Northern California businesses grapple with evaluating performance of remote workers

Are working in pajamas and not commuting worth risking career advancement?

It’s suddenly a question as businesses begin to open up and workers are faced with making the decision to push for remote work when bosses might prefer they return to the office.

“As far as raises and promotions go it doesn't matter where they work. We have been doing this for over year and it would be hard to say we have forgotten anyone,” said Jennifer Gotti, human resources manager for the Novato-based Brayton Purcell law firm. “We are trying to stay connected to everyone who stays remote. I’m not saying there are not any challenges with remote workers, but it is probably giving a better work-life balance for some of our employees.”

The pandemic helped spur the revamping of criteria for promotions at WRA Inc., an environmental and engineering consulting firm headquartered in San Rafael.

“It’s so people have a more clear-cut understanding of what advancement looks like,” Marissa Selaya, people operations coordinator for the company, said. “A lot of our employees are in the field and not in the office anyway. Their work is extremely relevant and important to what we do.”

Employees at Craiker Associates Architects & Planners in Napa don’t have to fret about being recognized if they are not in the office.

“We have the philosophy here that we reward people with raises with anticipation of their future growth and reward them with bonuses for past triumphs,” lead architect Chris Craiker said.

Lauren Purcell, office manager at Crome Architecture in San Rafael, said of managing remote employees: “It’s definitely harder on the owner of the company and some of the managers. They are having to set aside extra time to schedule conversations with somebody versus the casual conversation with someone in the office.”

Luther Burbank Savings President and CEO Simone Lagomarsino said, “Internal career advancement is the responsibility first and foremost of the employee. It does not and will not matter if the employee is working remotely or in the office. It is up to the employee to communicate with their manager their desire to advance and grow. Having said that, we ask all of our managers to conduct a monthly coaching session with each of their direct-report employees, to discuss performance, goals, and development. We have not experienced, and we do not expect to experience, a difference in career advancement for employees who are working remotely versus those who are in-office full time.”

Expect future lawsuits on remote working

Valorie Bader, an attorney with Welty, Weaver & Currie law firm in Santa Rosa and chair of the labor employment section of the Sonoma County Bar Association, said employers have the upper hand in dictating where an employee works in most circumstances.

“If you have voluntarily chosen to work remotely, an employee should have the understanding they are electing to not have the contacts, to not have the day-to-day interactions with their supervisor and other managerial personnel, so their work cannot be evaluated the same way as on-premise employees,” Bader said.

She expects lawsuits in the coming years to center around discrimination or retaliation based on remote employment — those who want that type of work as well as those forced into it, and litigation if companies don’t offer it to everyone. Her advice to employers is to perform evaluations prior to someone working remotely and while they are remote.

Global Workplace Analytics chief Kate Lister said, “I think this will make managers better managers. If you don’t know what your people are doing, that is a management problem, not a remote worker problem.”

She pointed out, “The highest online shopping time is during working hours so seeing the back of someone’s head doesn’t tell you anything.”

Lister added, “It can be huge when you don’t see someone’s face and you are not getting feedback. She suggests “assigning a buddy for people who are remote. If you can’t get a word in edgewise, have that person insert you into the conversation.”

Busy career coaches

It has been a busy time for those in the career consulting business because workers are re-evaluating what they want.

“I have lot of clients who want to quit. I tell them to talk to their manager first. Tell them what you expect and give them a blueprint for what you will do as a remote employee. Show them how it will work,” said Jessica Williams with JMW Career Consulting in Fairfield.

Williams explained. “You are in just as much control as they are.”

The keys, she said, are to have a strategy, weekly goals, plans for communication, and ways to evaluate performance.

The solo practitioner said about three-quarters of her 125 clients had “remote work challenges.”

“People are wanting to get the best opportunities for themselves now that they got a taste for remote life,” Williams said.

She expects company cultures to change and not return to the status quo of pre-pandemic life.

“I’m seeing more companies run by millennials where the focus is on cultural awareness, employee value, and diversity and inclusion,” Williams said. “That is showing a lot of these candidates they may be able to find a good place.

“Millennials are not loyal. If we don’t like something, we are out of there. With companies that are very bottom line oriented, they have high turnover rate.”

Brenda Agresti, a career coach in Sebastopol, agrees with Williams’ sentiment about the need for workplaces to be adaptable.

“There was already more need for flexibility. (The pandemic) has just shined the light on it for corporate or office type positions,” the career coach said. “I feel any company making the decision to just go back to usual with 8 to 5 is going to see higher and high turnover.”

Finding balance between various workers

Santa Rosa-based Luther Burbank Savings is telling most of its employees to get back to the office at least occasionally. Only a few will be able to stay remote 100% of the time.

“We have updated our telecommuting policy to provide the privilege of working remotely up to three days per week to more employees than we allowed to work remotely prior to the pandemic,” explained Lagomarsino of Luther Burbank Savings. “The opportunity for an employee to work remotely is a privilege that can be revoked if for any reason the employee is not performing their duties, does not remain in good standing with the company, etc.”

While LBS branches were staffed with essential workers throughout the pandemic, at the peak about 77% of all workers were remote. Today about 60% of administrative employees are still not in the office full time. Those in compliance, finance, legal, human resources, IT, branch back-office support and lending operations have been offered a hybrid schedule.

LBS has 11 branches and three administrative offices across California, Oregon and Washington. Of the 285 employees, 56 are branch employees, 22 are sales or account executives, and 207 are administrators.

Most of the approximately 140 employees with Brayton Purcell LLP have been working remotely during the pandemic. The main Marin County office and the small one in Los Angeles are not expected to fully open until after Labor Day. At that time employees will have the option to stay away, come in or some combo of the two.

It means meetings are likely to remain virtual. Those in the office will log in as though they were remote so everyone is on the same screen at the same meeting. Already the remote workplace has altered hiring practices at the law firm.

“It is changing what our workforce looks like because we can look for employees outside the Bay Area,” HR chief Gotti said.

WRA Inc. is giving its more than 100 workers a choice of where to work. Selaya said a survey showed half of the employees want to stay remote, the other half want to be in the office. She expects some will carve out a hybrid schedule.

“I don’t imagine anyone expects not to use Zoom even after things get back to normal,” Selaya said.

Most of the eight workers at the Craiker architectural firm will continue to work remotely.

“We have twice a week virtual meetings where we are able to go through all the project lists and talk about each one and make sure everyone has work,” Craiker said. “The single most important thing is that the workers feel taken care of, that they feel appreciated and not like they are working in a hole someplace.”