Can remote teams feel cohesive?

Even as the pandemic becomes endemic, remote or hybrid work will persist as both employers and employees stand to gain. For workers, the autonomy and flexibility afforded by remote work clearly trumps being entangled in tedious traffic jams and the petty politicking that percolates many office spaces.

Employers, too, benefit by saving on stratospheric rents and the increased productivity of remote workers. While individual workers, toiling independently in silos, may be more efficient, how effective is work from home when teams have to collaborate? How do leaders ensure that individual members are contributing and working cohesively as a team?

Harvard Business School Professor, Tsedal Neeley, argues in Remote Work Revolution that workers abhor surveillance tools. Be it keeping your video camera on all day or installing software that tracks which websites you visit, employees find these technological gizmos intrusive and insulting.

Instead of trying to monitor workers minute by minute, Neeley believes that bosses should try to create conducive conditions to foster collaborative and productive teamwork.

She cites the work of organisational psychologist, Richard Hackman, who was an expert on team dynamics, having observed a diverse array of teams such as flight crews, healthcare works, orchestras and intelligence units.

Hackman posited that successful teams are defined by three parameters. These include meeting their goals, promoting individual growth and ensuring well-being, and working cohesively as a team. How do these criteria manifest in remote work?

The first involves meeting goals and achieving results. Studies find that remote workers are generally more productive. Further, when jobs require workers to perform deep work involving focused attention, remote workers tend to fare better than colleagues in the office. People also tend to exhibit superior performance on “creative problem-solving tasks” when they are working from home, avers Neeley.

Optimal work sites

However, there are some caveats to the increased productivity of remote workers. Individuals tend to exhibit these optimal gains only when their home conditions permit it. Those living in smaller, cramped spaces or in larger families may experience more disturbance and distraction than workers with well-defined work spaces at home. To circumvent this issue, companies may even adopt a work-from-anywhere policy to give employees the freedom to choose their most optimal work sites, which, for some might be a coffee shop or the traditional office.

According to Hackman, the second criterion of successful teams entails the individual growth and well-being of workers. Giving staff autonomy over place and time of work can boost their sense of control, thereby increasing their motivation.

But bosses should be careful of exploiting the increase in productivity that most remote workers exhibit. If leaders pile their employees with more projects with tighter deadlines, the gains of remote work will vapourise as workers will be fatigued. Besides team meetings, leaders may interact one-on-one with remote workers, on a quarterly basis, to learn about their individual aspirations, both short- and long-term, and sculpting work requirements to meet those needs.

Finally, teams need to feel like a unit, where every team member fits in like a piece of jigsaw puzzle. For a team to feel like they are working “collaboratively and efficiently” together, members need to build “cognitive and emotional” bridges with each other and feel they are working towards a “common goal.”

While working face-to-face may aid this process, it doesn’t necessarily guarantee it. Many employees feel alienated from their team or company even when working in the office. According to Neeley, research indicates that team members can work together successfully with face-to-face meetings just accounting for 10% of their time.

When working remotely, team cohesion depends both on the frequency and quality of interactions with colleagues. So, leaders may ensure that teams meet on a regular basis to share their progress and clarify goals, which may shift based on new circumstances.

Additionally, time may be earmarked for fostering human connections, where team members share the latest updates in their lives or simply joke around, building a sense of camaraderie. When members cultivate strong bonds with one another, the team feels cohesive.

(Aruna Sankaranarayanan is an author and blogger)