Transitioning to a work from home environment requires planning to reach success. We have looked at how other organizations do it, including the pros and cons of approaches, overcoming obstacles, and celebrating wins. Now, it’s time to learn how to create a road map for your organization, with goals, metrics, and timelines.
Metrics for WFH
A McKinsey article looks at metrics on a granular level, using data to determine which activities have the potential for remote work and which do not. This can be an excellent place to start if your organization will be shifting to a hybrid model by choice or necessity. For example, updating knowledge and learning has high effective potential (no productivity loss), while dealing with physical objects has no effective potential for remote work.
McKinsey suggests the finance, management, professional services, and information sectors have the highest potential for remote work. Construction, accommodation and food services, and agriculture have the least potential. Using metrics like these, CIOs, CTOs, and other decision-makers can determine if the organization can or should implement WFH solutions.
Of course, metrics are important for measuring a WFH plan’s success after it is in place, too. In particular, many managers and decision-makers worry about productivity. Metrics can provide reliable answers as to what remote workers are accomplishing. Stats show that remote workers are often more productive than their on-site counterparts. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can prove that.
The KPIs for employees will probably look different from team to team, but developing them gives critical insight. Depending on an organization’s work, KPIs or metrics for WFH could look like customer service ratings, resolved tickets, or generated leads. No matter what the KPI is, it should be measurable, influenced or controlled by the worker, and connected to overall business goals.
Next, we will look at those goals and how KPIs are important in meeting them.
Setting WFH Goals
Work from home goals should, just like KPIs, be connected to overall business goals. What is the company or organization aiming to achieve by implementing remote policies and platforms? Setting these goals is key to developing a timeline and measuring the success of the implementation.
Goals can be simple to start and change as they are met. For those early on the WFH journey, an objective might be to build up the technology needed to work remotely. Other simple goals could be to keep the organization connected and productive while working remotely. These are overarching goals, but each worker or department can drill down further.
If the overall goal is to build up the tech needed for remote work, the IT department might set a goal such as auditing current technology and policies. For staying connected, managers might set a further goal to check in with every employee on a certain basis. Productivity goals can be tied to KPIs like generated leads or resolved tickets for individual employees.
It is important to measure these goals. People should talk about how and why they have been met or what could be changed. And it is wise to adjust the goals as needed. By setting goals and measuring them against KPIs/metrics, organizations develop key insights for the future.
Setting a WFH Timeline
A WFH timeline consists of some basic steps. It starts with getting buy-in from decision-makers using data like the metrics above to make the case. Next steps include determining which jobs can be flexed, how communication will happen, and what tech is needed.
Each move toward the intended WFH system can be phased in, both in terms of people and in terms of tech. As we have previously shared, there are many ways to start small and build toward a remote environment. That could look like employees working from home part-time to start, and/or slowly investing in the ideal tech solutions.
A Rework article suggests CTOs and CIOs consider starting with accelerating digital transformation overall as part of WFH implementation goals and timelines. Migrating databases to the cloud, digitizing workflows, updating policies and investing in WFH tools helps tackle current issues while planning for the future. Setting a rough timeline with tentative dates will keep your plan on track. It will also give answers to any employees wondering when they will be able to work from home.
GroupLink’s technology can help your business meet its goals and KPIs on the timeline you determine. Our everything HelpDesk, GroupLink Workflow Process & Incident Tracking, and GroupLink for SafestSchools are ideal for WFH and workflow. Contact us online, call us at 801-335-0700, or email us at info@grouplink.net for more information.
Next in our series, we will summarize all of our work from home resources and information for CIOs and CTOs.