is seen walking through
the kitchen during Zoom meetings. He doesn’t look comfortable perched on the stool
• The Marketing Coordinator likes to produce the weekly promo from Starbucks. She sometimes
joins the weekly firm huddle from the coffee shop, too, with her video clearly displaying her
location. She doesn’t have to speak in those huddles, but others can see where she is
• An Audit Manager sometimes works on Saturdays from the bleachers at his son’s swim meets
Some might look at these situations and say, “I couldn’t do that!” From there, they might shift to
believing or even prescribing that the remote team member shouldn’t work there either. But if the staff
person completes assigned deliverables with quality, connects securely, and maintains firm and client
privacy, who cares where the work is produced? If the Marketing Coordinator produces more creative
work product from a bustling coffee shop, why limit it? And if the Audit Manager can crank out work
product while also fulfilling important family obligations, it is in our best interest to support it.
Your team should identify “must-haves” for producing work, also known as deal-breakers, a concept
explored in more depth here. When you identify deal breakers related to remote or blended work, you’ll
have a framework for which behaviors, actions, or results can be “judged” as working or not working.
Employers of choice will embrace the unique ways in which their people complete their work and will
avoid imposing their work preferences on their team members.
Firm leaders that work together to explore these mindset shifts and commit to changes in how they
address them will progress more quickly to a productive remote or blended environment.
Recognize that Winning at Work Requires Winning at Home, and Manage the
Whole Person
If your people aren’t winning at home, they will struggle to win at work. And if your people must choose
between success at home or work, most will choose winning at home. You could argue, “It’s not my
job to help my team members manage childcare or their commute or caring for elderly parents.”
Instead, realize that it is essential to understand your team members’ challenges outside of work so you
can offer support and establish realistic expectations for them. Otherwise, they may feel that they need
to leave your firm to alleviate the “squeeze” they feel between work and home.
• “Catching” your people in the act of doing something good and thanking them for it
• Creating hand-written acknowledgment cards and small gifts, lighting up your team member’s
mailbox
Don’t overlook the value of positive feedback and acknowledgment when managing a remote or
blended team.
Feedback doesn’t mean giving someone a scolding or strong reprimand. Instead, the best feedback is
given with care and concern and the desire to look at where you can change, too. This type of feedback
doesn’t come naturally and must be learned. Invest in regular feedback training for your team to build
their skills in both receiving and delivering feedback.
Clarifying Expectations
Here’s a bold statement with which to start - most firms, teams and leaders aren’t clear about what’s
expected. When expectations ARE clear, projects run smoothly, and teams feel “in sync” with one
another. When expectations AREN’T clear, everyone feel out of touch and uncertain about whether they
are on track.
The ConvergenceCoaching
This applies to all environments – in-person, remote or
Commit with Clarity™
blended! However, when we work away from one another, Delegation Framework
establishing clear expectations becomes even more important.
When you delegate or make an
This section will walk you through important elements of assignment, be sure to follow these
creating an environment of clear expectations. Compare it to six steps:
how your team members operate today and strive to 1) Here is WHAT I’m asking
implement new structures to create the clarity your leaders you to commit to
and team members both crave and require. 2) This is WHO owns progress
on this deliverable
Set Clear Expectations for Work Product 3) This is WHEN I expect you
to deliver final product or
For each team member, establish one-size-fits-one status update
expectations for their role. Give them clarity over what they 4) These are the RESOURCES
need to produce and when. If there are specifics on how, or I think you’ll need (budget,
who to include, map those out too. materials to read, people
to talk to)
This might start with role-based expectations but should
5) This is how I’d like us to
quickly deviate based on the person’s strengths and the firm’s
RETURN AND REPORT
needs. A skilled business developer should be freed from while you’re working on it
certain other responsibilities to help the firm land the right
clients. People development is key in accounting firms, and 6) This is my written RECAP
of what we agreed to
those with the interest and ability to build a stronger team
should have time built into their schedule to invest in your See the tool called Six Steps to
talented people. These are just two examples that Ensure Expectations Are Met for
more on this idea.
demonstrate the benefit of a one-size-fits-one approach to
establishing expectations for work responsibilities and focus.
Expect Flexibility to Be a Two-Way Street (and Teach the Concept to Your Team)
Certain times of year, projects or unforeseen circumstances require more effort from team members.
For instance, as you approach big tax deadlines, you might ask specific team members to put in
additional effort, be online and available at certain times, or come into the office when they live in a
nearby geography. Or, if a team member is going on a two-week vacation, others will need to
reprioritize or even take on additional work to provide the necessary coverage. During times like these
and others, it’s expected that team members will step up to support or cover for each other, participate
in meetings at unusual times, and meet in person, too. This is called “flexing UP” to meet unusual
demand. Rather than assume the team member knows about the firm’s need for flexing up,
communicate proactively about the known demands before they occur.
This is called the two-way street philosophy – that as an employer, I am willing to be flexible with your
schedule and place of work. In return, I hope that you will also be flexible when client demands,
seasonal compression, or other needs require it. Teach the two-way street idea to your team when the
next situation dictates it. You’ll notice that the idea is built into the sample Flex and Remote Work
Guidelines tool provided for you.
Availability/Accessibility – each team member should define when and where they are working
on a regular basis. Work times should be clearly reflected on calendars. When work location or
schedules change, each person should let the team know and update their calendar and status
accordingly
Workability – Defined work hours and location should meet the needs of fellow team members
and clients, whether internal or external. Said another way, schedules and locations must be
workable. For instance, if you are in a client-facing role and your clients wish to reach you during
the business day, your being available for work overnight would leave you unable to meet and
collaborate with those clients and would not be workable as a regular, planned work schedule.
Another example of a lack of workability would be working from an alternative location without
reliable internet, which would make it difficult to collaborate with clients or colleagues
Response Times – The firm or individual teams should clarify what is expected for response
times to emails, voicemails, IM’s, etc. For instance, you might request that team members
respond within one business day to any external or internal communication. If a complete
response isn’t possible or appropriate within one business day, acknowledge receipt of the
message and include a note about when a full response will be forthcoming. You may choose to
add a disclaimer that if a communication requires a timelier response, it should be handled
appropriately. And these response time commitments should probably be specific to each
service or sub-service line. For example, 24-hour turn around may work for most services, but
for M&A consultants in the middle of a transaction, 1-hour response time may be required
Be Transparent about When You’re Working (and When You Are Not) – Work relationships are
based on trust, and transparency builds trust. In addition, less senior members of the team are
watching leaders for signals as to whether it’s safe to take advantage of flexibility as to when
and where they work. Encourage team members at all levels to clearly reflect the nature of
appointments and whether those commitments are work-related or personal on their calendars.
Don’t hide your use of flexibility
Stay in Touch – Communicating as a blended or remote team takes deliberate effort and energy.
When teams are working at different times, time zones and places, communication doesn’t
happen organically by encountering each other around the office (and truthfully, you probably
don’t bump into the right people at the right time in an office environment either). Instead,
team members and their career managers or supervisors should agree upon a cadence of
regularly scheduled check-ins and meetings to stay in communication about priorities and
roadblocks. See more in the section on Maintaining Your Culture and Relationships
DO: DON’T:
Over-communicate and communicate Be afraid to share your true circumstances or
updates/status often speak up if something isn’t “workable”
Strive to learn and honor others’ preferences Expect your colleagues to be “on” all the time
and availability constraints
Be vague about when you need things or make
Use the right mode of communication everything seem urgent
Always keep your calendar current and check Assume you know why someone isn’t getting
people’s calendar for availability back to you – ask!
Schedule time with your colleagues – ask for Ignore the communication systems in place
the time you need (calendars, Teams status, etc.)
Document expectations for both deliverables Avoid needed feedback to improve
and behaviors and write recaps of verbal performance
discussions
Institute mandates rather than dealing with
Use by-when dates individual issues and concerns
• Client relationships – your team members must strive to develop deep and lasting relationships
with clients. This means your firm will need to use technology to develop relationships in-person
and remotely – whether through in-person meetings, telephone calls, video conferencing, social
media, or other vehicles. The method isn’t as important as the effort your people make to truly
know and care about your clients as individuals and entities
• Quality – your firm must produce deliverables that meet quality, technical and accuracy
standards within the profession
• Core values – your firm’s people, policies and programs must adhere to and reflect your overall
core values as defined by your leadership team
• Teamwork – your firm maximizes value delivered to clients and leverage applied to the work
when you collaborate and play well as a team
Once you’ve identified your deal-breakers, you’ll have a framework against which you can examine
requests for flexibility. And those inside your firm who are driving change will have some guardrails to
guide their proposals as well.
Remote or blended work shouldn’t mean 24/7 work. Remind team members of that regularly, and
ensure they are getting the rest and recharge time necessary to be at their best.
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ConvergenceCoaching, LLC
MONITOR BURNOUT
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@ConvergenceSays 24
When you evaluate your firm’s technology strategy, consider these 10 technologies to ensure a more
remote or blended future for your organization:
• Check your leadership. If IT leadership comes from the school of “won’t” or “can’t” related to
remote or blended work, focus on their mindset shift first. IT is a strategy enabler, so if the
firm’s strategy is to empower remote or blended work, IT leadership must come along
• Get to the cloud. Move away from clunky, on-premise systems with slow network interfaces
and toward cloud-based software solutions to create more flexibility across your firm.
SmartVault surveyed over 1,100 accounting professionals around the world in April 2020, asking
about the impact of COVID-19. The survey found that firms that use more cloud-based
technology experienced minimal disruption in shifting to remote or blended during the
pandemic
• Ensure your people have the right home set up. Regardless of where they plan to work, your
people should have a productive home technology set up with seamless access to the firm’s
systems, multiple monitors, high-speed internet access, an ergonomic workstation, and great
video and sound equipment. Laptops should be the standard issue machine for all team
members, administrative personnel included. If team members don’t have the right equipment,
the firm should offer to buy it and have the employee earn it out over time worked
• Digitize everything. No more paper checks, invoices, or files. Everything in your firm and in your
clients’ organizations must become truly digital/paperless. Evaluate all your internal process for
paper-based components and identify a way to automate those to ensure your remote or
blended team members and clients have the same experience while interacting at a distance
• Further your firm’s use of portal technologies. A positive outcome of the pandemic was the
accelerated use of technology tools by all manner of clients, including those using firm portals.
Firms must continue to provide value via their portals to keep clients revisiting and comfortable
with their use
• Embrace video and audio to connect with others. Remote or blended work requires that we are
more intentional and visible in meetings, turning our cameras on and speaking up when
possible. This requires that we buy machines with quality cameras or offer a stipend for team
members to go out and acquire their own cameras and earn them out over time. Consider
whether team members would also benefit from a high-quality and ergonomic headset
• Identify which firm database will become your “single source of truth” related to client and
prospect data. In many cases, it may be the largest database in the firm. Spend time getting that
data current and preparing to update older, legacy databases
• Make great use of collaboration tools like Teams, Skype, Zoom and other online platforms
that allow you to stream video and audio, join small meeting “rooms” to conduct heads down
work together, and teach each other new service strategies by sharing screens and involving
multiple parties in meetings
• Form an IT Innovation Committee. Have the participants of your committee confess their biases
against change. Then, listen to each participant with an open heart and mind and allow each to
contribute in their unique ways to the goals of the committee, regardless of their role. Make
sure at least one IT innovation Committee member is responsible for staying on top of trends so
your firm can anticipate and plan for big change and remain competitive
• Post jobs on national platforms (LinkedIn, Indeed, State Society Sites, Going
Concern/Accountingfly, Glassdoor)
• Create job postings on job boards targeted at remote employees and stay-at-home mothers
4. Provide your remote hire with a detailed excel checklist of actions to complete during the first 30 –
90 days along with an “owner” or “teacher” of each task and a by-when date to drive accountability
5. For the training sessions, use a variety of mediums to connect Onboarding Pro Tip
and collaborate including old-fashioned phone calls, Teams or
Encourage trainers to take a
Zoom calls that allow for shared screens
few minutes to build rapport
6. Ask remote hires to shadow work like Teams calls with clients, and connect personally with
sales phone calls with prospects, client Board meetings, and trainees before diving into the
more. The goal is to provide them exposure and the work.
opportunity to experience their new team, the clients, and
the work in action
7. Include self-study and reading material to help the remote hire become familiar with your
organization. Ask them to use down time to plug into one of their scheduled self-study activities
from their onboarding checklist
8. Maintain a list of “important but not urgent” projects to shoulder if there isn’t an obvious front-
burner project to assign
9. Provide a schedule of people to connect with to develop rapport. Encourage the remote hire to
reach out proactively to schedule remote lunches or coffee breaks, providing a target number of
meetings per week to drive their progress
See our two Debunking Remote Myths articles (Debunking Myths about Remote Team Members – They
CAN Develop Business and Debunking Myths about Remote Work – Training Will Work) for more on
what is possible from your remote team members.
Conclusion
This guide is designed to support your firm’s evolution to a remote or blended environment. Use the
Action List that follows to identify the appropriate next steps to make progress on that journey. Be sure
to click on the links throughout the book and download those resources to assist you. And feel free to
reach out to your contacts at Allinial Global or the ConvergenceCoaching, LLC team with questions,
concerns, successes and roadblocks you experience as you evolve to this exciting and critical new
business model. We’re rooting for your success!
DISCLAIMER: This publication does not represent an official position of Allinial Global. It is distributed with the understanding
that the contributing authors and editors, and the publisher, are not rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services
in this publication. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be
sought.