What is a Chief Remote Officer? Job Responsibilities
Before the pandemic confined us to our homes for almost two years; before zoom meetings and “nice to meet you virtually” became superficial parts of everyday business life; Before returning to the office, the idea of working remotely was a fantasy for most people.
What a difference a global event that only happens once in a generation.
Remote work has become a reality for millions, and businesses have been forced to consider new roles to figure out how to manage the new world order. Introducing the Chief Remote Officer.
If your eyes roll when you hear what could be described as the latest goofy C-suite reel, you’re not entirely wrong. According to Dan Kaplan, senior client partner at global consulting and headhunting firm Korn Ferry, it’s a short-term trend that’s particularly apparent in the tech space, where the likelihood of remote work was high even before the pandemic.
While the job title — brand new, as far as Kaplan can tell — leaves much to be skeptical about, the description includes programs and responsibilities that are arguably worth implementing for any company that suddenly finds its workforce is hybrid or entirely remote. This individual is responsible for redefining and developing company culture, making employees feel like more than just a number on the balance sheet, and underpinning operations to help hybrid and remote workers to be productive and engaged.
When So many white color jobs have been removed during the pandemic that many things have fallen by the wayside, Kaplan says (though productivity has generally increased), like mentoring and making sure new hires feel included when they start. Businesses need to rethink everything from onboarding employees to basic administrative tasks when everyone is working from home.
During the pandemic, more than a third of private-sector employers have expanded their remote work options, and about 60% of them expect to maintain the guidelines, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s a boon to remote work, which has led to changes in the workforce not seen in America since World War II.
“There’s just so much to do, and it’s easy to forget your people,” says Kaplan.
The data suggests that while remote and hybrid workers want to hold on to flexibility, they are increasingly feeling lonely and disconnected from their organizations. More than 30% said they felt lonely, according to a September report by Airspeed and research firm Workplace Intelligence.
The loss of culture that everyone is talking about is not an easy solution. Businesses need to think innovatively if they want to solve the problem, not just try to recapture the old days. Some argue that the chief remote officer might be the first step.
However, the role hasn’t caught on in large numbers, says Kaplan. There are a few reasons for this. The chief remote officer is a role that operates within the framework of a human resources department – and will likely continue to do so as it evolves. But, according to Kaplan, “this isn’t something HR departments can do as usual.”
It shouldn’t just be a roll of ideas. Most traditional HR departments could probably come up with five to 10 ideas to better serve remote and hybrid workers, but implementing, iterating, and adapting is something Kaplan says is a lot harder.
Which brings us to the second reason for the slow adaptation of the Chief Remote Officer: there are no real experts in the field yet. The scale of remote and hybrid work has largely taken the corporate world by surprise. Businesses have adapted surprisingly well to lockdown and the pandemic, but what comes next is harder to see and manage. According to Kaplan, while some organizations that have already operated in a hybrid work environment have had such roles among their ranks, for the most part there are not yet defined skills required for a chief remote officer. It is more difficult for recruiters to compile a list of top candidates for such a role.
There are at least a handful of companies in Silicon Valley that were early in the game and have a head start in figuring out what best serves the role, and vice versa. Such as GitLab, an open-source DevOps platform; air freight booking app Cargo.one; Identity authentication software company, Okta; and Doist, the maker of productivity app Todoist, all have a chief remote officer on their payroll.
Perhaps the most unsurprising reason is that companies are still clinging to remnants of the past, predicting that an unstable economic landscape in 2023 will render the chief remote officer and hand-wringing over the future of work irrelevant.
“There’s a pretty widespread notion that we did the hybrid thing and it worked, but that we’re headed for a recession and people are going to be forced to go back to the office because they won’t have any other choice,” says chaplain.
“There are probably companies that would create this type of role but think things are just going to go back. Here’s the thing, people don’t go back. Companies need to think about making this part of their business in the future.”
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