Should You Hire a Head of Remote Employees?

Smiling Remote Female EmployeeAs organizations across different industries embrace remote and hybrid work schedules, many find it challenging to coordinate distributed teams. Workplace flexibility is often regarded as a competitive advantage in today’s labor market.

If you recently introduced flexible working in your company, you may have considered hiring a Head of Remote employees. This is what many organizations are currently doing, and there are many benefits to it. We have covered a few things you should know before hiring a Head of Remote.

The Shift to Remote: Benefits and Challenges 

Whether operating in a hybrid or fully remote setting, there are many benefits that flexible working offers to both employees and employers. Employees save time and money on long commutes and can choose when, how, and where they want to work. Moreover, employers benefit from a diverse workforce capable of driving innovation, productivity, and business growth. And hiring remote workers opens up a a much larger, nearly unlimited, geographic recruiting area to draw from.

However, with remote working comes the risk of poor work-life balance, disengagement, and increased burnout. Similarly, some employees working remotely report having less spontaneous communication with colleagues, loneliness, and lack of learning and mentorship opportunities as critical concerns in the remote work world.

But despite these reports, several studies point to a maturing remote and hybrid work culture, with many employees threatening to quit if their employers require them to work full-time in the office. Some surveys found that 50% of employees would take a pay cut to have the option to continue working remotely. Also, check out our prior article about alternatives for paying remote workers.

Why Hire a Head of Remote 

In light of the current developments, most organizations know that returning to the pre-pandemic work world isn’t an option. So, they are now finding ways to strengthen remote and hybrid work strategies to ensure the main challenges identified by employees are resolved or eliminated. One way of doing so is by hiring a Head of Remote who will have a seat at the table.

Ideally, a Head of Remote is responsible for designing and optimizing the company’s remote strategy. They are the ones to address workplace culture issues, burnout, poor collaboration, technology challenges, and employee disengagement. An ideal candidate for the job is someone good in project management, communication, strategy execution, and problem-solving.

The Head of Remote employees should also be the link between the management and hybrid workers, ensuring a smooth flow of information between fully remote and hybrid or in-office staff.

Make it Work for You

Offering remote and hybrid work schedules is one way of winning the talent war and ensuring you hold on to the best people for the long haul. Organizations looking to maximize the benefits of flexible work schedules while minimizing the disadvantages must invest in effective remote strategies. Hiring a Head of Remote is a great way to delegate remote functions to someone who can influence company decisions and has the capacity to allocate the necessary resources.

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