Gartner Research

How to Cultivate
Effective “Remote
Work” Programs

Carol Rozwell, Distinguished VP Analyst

14 May 2019
How to Cultivate Effective 'Remote Work'
Programs
FOUNDATIONAL Refreshed: 14 May 2019 | Published: 16 January 2018 ID: G00350370

Analyst(s): Carol Rozwell

In an effort to reduce the cost of office space, application leaders often

encourage employees to work remotely. However, if the emphasis is only on
freeing up space, then these efforts will fail. This research describes the
essential first steps of creating remote work programs.

FOUNDATIONAL DOCUMENT
This research is reviewed periodically for accuracy. Last reviewed on 14 May 2019.

Key Challenges
■ Mutual lack of trust undermines remote work good intentions.
■ Stereotypes about what kind of work can or cannot be done remotely lead to unrealistic
expectations and underperforming programs.
■ Employees unaccustomed to the demands of remote work lose enthusiasm and suffer from
loneliness.
■ Creating a responsive technology infrastructure to enable effective remote work is complex.

Recommendations
Application leaders responsible for digital workplace programs that include remote work initiatives:

■ Establish a foundation of trust by empowering both employees and managers to be effective in

remote work scenarios.
■ Determine what work lends itself to a remote model by analyzing responsibilities, tasks and the
roles that can fulfill them.
■ Prepare employees for remote work demands by setting accurate expectations and enabling
supportive interactions.
 ■ Stress-test your technology infrastructure to determine its capability to support remote work.

Table of Contents

Strategic Planning Assumption(s)........................................................................................................... 2

Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 3
Analysis.................................................................................................................................................. 4
Establish a Trust Foundation by Empowering Both Employees and Managers to Be Effective in
Remote Work Scenarios...................................................................................................................4
The Power of Authority............................................................................................................... 5
The Power of Accountability....................................................................................................... 5
The Power of Affiliation............................................................................................................... 5
Determine What Work Lends Itself to a Remote Model by Analyzing Responsibilities and Tasks....... 6
Prepare Employees for Remote Work Demands by Setting Accurate Expectations and Enabling
Supportive Interactions..................................................................................................................... 7
Stress-Test Your Technology Infrastructure to Determine Its Capability to Support Remote Work......9
Case Study.......................................................................................................................................... 11
Gartner Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................... 11

List of Tables

Table 1. Sample Options for Outfitting Remote Workers....................................................................... 10

List of Figures

Figure 1. How You Answer Four Questions Directly Affects Remote Work Program Success.................. 4
Figure 2. Average Time-Split Preferences Across Different Work Locations.............................................8

Strategic Planning Assumption(s)

By 2021, the increase in the number of employees who prefer to work remotely will allow
organizations to support 40% more workers in the same amount of space as they use today.

Page 2 of 13 Gartner, Inc. | G00350370

 Introduction
Remote work is on the rise. From 2012 to 2016, the number of people working remotely rose by
1 1
4%. In the U.S., 43% of workers spent some of their time working remotely. Remote work is a
global phenomenon. There is a high proportion of work being done outside of the traditional
2
corporate office in Finland, Japan, Netherlands and Sweden, as well as in the U.S. "Remote work"
refers to jobs that are performed away from a corporate office in a remote location. This paradigm
recognizes that technology enables employees at all levels to work anywhere, at any time.

The desire to reduce real estate costs is forcing application leaders to revisit and revise their remote
work strategies. Two trends make remote work programs feasible:

■ The digital workplace: New and more effective ways of working are driving employee
engagement and agility, in part by exploiting consumer-oriented styles and technologies.
■ Technology designed to improve employee interactions: Examples include workstream
collaboration tools and videoconferencing capability. These technologies are increasing the
fidelity of communication among people working in a corporate office and people working from
alternative locations.

Effective remote work programs require more than just giving employees smartphones, laptops and
email access, and then allowing them to work from home. Remote work programs can be
undermined by a lack of trust, when managers are not equipped to deal with employees they
cannot see. Stereotypes and assumptions about what work can or can't be done remotely result in
underperforming programs. Employees who are unprepared and underequipped to handle remote
work demands suffer burnout, frustration and lost productivity. Moreover, application leaders fail to
appreciate the breadth and depth of the infrastructure changes needed to support effective remote
work at scale. In short, successful remote work programs hinge upon the answers to the questions
in Figure 1.

Gartner, Inc. | G00350370 Page 3 of 13

 Figure 1. How You Answer Four Questions Directly Affects Remote Work Program Success

Source: Gartner (January 2018)

This research identifies four best practices that enable application leaders to start, or restart,
effective remote work initiatives.

Analysis
Establish a Trust Foundation by Empowering Both Employees and Managers to Be
Effective in Remote Work Scenarios
Mutual trust is at the heart of successful remote work initiatives in the digital workplace. Application
leaders must trust that their employees will act responsibly when working remotely. Employees
must trust that their employer will act in their best interest and enable them to be successful.

Creating a culture of trust is a top-down responsibility. Application leaders — working with

colleagues in HR and business units — have a vital role in communicating to employees that the
organization:

■ Trusts them to do their work remotely

■ Accepts responsibility to enable them to do so effectively
■ Will fairly and transparently measure remote work productivity and performance

Page 4 of 13 Gartner, Inc. | G00350370

 ■ Values their contribution and supports their career development

How can application leaders create, enable and sustain this culture of trust? They can take actions
in three areas: authority, affiliation and accountability.

The Power of Authority

■ Empower workers to make decisions regarding when, where and how they complete their work.
Set up regular meetings to check on whether there are obstacles hindering their work.
■ Secure technology and support services that enable both on-site and off-site workers to
complete work efficiently and effectively. (See "Magic Quadrant for Meeting Solutions" and
"Select the Right Technology for Modern Meeting Rooms.")

The Power of Accountability

■ Create a transparent system of performance measurement that quantifies outcomes, not just
activities or the amount of time spent on tasks. Establish assignments and goals with timelines.
Track progress toward milestones on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis, rather than on an
hourly or daily basis.
■ Focus on coaching, guiding and enabling managers who oversee remote workers. Determine
managers' attitudes toward remote workers to ensure that no biases exist. Track the
development of remote workers to make sure they progress at the same rate as on-site
workers.
■ Facilitate knowledge sharing and relationship building across individuals and teams by
suggesting nonobvious connections that remote employees can exploit. For example, have the
remote worker onboard new employees from outside the team as a way of getting to know
them.

The Power of Affiliation

■ Allow employees to invest time in building their social networks, so that they can establish and
nurture trusted relationships with colleagues. This means supporting the face-to-face
interactions needed to build trust as well as providing technology, such as videoconferencing,
that enables richer interaction.
■ Facilitate collaboration between on-site and off-site workers. Ensure that remote workers have
counterparts in the conference room who will check in with them periodically to see if they have
something to contribute. Alternatively, have everyone in the meeting participate remotely, and
avoid the conference room altogether.
■ Support employees' personal and professional development. Repurpose some of the cost
savings from the reduction in real estate expenses toward remote-worker incentives. For
example, encourage remote workers to attend local events to stave off feelings of isolation. Use
events as a catalyst for holding "after event" face-to-face meetings.

Gartner, Inc. | G00350370 Page 5 of 13

 ■ Give remote employees opportunities to increase their visibility with the organization's
leadership by assigning them to special projects or roles. Put them in situations where they can
participate with people outside of their "home" team.

Determine What Work Lends Itself to a Remote Model by Analyzing Responsibilities

and Tasks
There are different criteria to weigh when judging what work can be done effectively by remote
workers (either individually or in teams).

One way to approach this evaluation is to examine the existing operational models. Organizations
may have one or more operating models that structure how employees do some or all of their work.
Three well-known models that require remote work coordination are centers of excellence, self-
organizing teams and "follow-the-sun" models. (In follow-the-sun models, operations shift between
global locations as the workday moves westward with the sun's movement.) In such cases, remote
work processes, policies and enabling technologies become a deliberate strategy of optimizing
these operational models.

Another useful approach is to conduct real-life tests of working in virtual offices. Toptal asked 100
3
developers to spend a few hours each day working remotely with the rest of their team. It then
compared the experience with the way they worked before. The results helped to identify several
weaknesses in Toptal's approach to remote working.

"Work" consists of the assignments and tasks that are needed to achieve a specific organizational
goal. As such, there is no inherent understanding of "place" in this concept of "work." Place or
proximity becomes relevant only when it's needed to achieve a goal. Specific tasks may or may not
be "place-dependent." Manufacturing, healthcare delivery, and brick-and-mortar retail selling are
tasks that relate to a place or a location. However, 3D printing technology and virtual goods,
including ideas, digital documents or digital products, make work much less place-dependent.

In some cases, place is turned inside out: What's most important is the customer's location, not the
worker's location. For example, are huge centralized call centers needed for efficiency when local
call center representatives can be distributed and supported globally? LiveOps takes advantage of
the "gig economy," employing the world's largest work-at-home call agent workforce with more
than 20,000 agents. Its tagline is, "The modern call center isn't a call center. It's a network of virtual,
on-demand agents."

Enabling effective remote work involves five interrelated actions:

■ Determine how much remote work your firm can handle. Work is essential to the organization's
functioning. Figuring out which specific assignments and tasks can be done remotely, perhaps
supported by redesigned business processes, is critical to making remote work programs a
success.
■ Base eligibility on the work, not the person. Eligibility should not be personality-based because
of the potential for discrimination.

Page 6 of 13 Gartner, Inc. | G00350370

 ■ Establish outcome-based performance measures. Monitor progress steps and milestones.
Outcome-based metrics often require a major shift in expectations, employee accountability
and managerial responsibility.
■ Determine whether a remote work trial period is necessary. This option allows people to try out
a remote work opportunity before making it a permanent decision.
■ Seek feedback on employee performance from peers. While obtaining peer review is a good
idea regardless of whether an employee is a remote worker or not, it becomes especially
important when the manager lacks visual clues about employee-to-employee interaction.

Prepare Employees for Remote Work Demands by Setting Accurate Expectations

and Enabling Supportive Interactions
Remote work can be equally novel — and unsettling — for employees, managers and the
organization at large. Depending on where workers and facilities are located, organizations may
want, or need, a combination of remote, traditional and mobile work. In the 2017 Gartner Digital
4
Workplace Survey, we asked respondents what proportion of their time they would like to spend
working:

■ In the corporate office

■ In a public place
■ From home
■ While traveling or commuting

Figure 2 shows the average allocation of time for each location. These preferences indicate that
workers want the flexibility to work from their choice of locations and to feel productive regardless
of where they are (see "Crafting Workspaces That Enhance the Employee Experience").

Gartner, Inc. | G00350370 Page 7 of 13

 Figure 2. Average Time-Split Preferences Across Different Work Locations

Total does not equal 100% due to rounding.

Source: Gartner (January 2018)

Creating remote work programs benefits both employers and employees. By implementing a
systematic approach to effective remote work, employers can win significant advantages, including:

■ Reduction in real estate expense

■ Lower employee absenteeism
■ Increased employee retention
■ Improved employer brand
■ Access to a larger talent pool
■ Potential to create a more diverse organization

Effective remote work programs enable increased employee productivity and reduce employee
stress, according to an array of studies. Nearly two-thirds of organizations supporting remote work
5
have documented higher productivity. Best Buy, BT and Dow reported that remote workers are

Page 8 of 13 Gartner, Inc. | G00350370

 5
35% to 40% more productive than people who work in corporate offices. AT&T found that remote
5
workers worked an average of five hours more per week than their office-based counterparts.
6
Eighty-two percent of remote workers self-report that remote work lowered their stress levels.

However, remote work is not free of human costs: Loneliness is a major factor in employee burnout.
Fifty percent of people say they are often or always exhausted due to work — a 32% increase from
7
two decades ago.

Enabling new hires to quickly build workplace networks is key to counteracting loneliness and
optimizing employee effectiveness in remote work programs. Application leaders should lead by
example by becoming experts in tools that make communication and collaboration effective (see
"Lights, Camera, Action; Get Your Message Across the Right Way in Web Conferences"). To build
and sustain healthy trust, application leaders must also create opportunities for ongoing interactions
with and among remote workers, their teammates and their managers. Frequent check-ins with
remote employees help them feel less isolated.

Stress-Test Your Technology Infrastructure to Determine Its Capability to Support

Remote Work
Remote work technology infrastructure enables effective performance by remote workers. The
specific elements of this infrastructure will depend on the type of work for a given role. Infrastructure
decisions must account for training, support and levels of service, so that employees are enabled to
work well from multiple disparate locations.

Most organizations have at least some existing remote workers, whether sanctioned officially or
allowed by informal arrangements. Application leaders should stress-test the existing technology
infrastructure to ensure it has the scale to support remote work. They also need to determine
whether the infrastructure has the necessary capabilities for accelerating digital business and for
increasing employees' engagement.

Technology decisions can also change the nature of responsibilities and tasks — enabling them to
be done remotely. Application leaders should assess the different ingredients in the technology mix
to optimize the experience of remote workers. These are some of the questions that they need to
address:

■ Employer-supplied technology: What equipment will we provide to employees? How will we

manage those assets during their useful life? What process will we use to dispose of those
assets?
■ Home office expectations: Are there minimum requirements we expect employees to meet,
such as having a room or space dedicated for work?
■ Network access: Is there a minimum internet speed employees need to procure? Who will pay
for internet access?

Gartner, Inc. | G00350370 Page 9 of 13

 ■ Videoconferencing: Will we provide videoconferencing capabilities for all employees? How will
we compensate for areas with low bandwidth? (See "In the Digital Workplace, Conferencing
Markets Are Evolving Into a Meeting Solution Market.")
■ Collaboration tools: What additional applications and tools should we add to our infrastructure
to enable more effective interaction for remote employees? (See "Magic Quadrant for Meeting
Solutions.")
■ Technical support: Does our current technical support strategy need to change in order to
effectively support remote employees? (See "Magic Quadrant for Managed Workplace Services,
North America.")
■ Office resource scheduling: How will we make it easy for remote workers to find available
space to work when they have the need to come into the office? (See "Market Guide for
Resource Scheduling Applications.")

Table 1 provides some examples of how different organizations outfit remote workers and what they
expect employees to provide for their home offices.

Table 1. Sample Options for Outfitting Remote Workers

Company Type of Work Minimum Standards Technical Standards

Amazona Customer service Employees must have at least a Employees must procure a PC with
year of prior customer service high-speed internet. They must also
experience and a high school have an analog phone line and a
diploma. They must also pass a quiet workspace.
background check.

Appleb Customer service, team Employees must have a quiet, Employees procure the high-speed
and area managers distraction-free room. Apple internet connection. Apple provides
provides a desk and an ergonomic an iMac and headset.
chair.

Facebookc Engineers and No formal approvals or logistics Most employees have laptops rather
developers procedures are necessary. than desktop machines, and VPN
Employees just update their access is preconfigured.
statuses to "work at home" (WAH).

Infosysd Coding, testing, system Employees can work from home Employees ensure they can get
analysis, etc. nine days per month. access to corporate email and chat
on the corporate intranet. Infosys
provides a laptop.

a See "Amazon Jobs From Home in the Customer Service Department," Real Ways to Earn Money Online.
b See "Jobs at Apple: Frequently Asked Questions," Apple.
c See "What Is Facebook's Policy on Working Remotely?" Quora.
d See "All You Need to Know About Infosys Work From Home Policy," HackzHub.

Source: Gartner (January 2018)

Page 10 of 13 Gartner, Inc. | G00350370

 Case Study
A foundation of trust is essential to the success of remote work programs. If that is not present, then
remote work programs will fail. The following example is compiled from multiple client inquires.

A newly promoted manager struggled with the fact that many of his phone calls to a remote
employee went to voice mail. Trying to get an immediate response via email was not successful
either. This made him suspicious that the employee was not doing her work and instead spending
time on personal matters.

In fact, the employee was familiar with research showing that frequent interruptions decrease
productivity. She consciously allocated time to respond to emails and phone calls, as well as to
perform other aspects of her work. She avoided dealing immediately with interruptions that would
become distractions and cause her to lose her concentration.

Even though the employee explained her approach to organizing her work to her manager, the
tension between the two grew. The employee felt the stress of the constant monitoring and lost
respect for her manager. Eventually, she decided to leave the company and go to an organization
that was more remote-work-friendly.

Evidence
1 "State of the American Workplace," Gallup.
2 "Working Anytime, Anywhere: The Effects on the World of Work," Eurofound and the International
Labour Office.
3 "Toptal and Facebook — Creating a Global Virtual Office," Toptal.

Gartner, Inc. | G00350370 Page 11 of 13

 4 2017 Gartner Digital Workplace Survey: Results are based on a Gartner consumer study
conducted to understand digital workers (including changes and trends in their sentiments and
expectations), explore worker engagement and examine workers' satisfaction with applications
provided by their organizations. The survey was conducted online from February through March
2017, with 3,120 respondents in the U.S., Europe and Asia/Pacific. Participants were screened for
full-time employment by organizations with 100 or more employees, and had to use digital
technology for work purposes. Respondents' ages ranged from 18 years to 74 years. Quotas and
weightings were applied for age, gender, region and income, so that the results were representative
of countries' working populations.

5 "Pros and Cons," Global Workplace Analytics.

6 "State of Telecommuting: 2014 Survey Reveals New Trends in Remote Work," PGi.

7 "Burnout at Work Isn't Just About Exhaustion. It's Also About Loneliness," Harvard Business
Review.

More on This Topic

This is part of two in-depth collections of research. See the collections:

■ Creating Digital Value at Scale: A Gartner Trend Insight Report

■ How to Strengthen Your Digital Workplace Program to Sustain Digital Transformation

Page 12 of 13 Gartner, Inc. | G00350370

 GARTNER HEADQUARTERS

Corporate Headquarters
56 Top Gallant Road
Stamford, CT 06902-7700
USA
+1 203 964 0096

Regional Headquarters
AUSTRALIA
BRAZIL
JAPAN
UNITED KINGDOM

For a complete list of worldwide locations,

visit http://www.gartner.com/technology/about.jsp

© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. This
publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without Gartner's prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of
Gartner's research organization, which should not be construed as statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication
has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of
such information. Although Gartner research may address legal and financial issues, Gartner does not provide legal or investment advice
and its research should not be construed or used as such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by Gartner Usage Policy.
Gartner prides itself on its reputation for independence and objectivity. Its research is produced independently by its research
organization without input or influence from any third party. For further information, see "Guiding Principles on Independence and
Objectivity."

Gartner, Inc. | G00350370 Page 13 of 13

This complimentary research is part of Gartner’s ongoing coverage of the
business impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19).

Access additional free content and coverage at gartner.com/smarterwithgartner

and gartner.com.

Become a Client
Get access to this level of insight all year long — plus contextualized support for
your strategic priorities — by becoming a client.
gartner.com/en/become-a-client
U.S.: 1 800 213 4848
International: +44 (0) 3331 306 809

About Gartner
Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world’s leading research and advisory company and
a member of the S&P 500. We equip business leaders with indispensable insights,
advice and tools to achieve their mission-critical priorities today and build the
successful organizations of tomorrow.

Our unmatched combination of expert-led, practitioner-sourced and data-driven

research steers clients toward the right decisions on the issues that matter most.
We are a trusted advisor and an objective resource for more than 15,000
enterprises in more than 100 countries — across all major functions, in every
industry and enterprise size.

To learn more about how we help decision makers fuel the future of business,
visit gartner.com.

© 2020 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. CM_I_900856