Since the advent of the internet, remote working has been implemented in many organisations and to varying degrees.
Sometimes out of preference; sometimes a necessity. Remote working has been adopted by employers, particularly in the tech space, although it has been less successful in other sectors.
Despite some forward-thinking tech employers introducing remote working options for their employees for years, until Covid-19, a lot of tech roles were still office-based.
When remote working became a necessity due to the pandemic, many employers tentatively sent their teams home, wondering if productivity was about to plummet.
With recent data from Harvard Business Review revealing some interesting positive news about remote working, let’s look at what this means for your Salesforce team.
Revealed: Remote Employees are More Productive
So, the data I’m referring to will come as a relief to employers of newly remote teams, and you can read the study by Harvard Business Review here.
Measuring the productivity of remote workers has always been tricky, but the pandemic offered the perfect opportunity for HBR to qualify some ongoing research.
After measuring the productivity of office-based workers in 2013, they were able to evaluate the same data from employees who were now working from home.
The research found that during the lockdown:
- Remote employees spent 12% less time being drawn into large meetings
- They spent 9% more time interacting with customers and external partners
- Employees undertook 50% more activities through personal choice because they felt motivated to do so
- The number of tasks rated as ‘tiresome’ dropped from 27% to 12%
As you can see, working from home has clearly had a positive effect on many people, as remote working allows for the freedom and clarity to focus on tasks, which is essential in Salesforce roles.
I suspect that Marc Benioff was confident that Salesforce employees would be just as productive working from home when he announced early on in the pandemic that Salesforce employees could work from home indefinitely.
So what can Salesforce employers do to continue to harness the power of remote working in their teams?
Championing Remote Work
As one of the first companies to announce blanket remote working measures, Salesforce has continued to promote remote working, recently revealing that employees could continue to work from home until at least July 31st 2021.
Salesforce champion the following measures to help managers help their teams to get the best possible results from remote working.
These include –
- Video conferencing – the Salesforce website highlights the importance of teams getting together regularly – virtually – to communicate strategies and platforms that will enhance performance.
- Video conferencing tools – leaders of Salesforce teams should make use of video conferencing tools that have been rolled out by the company; these include screen sharing platforms and social media platforms to help manage collaboration and communication within a remote team.
- File sharing – these collaborative tools, including Google Drive, are great for allowing multiple team members to work on the same spreadsheets or documents at the same time from their different locations.
When the right tools are available, remote working can happen seamlessly.
But there also needs to be a mindset shift within Salesforce leaders as to what this means for their team. This change in mindset shouldn’t be underestimated – often it’s psychological, rather than operational changes which employees struggle to cope with most.
Of course, it must be mentioned that not everyone works more productively from home.
Despite Salesforce stating that employees can work remotely as long as they like – offices still need to be in place for workers who don’t have adequate work from home facilities such as those living in shared accommodation or poor internet connections.
Finally, let’s look at perhaps the most exciting part of remote working – the vast opportunities that this provides for your team.
The Future of Your Salesforce Team
Employing a mostly remote team opens up a wealth of possibilities when it comes to your future hires.
Previously, Salesforce partners and consultancies have had to rely on employees who live near to where their job is based, or those prepared to travel. But with the advent of remote working, the potential to employ talent from afar has now opened up.
If you are struggling to find the Salesforce talent you need locally, we can help you recruit from the ever-increasing pool of talent; distance is now no object.
Final Thoughts
The key to success when managing remote working in your Salesforce team is flexibility.
For individuals who prefer to work more conventionally, the office will always have a place. But options for remote workers must be kept available for those who are planning on going fully remote until next year.
As the HBR data mentioned earlier suggests, many employees are more productive at home – this is an exciting time to be in Salesforce, as innovation seems to be bubbling under the surface in this ground-breaking era we are currently in.
If you are looking to recruit new remote Salesforce talent, get in touch with us here to find out how we can help.
Thanks,
Lee
About Resource On Demand
Resource OnDemand is Europe’s first specialist Salesforce Recruitment Company, now also focusing on growth Cloud markets.
We assist innovative and disruptive organisations to grow their technology teams. We are supporting companies to fill Cloud roles that span across Digital Marketing, Marketing Automation, Human Capital Management and the growing Salesforce.com suite of skills.
The team at Resource On Demand have access to an extensive database of key talent, registering over 8000 Cloud professionals each year.
To find out how we can support you call us on 01322 272 532, or you can contact us by clicking here.