Experts say the move to remote work requires not only new tech, but a set of processes that leverage today’s tools to deliver the same level of collaboration that homebound workers previously experienced at the office.
“A lot of companies are going to struggle to embed this type of culture in a quick manner that would help them overcome some of the realities around the coronavirus,” said Andrew Hewitt, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.
Chief information officers are well placed to build and nurture a new remote-work culture that can outlast the emergency move to work from home due to the coronavirus outbreak.
“We believe we can come out of this with a stronger way of working globally,” said Colleen Berube, CIO at Zendesk Inc.
The customer-service software company recently implemented a mandatory work-from-home policy for its workforce of about 3,500 across more than 25 countries.
As part of its move into what could eventually become a more permanent remote-work culture, Ms. Berube last week deployed a new virtual onboarding process for new employees via videoconferencing, and supplemented the IT support process with new self-service tools to troubleshoot technical issues.
“CIOs can be most successful during this time by leveraging the opportunity to instill new working practices for remote work,” she said.
GitLab Inc., a software-development startup with more than 1,200 employees in 67 countries, has had a remote-work policy from the start and has no official headquarters. Everyone works from home, including the chief executive. Since the outbreak, CEO Sid Sijbrandij has been fielding questions from many of his customers on establishing effective remote-work setups.
“The first step [to going remote] is understanding that not every physical process needs an equal virtual process. For example, not every in-person meeting translates to a virtual meeting,” he said.
CIOs are primed to serve to lead the transition, he said.
”This is a giant opportunity for CIOs to make companies more efficient. If you can get a company to the point where people are equally effective when they’re working from home, you give your team members a lot more freedom and you create a lot more opportunities,” Mr. Sijbrandij said.
“Making the jump from the cube to the home or working off site—there are cultural accelerators that come into play. There needs to be some mentoring and modeling and acceptance,” said Wayne Kurtzman, research director at International Data Corp.
It’s not just about working from home, but the nature of that work. The quality and caliber of collaboration and teamwork can change when work is done remotely, said Ted Ross, CIO of Los Angeles.
Some employees, like those in IT, will take to remote work, but some will have difficulty, he said. For them, IT leaders might need to provide what Mr. Ross calls white-glove service, a combination of remote help desk, email and phone support.
At Automattic Inc., the maker of blogging service WordPress, most of its over 1,200 employees in more than 70 countries work remotely, though some still go to an office in New York.
Chief Executive Matt Mullenweg said Automattic encourages in-office employees to practice working from home. “That allows people to develop the empathy and the knowledge for how to work from their home or wherever they want to work from,” he said.