It’s Time to Hire a Head of Employee Dynamics

Remote work is a pandora’s box. Now that it’s opened by the pandemic, it’s going to be impossible to shut. Smart employers are getting ahead of this transition in many ways, but perhaps the most successful method is to hire an individual to be in charge of the remote employee experience. One of the primary challenges of the new workplace—where in-office, hybrid, and fully remote workers intermingle—is that the experience is different for each worker each day. For example, a recent report revealed that as employees become more decentralized, this organizational “sprawl” leads to decreases in productivity. Approximately 43 percent of those polled said they are spending too much time switching between tools, with some reporting that they are spending nearly an hour each day searching for information across platforms. However, with someone guiding the ship, the employee experience wouldn’t be so disorienting and isolating. “Head of Remote,” though, probably isn’t the right title, as it doesn’t encapsulate the responsibilities of the position. “‘Head of Employee Dynamics’” works because it better describes what the person would be charged with doing: ensuring everyone can be productive optimally regardless of where they are and regardless of where the team happens to be on that day,” said Sandra Slager, the COO of MindEdge Learning, a learning and development company that has brought someone into this role.