Remote & Hybrid Working


Business culture matters most when your employees work remotely


David Furby, CEO and founder of IT partner Novatech discusses the role IT has to play in ensuring a great business culture in a hybrid or remote-first workplace.


W


hen a business operates on a remote or hybrid model, it does not mean you cannot also have a strong business


culture. Since the end of the pandemic, many companies


have decided to keep their employees working from home, favouring a remote work setup over a more traditional office space. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the proportion of UK employees engaged in remote work stood at 44% in 2023. Tis figure includes 16% who work remotely full-time and 28% who adopt a hybrid model, dividing their time between home and the office. While remote work has gained momentum in recent years, its prevalence has been on a gradual incline since the 1980s even before the Covid pandemic and its associated lockdowns and movement restrictions. Te role of technology in ensuring the effectiveness of a remote


work or hybrid environment and the enablement of a solid business culture is absolutely critical. A key frustration for remote and hybrid workers is when technology is not prioritised, does not work, and disables the workers from doing their best work.


Company culture in a remote world Empowering employees to choose their living and working arrangements can be highly advantageous, particularly when it comes to recruitment. Embracing remote work not only saves time, office running costs, and people’s energy from reduced commuting, it can also foster a more cohesive and positive work culture. It is also more beneficial for the environment. Granting such freedom may encourage employees to become enthusiastic advocates for


28 | March/April 2024


your company, driven by a sense of respect and appreciation that your employees have lives outside of the workplace. Remote work is here to stay, and with physical office spaces previously being the meeting point for an organisation’s people and culture, there is even more of a need for leadership teams to better communicate their culture across multiple locations. If leaders are going to be flexible on their location, they will need to be firm in creating the culture they want their business to be known for. But without the technology to enable this, it


will be impossible to create a strong business culture when your employees work remotely. Tis starts from when an employee joins the


business to when they leave. While it seems obvious that the impact on carbon emissions is reduced when a business switches to a remote- first model, it is also critical that employees have the right technology from the moment they join the business to the moment they leave. If a remote employee is leſt without a suitable laptop or computer,


or internet connection, that will enable them to communicate with their colleagues as well as do their work to the best of their ability; then your business culture falls at the first hurdle. Providing employees with technology that is not fit-for-purpose only breeds a sense that the quality of their work does not matter. And with that, if you do not have a strong method to ensure return of that technology when an employee leaves the business, it again breeds a sense that your business does not care about their business assets. Tis means leaders should ensure that all processes within the


business embodies the culture they wish to create. With both remote and hybrid work bringing a host of changes, each impacting the


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