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As companies begin to return to an office setting, many founders of remote-based businesses are wondering if they need to follow suit. Remote setups were vital to keeping businesses going during the worst days of the pandemic, but is it incumbent on leaders to get their employees back in person to get to a next stage of growth? Not necessarily so, says Terry Rice, a business development consultant and contributor at Entrepreneur. "Being remote brings all kinds of benefits, from recruiting talent to low overhead," he says. "The key is being open and honest with employees about good and bad news, and keeping people connected on a human level — just because there is no water cooler doesn't mean people shouldn't be talking about fun things like TV shows they're watching." In this video, Terry meets with Alyssa Monroe, who runs a digital-first marketing and communications firm for beauty and lifestyle brands and cre...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. It was easy to go home because we had to. Now, how do we get people to want to come back? In 2019, less than 6% of American workers worked primarily from home. Then COVID hit, and by May 2020, 35% of workers worked completely remotely, as high as 57% among professional and management occupations. Now, business leaders want people back in the office . Without in-person workplace interactions, leaders see workers missing out on building vital connections that facilitate collaboration and innovation and the soft skills gained by interacting with people at various levels within the company. But according to Pew research , 61% of remote workers say they work from home because they prefer to. Among knowledge workers unsatisfied with their current workplace flexibility, 71% said they were open to finding another job in the oncoming year. Demanding workers come back will drive quit rates and turn off new t...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. With 74% of U.S. companies transitioning to a permanent hybrid model, leaders are turning their attention to measuring the success of their hybrid work model. That's because there's a single traditional office-centric model of Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 in the office, but there are many ways to do hybrid work . Moreover, what works well for one company's culture and working style may not work well elsewhere, even within the same industry. So how should a leader evaluate whether the model they adopted is optimal for their company's needs — or whether those needs require refinement? The first step involves establishing clear success metrics. Unfortunately, relatively few companies measure important aspects of the hybrid work transition. For example, a new report from Omdia suggests that 54% of organizations find that productivity improved from adopting a more hybrid working style, but o...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. The concept of remote work and the impact it could have on the productivity and motivation of employees, has been in discussion long before the Covid-19 pandemic. A 2013 Stanford University study with 500 employees in China reported that employee productivity increased by 13% as a result of working remotely in quieter environments. The pandemic forced employers and governments across the world to adopt the remote work model. According to Statista , the global collaboration software market revenues rose by a whopping $15.9 billion in 2019 to $19.2 billion in 2021. These figures are expected to increase over the next few years, as digital transformation and remote work are here to stay. Some companies believe that the best practice is a hybrid-first work model, while others are pursuing efforts to bring employees back to the office. In September 2022, Kastle Systems, a key-card property management com...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Few companies pay enough attention to employee onboarding — according to a recent Gallup survey, only 12% of employees think their company does it well. And it's clear that effective onboarding is crucial for both company productivity and employee retention: Successful onboarding can improve employee performance by up to 15% and means an employee is nine times more likely to stay with the company. Our organization supports companies all over the world with remote onboarding. Here, I want to highlight some onboarding practices that we have found useful both within our own team and when supporting other teams. Related: 4 Building Blocks for a Successful Remote Employee Onboarding Process What does remote onboarding cover? Standard employee onboarding covers all the steps that must be taken to set up a new employee to be successful within the company. This includes introducing new hires to the tea...

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. A new study from the University of Birmingham has found that managers developed a more positive outlook on the benefits of remote and flexible working since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The research surveyed 597 managers and found that 51.8% of them agreed that working from home improves employee concentration, 59.5% agreed that it increases productivity, and 62.8% agreed that it increases motivation. Furthermore, an even larger proportion of managers, 76.5% believe that flexible working generally increases productivity. Importantly, the study also found that line managers were more likely to see flexible working as a performance-enhancing tool (71.2%) than senior management (65.6%). This highlights the importance of educating senior management on the benefits of flexible working and the positive impact it can have on employee performance. Now, managers need to learn how to maximize hybrid...