Successful Remote Work :
on the importance of improving your business processes
2020/5/19 Thierry Walter
We started working remotely, BUT …
With the risk of an ever more widespread COVID-19 virus, numerous companies have decided to let their employees work remotely. However, with this trend, many firms are wondering how to move forward. Most who opted for remote working struggle to judge whether their business is still running smoothly under these new circumstances.
I decided to gather my thoughts on how to, with remote working policies in place, make these policies sustainable for business operations.
Management side:
・Plan for supporting operations and establishment of operations
・Preparation and support of the remote work environment(s)
Operations side:
・Creating a foundation for digitalized operations
・Definition and preparation of business processes
Others:
・Stress management
On a management side, preparations are necessary on both hardware and software sides. The former translates into the need for preparing and setting up portable computers to take home, the latter into providing financial support for a connected home, setting up means of contact, and preventing stress derived from these changes in work style.
This piece of writing focuses on the operational aspects of the above mentioned points.
What is necessary for digitalising operations?
While it might be difficult for single companies to overturn deep-rooted business practices such as the Japanese “hanko” stamp culture, preparations for operations with digital signatures and alike are possible instantaneously.
Digitalisation efforts in operations and other areas that lead to new value creation (productivity gains and other improvements) have been described by many as “Digital transformation”. They have drawn attention for a long time already, but I have the impression that so far the popularity and buzz around these efforts outweighed the number of actual executions. Now however, with the challenges surrounding the coronavirus, as the digitalisation of operations has become a necessity for advancing remote working policies, they have become an inevitable and urgent business matter for all companies.
There are various technical tools to digitalise operations. On the hardware side, there are card readers and scanners and of course PC’s、tablets and alike acting as communication environment.
On a software side, there are tools which our company also implemented, like e.g. Slack, Teams and Skype. We are still in the trial process for a multitude of such tools, and by trying out add-on features and alike we are starting to digitally manage in-and-out clocking and other aspects of daily work processes. Then, there are tools for sharing and managing work outcomes (documents), like Box, Google Drive etc. Furthermore, there are task management tools like RedMine or Backlog. They have until now been known to be effective and widely used in IT companies or IT departments, but in my opinion they can be just as effective in other industries.
Tools are only tools
The above mentioned tools are quite common in nature, and I think that there are tools with even higher merits which can further improve work efficiency. However, as these are tools that are used in running operations, considering the so-called 5W1H is just as important as the tools to support these operations:
WHAT is the task that you are doing?, WHO do you report to / do you work with?, WHERE do you get your information from / do you deliver your work to?, WHEN do you need to finish the task?, WHY are you doing this task? What is the purpose?, HOW do you accomplish the task?
Below, I summarise the points once more:
What：The contents of the task at hand are clear and understood.
Who：The people in charge of the task at hand are properly assigned.
Where：It is clearly defined where the necessary information for completing the task at hand is stored, and where the outcome of the task will be stored.
When：There is a clearly set due date for the task at hand.
Why：The purpose of the task at hand is clearly understood.
How：The method for completing the task at hand is clearly understood.
The Western style “Job Description” and its inexistence in Japan
Please let me share with you something personal. At my first job, which I got in a company in Australia, I remember being shown a job description document at the interview stage. The job description document clearly drew the line between tasks and responsibilities of the employed party (me), which meant that tasks outside of the job description boundaries were not of the employed party’s (my) concern. During actual operations, there were sometimes employees who complained, saying “This is not my job!”. Bridging the gaps in between tasks and responsibilities of employees was an important part of the manager’s work.
In Japan however, many companies do not state a precise job description. In my understanding, operations in Japanese companies are to some extent considered “smooth” if carried out in harmony (non-confrontationally) between the employees, or, in a better meaning, if carried out in “mutual surmise”.
Arranging your business processes will make your remote working smoother
As working together at the office has become subject to restrictions, in an environment in which it is now difficult to share the sense of being present together in the same location, it is unrealistic to expect tasks to be carried out in the same harmony as usual. Now more than ever is the time to define your business processes and stretch them out all the way from your company to your customers, suppliers and business partners. I strongly recommend this as a measure to improve your overall work flow.
Business processes are the activities needed to fulfill the needs coming from in and outside of the company and the aggregation of those activities, while business process flows are these activities transformed into visible flow charts, aligned with layers of management. For these documents, the previously mentioned 5W1H are very important. Why? If, depending on the person who writes these documents, the process layers or format are different, these flows don’t meet the requirements for being used in operations across the whole company.
In order to successfully bring remote working into the orbit of smooth running operations, and in order to maintain or even outperform the previous work productivity, companies in general and especially their managers need to present clear and reliable information in all aspects of 5W1H.
There are business applications called BPM tools, used as business infrastructure to accurately express and link all aspects of 5W1H. In my opinion, this kind of business application will be an important supporting tool for the unavoidable digitalisation of operations, made necessary by the advancements in remote working.