What COVID-19 crisis has taught us about remote work

Almost nine months have passed since the Upper Midwest began feeling the impact of the 2019 novel coronavirus. In the second week of March 2020, dozens of state and local governments began enacting shelter-in-place orders and other restrictive measures. At the time of this writing, more than 14.6 million cases and almost 300,000 deaths had been reported nationwide. While no clear end to the COVID crisis is in sight, these trying times have already provided much in the way of lessons learned, especially when it comes to telework.

Making telework work for your business

Starting point. A decade ago, less than 10 percent of the public worked remotely on a weekly basis. By 2019, 36 percent of respondents to a GetApp study reported they were working remotely at least once a week, and more than half indicated they worked remotely at least once a month. Despite that significant jump, a large number of companies still didn’t allow employees to work remotely before COVID-19 hit, except under exceptional circumstances.

The government-mandated closures, however, took employers’ options away. After the virus arrived, difficult tasks such as defining who on staff were “essential workers” and arranging telework capabilities for nonessential employees quickly occupied HR and management employees across the country.