Back in October 2020, LogMeIn’s President and CEO, William Wagner, released a LinkedIn blog talking about the company’s transition to the remote workforce. Since founding the company, William noted that he’d always invested in giving employees the tools and technology required to work from anywhere. This gave the brand an opportunity to be one of the first brands leading the way to the future of remote work, with over 4,000 distributed employees.
Now we’re in May 2021, and the remote/hybrid workforce is beginning to roll out, William Wagner once again returned to LinkedIn to share his thoughts on the changing work environment. According to William, he’s been made well aware of how remote employees can often miss the water-cooler moments of an in-office environment. He also noted that in hybrid working environments, he believes that remote employees can often be overlooked for promotions and opportunities.
Here’s how LogMeIn’s CEO is planning on balancing a better future for hybrid work.
Giving Employees More Opportunity
The first, and most important aspect of William and LogMeIn’s approach to remote work, is keeping employee choice and flexibility top of mind. Employees will be able to choose how they want to work going forward, though some roles will require more face-to-face time with customers and partners than others. William says that he and his team won’t be rushing people to get back into face-to-face environments in any environment. Instead, the company wants to lean into an era of remote-first working, and flexibility, where employees can be more productive.
As a remote-centric company, LogMeIn’s executive team is largely remote too. The company hired two remote leaders in the last year, and only about a third of the executive team live nearby the physical headquarters, according to William. Although Wagner said he hadn’t worked from home much before the pandemic, he’s convinced that hybrid work is now the way forward.
The vision for LogMeIn after the pandemic is for everyone to do their work remotely. When together in the office, employees will collaborate for team building and collaboration opportunities. The brand wants to ensure it’s possible for teams to avoid the commute and complex trips into the office wherever necessary, which means more meetings and interactions will take place online.
Investing in a Remote Future
LogMeIn’s full transition into a remote-work environment comes with a new investment in training opportunities for managers. Wagner set a goal for the LogMeIn team to have the best remote managers this year, and he plans to enable that with access to new training opportunities and processes. There are new collaboration budgets in place in LogMeIn too. This should assist managers in engaging with remote employees on a more frequent basis.
According to LogMeIn, the world is still preparing to meet the future of work, and discover what life is going to be like after the pandemic. Reopening is happening in phases around the world, and companies need to remain flexible as we find our footing in a new era. William Wagner believes that this new world will be an opportunity for remote work to shine.
