Labor Shortages and Remote Work Challenge Leaders

Labor shortages and post-Covid remote work present two significant challenges for business leaders. Yet, both challenges are related. Companies that allow employees to work where and when they want will attract under-utilized talent pools and a more diverse workforce.

Many CEOs are missing the seismic workplace change underpinning remote work. It isn’t important whether a CEO believes in remote work or not. The fact is that professional work has changed forever. The Covid pandemic forced the professional world to accelerate change toward remote work, and now that change is here to stay. Remote work is productive, popular and proven.

If companies want the best talent, they must adapt to accommodate remote work wherever possible. Younger generations of workers demand remote work — older generations’ nostalgia for office work prior to Covid are irrelevant. And companies’ desire to reinstitute office attendance in order to monitor productivity of workers will fail. Great companies will adapt with better performance metrics that measure remote and office employee OUTCOMES rather than employee ACTIVITY.

Remote and flexible work also attracts better, more diverse talent. Companies that implement very flexible work schedules enjoy access to the tremendous talent and experience of women, single parents, older workers, and less mobile employees. These amazing talent pools are often excluded from the workplace due to rigid work hours and in-office work requirements. Companies with flexible work schedules and locations attract these underemployed talent pools and close the labor shortage gap.

This broader talent pool, in turn, yields a more diverse workforce. Businesses that purposely offer flexibility and opportunities that attract women, people of color, and individuals from varying socioeconomic backgrounds build better products and services that appeal to a much larger addressable market.

More talent, more diversity, more profits. Regardless of business leaders’ individual views toward remote work or nostalgia for years gone by, the practical reality is that businesses that allow more schedule and location flexibility, attract a diverse workforce, and implement better metrics to measure outcomes rather than activity will generate superior financial results over time.

CEOs have to forget about the past and look to the future.