How employers can make good decisions about remote work before the next crisis strikes

After the COVID-19 pandemic ended, over one-fifth of U.S. employees who could work remotely now do so full-time or at least once a week. However, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to remote work, and the debate over its advantages and disadvantages continues. To understand the long-term shift to remote and hybrid work, researchers examined four global research and development companies that faced similar technical and scientific tasks during the pandemic.

These companies all had access to the same communication technologies. In early 2020, each company instructed most employees to work from home due to the pandemic. The researchers interviewed senior leaders, project team leaders, and team members over the next two years to learn how each company managed its employees' work arrangements.

The process of deciding where employees should work proved just as important as the decision itself. The researchers found that organizational culture, the set of assumptions, beliefs, and norms that influence decision-making and interactions within an organization, played a significant role in shaping how quickly and successfully companies established new work arrangements.

Companies with a hierarchical culture stabilized their policies faster but faced greater employee resistance, while collaborative companies took longer to decide on their policies but achieved broader acceptance. To improve workplace policy implementation, employers should develop adaptable decision processes before the next crisis strikes.