CoRemoting – Connecting Colleagues

Empowering Remote Work and Fostering Human Connection between Colleagues

Human ResourcesNetworkingTechnologyWellnessWorkstyle

by Alexandros Lioumbis and Alexandra Lekkou for Work&Place July 2024

Employee Engagement and the Hybrid Work Challenge

Recent data shows that employee engagement in the US has hit an 11-year low[1], coinciding with a period where office occupancy remains at around 50% of pre-pandemic levels and working from home has stabilized at about 27% of paid days[2]. This shift towards hybrid work arrangements appears to be becoming permanent, with employees preferring them and employers accepting them. However, the decline in engagement raises questions about the future of workplace culture[3].

In response to these challenges, Wharton Executive Education published an article^[4] identifying five key challenges of hybrid work, dubbed the “5Cs”: communication, coordination, connection, creativity, and culture. The authors posed a critical question: ‘If employees never or rarely come to the office or spend time together, how can a company’s distinctive ‘feel’ be maintained — and then, how can companies differentiate themselves from each other in the war for talent?’

The core issue underlying these challenges is the reduction of in-person time between colleagues. This article explores how a new concept called CoRemoting might address these challenges without significantly disrupting employees’ hybrid work schedules.

Introducing CoRemoting

CoRemoting is a novel organizational working mode where colleagues physically co-work together from home, with one acting as a host and the other as a guest. This arrangement is facilitated by a proprietary tool that matches colleagues for CoRemoting sessions. The concept aims to resolve the tension between office work and remote work by bringing in-person interactions into the home environment.

An experimental platform using the matching tool has been tested in small control groups with promising results. The ideal candidates for larger field trials are organizations with a few hundred employees in the same urban area. The exact size range depends on factors such as urban density and the average number of employees working from home on any given day.

CoRemoting applies the concept of space sharing to medium and large organizations, where the scale and geographical concentration make CoRemoting sessions more feasible. For identifying the optimum candidate organisations, CoRemoting is relying on the work on the OECD’s Functional Urban Areas^[5].

Figure 1 – CoRemoting is designed to balance Organisational and Employee Needs

CoRemoting also addresses the ‘structure vs agency’ debate in the workplace, balancing an organizations’ need for structure and control with employees’ desire for agency and autonomy. CoRemoting (as an app) acts as a trusted third party, enabling connections and administering the necessary interactions between parties, while safeguarding personal and proprietary data.

SWOT Analysis of CoRemoting

Figure 2 – CoRemoting SWOT analysis

Strengths:

Beating Isolation / Increasing Employee Satisfaction: CoRemoting reduces the number of days employees work alone at home, potentially decreasing feelings of isolation and increasing engagement.
Improved Utilisation: Hosts maximize the use of their home workspace, while organizations can maintain in-person collaboration without maintaining underutilized offices.
Balancing Needs: CoRemoting addresses the seemingly paradoxical desires of employees to work from home and have in-person time with colleagues.
Unique Position: Unlike traditional ERP solutions, CoRemoting focuses on facilitating personal connections and increased privacy rather than simply managing a listing of spaces that need to be reserved.

Weaknesses:

Lack of willingness to participate: The success of CoRemoting depends on employees’ willingness to share their homes with colleagues. This willingness may vary based on engagement levels, social norms/culture, and individual comfort with the practical aspects.
Trust and Scalability: Building trust between hosts and guests is crucial, especially in larger organizations where most employees may not know each other personally. The rate of trust-building will directly affect the scalability of the system.
Competitive Work Environments: CoRemoting may not be suitable where employees are competing for business.
Host Status and Rights: Determining who can act as a host and under what conditions (e.g., approval from cohabitants or property owners) may affect the acceptance and proliferation of CoRemoting.

Opportunities:

Building Connections: CoRemoting can foster new connections and maintain existing ones, promoting learning, well-being, and retention in the distributed ‘flexiclass’.
Building Communities: Through increased connections, CoRemoting can support the development of communities within organizations, potentially based on shared interests, life stages, or lifestyle choices.
Improving Communication: By enabling in-person interactions, CoRemoting can reduce reliance on online communication, minimize technology glitches, and enhance team dynamics.
Improving Coordination: CoRemoting facilitates faster problem-solving, direct exchanges, and frequent decisions between partners, potentially accelerating decision-making processes.
Improving Creativity: The randomness of matches in CoRemoting can boost creativity by exposing employees to diverse ideas and experiences^[6].
Improving Culture: CoRemoting can help create mini-communities and new layers of friendship within the company, potentially improving retention, engagement, and sense of belonging.

Threats:

Bad Agents: There is a risk of unpleasant experiences when colleagues share private spaces. CoRemoting aims to address this through clear onboarding, vetting processes, and user feedback systems.
Compliance, Insurance, and Risk Challenges: Legal, insurance, and ethical aspects related to the extended intrusion of work into personal spaces will need to be addressed prior to implementation.
Unwanted Competitors: In absence of a formal CoRemoting app, existing social media/comms apps solutions used may be enhanced to provide similar functions, potentially compromising organizational security, culture, and productivity.

Addressing the 5Cs of Hybrid Work

Communication

CoRemoting enables hosts and guests to choose each other based on specific criteria, such as prioritizing guests from different departments with challenging communication issues. This can foster better understanding across different parts of the organization. By promoting in-person interactions, CoRemoting reduces reliance on online communication, minimizes technology glitches, and enhances team dynamics.

The platform can address silo issues by giving priority to sessions across teams or units. Encouraging participation from relevant departments builds relationships without disrupting daily operations. It is suggested that fewer hybrid meetings with remote participants lead to more balanced conversations and reduced communication barriers related to power, status, and language differences.

Coordination

CoRemoting addresses coordination challenges by allowing hosts and guests to select each other based on specific criteria, such as project team membership. Organizations can incentivize CoRemoting sessions among team members during projects. When coordination challenges arise due to remote meeting participation, departments or teams can adopt CoRemoting to facilitate faster problem-solving, direct exchanges, and frequent decisions.

More face-to-face time encourages participation in minor decisions, which can lead to significant conversations. Enhanced coordination through CoRemoting might accelerate decision-making and problem-solving, potentially leading to shorter project cycles and improved overall efficiency.

Connection

CoRemoting bridges the gap between employees’ personal choices and their organizational roles, enabling connections that were previously either impossible or the possibility of which had not been appreciated. During onboarding, employees voluntarily share information about their home space and preferences, allowing the platform to tailor connections.

Participants can use CoRemoting as freely or selectively as they wish, gradually expanding their network of connections within the organization.

Regular CoRemoting gatherings can enhance bonding between colleagues. It’s essential to emphasize that CoRemoting is voluntary, promoting comfort and trust among participants. Even in a highly constrained mode, addressing loneliness remains a priority. By fostering new connections and maintaining existing ones, CoRemoting promotes learning, well-being, and retention in the distributed “flexiclass.”

Creativity

The serendipitous nature of CoRemoting matches can foster creativity. When employees spend workdays with colleagues beyond their usual networks, their social circles expand. This exposure to diverse ideas has the potential to enhance and broaden creativity within the organization.

Research has shown that diversifying experiences can improve creativity. CoRemoting allows employees to explore different work environments within their organization, changing both external and internal scenery while travelling to different host locations. This variety of experiences can lead to fresh perspectives and innovative ideas.

Culture

CoRemoting is designed to enable discoveries of like-minded or situation-sharing individuals within an organization. By selectively engaging in CoRemoting sessions with colleagues who share similar characteristics or interests, employees can create mini-communities and new layers of friendship that would otherwise be difficult to nurture in a traditional or fully remote work environment.

For new employees, such discoveries can accelerate their onboarding and integration into the organization’s culture. For non-junior employees, new connections can improve retention and engagement, enhancing cohesion and sense of belonging within the company.

Depending on the needs of the employees, improving culture through CoRemoting can take various forms. It may involve organization-relevant mentoring or training sessions, or it could facilitate community creation sessions for people with shared interests or experiences, such as book lovers, cooking enthusiasts, or employees with disabilities. These activities can enhance feelings of belonging and inclusivity within the organization.

Implementation and Challenges

To successfully implement CoRemoting, organizations need to address several key areas:

Privacy and Trust: Clear guidelines and expectations must be established to ensure that both hosts and guests feel comfortable with the arrangement. This may include rules about appropriate behaviour, use of space, and confidentiality.
Vetting and Onboarding: A thorough vetting process involving both hosts and guests is crucial to maintain safety and trust in the system. Comprehensive onboarding procedures should be developed to familiarize participants with the CoRemoting concept, its benefits, and its rules.
Technology Infrastructure: The matching tool and associated platform must be robust, user-friendly, and secure. It should efficiently match compatible colleagues while respecting privacy, preferences and organizational needs.
Legal and Insurance Considerations: Organizations must navigate potential legal and insurance challenges related to employees working in each other’s homes. This may involve updating policies, securing additional insurance coverage, or establishing new legal frameworks to protect both the organization and its employees.
Cultural Adaptation: For CoRemoting to succeed, it must align with the organization’s culture and values. Some companies may need to undergo cultural shifts to embrace this new way of working and collaborating.
Measuring Success: Organizations should establish clear metrics to evaluate the success of CoRemoting initiatives. This could include measures of employee satisfaction, engagement, productivity, and the strength of inter-departmental relationships.

Outlook and Conclusion

CoRemoting presents an innovative approach to addressing the challenges of remote and hybrid work environments. By leveraging the geographical distribution of employees and their desire for both flexibility and in-person interaction, CoRemoting has the potential to create new connections, foster communities, and enhance organizational culture.

The concept’s success will largely depend on its ability to balance the needs of employees and employers while addressing concerns related to privacy, trust, and logistics.

As organizations continue to grapple with the evolving nature of work, solutions like CoRemoting may play a role in maintaining employee engagement, productivity, and satisfaction. The concept’s success will largely depend on its ability to balance the needs of employees and employers while addressing concerns related to privacy, trust, and logistics.

Moving forward, field trials with early adopters will be crucial in shaping the characteristics of the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for the CoRemoting platform. These trials will provide valuable insights into the practical implementation of the concept and help identify areas for refinement and improvement.

Ultimately, CoRemoting aims to transform a potential disadvantage of medium and large organizations – the fact that most employees don’t know each other – into an advantage by creating new connections and communities. By bringing in-person interactions into the home environment, CoRemoting has the potential to reduce isolation and disengagement while fostering a more connected and engaged workforce.

As the world of work continues to evolve, innovative solutions like CoRemoting may become important in helping organizations navigate the complexities of hybrid work arrangements. By addressing the 5Cs of hybrid work challenges – communication, coordination, connection, creativity, and culture – CoRemoting offers a promising approach to creating a more engaged, productive, and satisfied workforce in the era of flexible work. W&P

References

[1] Harter, J. US Engagement hits 11-Year low. Gallup. 10 April 2024 https://www.gallup.com/workplace/643286/engagement-hits-11-year-low.aspx

[2] Widening the Aperture on Hybrid Work (kastle.com) https://www.kastle.com/widening-the-aperture-on-hybrid-work/

[3] WFT Research. SWAA July 2024 updates. https://wfhresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/WFHResearch_updates_July2024.pdf

[4] Authors Martine Haas and Anthony L. Davis, go to https://executiveeducation.wharton.upenn.edu/thought-leadership/wharton-at-work/2022/06/succeeding-with-hybrid-work/ (the article is downloadable for free as a PDF file)

[5] Dijkstra, L., H. Poelman and P. Veneri (2019), “The EU-OECD definition of a functional urban area”, OECD Regional Development Working Papers, No. 2019/11, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d58cb34d-en.

[6] Gocłowska, M. A., Damian, R. I., & Mor, S. (2018). The Diversifying Experience Model: Taking a Broader Conceptual View of the Multiculturalism–Creativity Link. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 49(2), 303-322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022116650258

The Authors

Alexandros Lioumbis

Alexandros is an Innovation Manager, with extensive experience in fostering and protecting inventions in many fields of technology. His passion is harvesting and transforming ideas into inventions. He is a qualified European Patent Attorney and holds a Master’s degree in Technology and Innovation Management (Sussex University) and a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering.

Over the past 25 years, he has lived and worked in various European countries (Greece, UK, Germany, Spain and France) and has helped large and small enterprises and individual inventors to identify, cultivate and promote their inventions worldwide.

Alexandros is the Founder of CoRemoting, aiming to resolve the hybrid work paradox. He is also a member and volunteer in Professional Education matters at the European Patent Institute.

[email protected]

Alexandra Lekkou

Alexandra is a People and Organisational Development expert with extensive know-how and experience in talent management, culture management, leadership development, and employee experience, and a passion for building inclusive cultures with happiness and well-being at the centre. She is a certified Coach, Facilitator, and Positive Psychology Practitioner, and holds a Master’s degree in Psychology (Sussex University) and Bachelor’s in Sociology (Panteion University).

Over 25 years, Alexandra gained extensive industry experience at large organizations, multinational and Greek (Ericsson, BP, Nova), in award-winning HR teams, progressing from regional specialist roles across HR functions to Senior HR Management roles. She has also held consulting roles at different stages in her career.

Alexandra has always been working to support individuals and teams grow and organizations foster an engaging and enabling culture and has been a key contributor to culture transformation projects. She is particularly interested in the evolution of the modern workplace and engaged in making positive change happen. She is the People Strategy Advisor of CoRemoting, Co-founder of the HappyLab, and a member of the International Coaching Federation and the International Positive Psychology Association, and she enjoys volunteer work as Mentor for NGOs.