Value Work From Anywhere
Remote and hybrid – the untold challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion
Without the right approach and structure for equitable pay and promotion, a hybrid model has the potential to hinder rather than support companies’ diversity, equity and inclusion goals.
When it comes to hybrid, remote or a full return to the office there is more to navigate than just attracting, developing and retaining top talent, building culture and enabling flexibility for employees.
The benefits of remote and hybrid work are well documented: companies gain access to talent from groups of workers they otherwise would not – including those with elderly parents, parents with young children, individuals with disabilities and those who find a daily commute impractical. Companies can also access talent from locations that would be otherwise out of reach. It also enables firms to increase diversity - just 3% of non-white knowledge workers want to return to work compared with 21% of white knowledge workers.
The flexibility of hybrid and remote working gives employees – especially those with young children, elderly parents or a sick family member – the flexibility to stay in work, build their career and take challenging roles while meeting other obligations. Remote and hybrid enables these individuals to reduce time spent commuting and manage the demands of their professional and personal roles in a way that enables them to be effective professionally and personally.
Leaders acknowledge the challenges of hybrid and remote models – including onboarding new team members and building a cohesive culture. These challenges can be addressed by creating customised training programmes for new joiners, regularly bringing teams and businesses together with purpose – e.g. ongoing development or socialising.
There are downsides, however, and they’re most likely to materially impact the very individuals that are attracted or retained by hybrid and remote structures: those from diverse backgrounds, those with young children or aging parents – often women.
While the benefits to their personal and family life may be profound, the lack of time in the office – relative to colleagues who may not want or need to leverage remote work in the same way – means that these remote workers are less ‘visible’. Where visibility translates into high-profile projects, better relationships with colleagues and promotions, the very individuals who appreciate the benefits of remote work and the positive impact it has on their personal lives may find that it limits their career progression. This may be more likely in traditional environments and where managers haven’t undergone training about biases or where managers simply still like to ‘see’ people.
According to Harvard Business Review ‘the Society for Human Resource Management released findings from a survey of more than 800 managers – two-thirds of which believed remote workers are more replaceable than onsite workers. Forty-two percent said they sometimes forget about remote workers when assigning tasks. …. This could explain why remote workers are less likely to get promoted than their on-site peers – despite being 15% more productive on average.’
To ensure hybrid and remote work contributes to equitable promotion as well as talent attraction and retention leaders need to re-evaluate their approach to promotion, pay reviews and training. Managers need to challenge unconscious and proximity bias to ensure work is valued (equally) from anywhere. There are a multitude of mitigants - including:
Providing ongoing development and training to tackle bias and the potential for managers to unconsciously promote team members with greater visibility or who are ‘seen’ more frequently.
Reviewing promotion and pay review criteria, excluding criteria that offer unwarranted advantages to workers with greater visibility or access to managers and leaders due to being onsite more frequently.
Rethinking meetings to ensure remote team members are included and given the opportunity to speak – particularly where they may be the only remote team member present. This could be as simple as asking all meeting attendees to dial-in to ensure discussion and debate around the table includes the individual(s) that are not physically present.
Supporting remote and hybrid team members and their managers in building connections. While leaders won’t run into remote team members at the coffee machine, they can create deliberate opportunities to connect virtually on work topics and areas of common interest.
Creating opportunities for greater visibility – e.g. opportunities to present – virtually or in-person – key output and updates to the broader business and senior management.
Hybrid and remote environments can contribute to talent attraction and retention as well as diversity, equity and inclusion, but only if organisations acknowledge and then address the biases that can exist.
Let’s value work from anywhere not just the presence we see.
Notes:
(1) Tsipursky, Gleb. ‘’What is Proximity Bias and How Can Managers Prevent it.’’ 4th of October 2022, Harvard Business Review.