Three questions not-for-profits should ask when considering a remote working environment

Remote workers – including those working in finance in the not-for-profit world – are “here to stay,” according to Glenn Wood, the Pastor of Administration for Seacoast Church, a non-denominational church with locations across North and South Carolina, after a successful trial of remote working forced by the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Wood offered tips for a successful transition to remote working during a conference session co-hosted by Allison Webb, Director with Baker Tilly. The presentation, titled “The Hybrid Workplace World in Not-for-Profit Finance,” was offered in Orlando, Florida, at the Sage Transform Conference 2022. Baker Tilly is a Sage Intacct value-added reseller. The annual conference brings together customers and partners of Sage Intacct, a Silicon Valley-based provider of cloud-based financial management software and services.

Wood explained that most houses of worship initially said “no” to remote work. Certain church workers in maintenance, landscaping and facilities, he noted, clearly were required to perform their jobs on church premises. But the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, and related safety regulations mandating workers keep a safe distance from one another, forced church leaders to rethink their workforce models for office workers, he said.

Meanwhile, workforce experts began issuing studies that touted the benefits of remote work for reasons unrelated to pandemic safety. For example, Wood noted, as early as 2015, the OWL Labs’ annual “State of Remote Work” report noted that a majority of workers would prefer to telecommute every day, simply to skip tedious and time-consuming commutes. Employers began to support flexible and reduced work schedules to boost employee satisfaction in a competitive hiring environment. Over time, many employers began offering a mix of some jobs that must be performed on premises, and other jobs that can be performed remotely, giving rise to today’s popular “hybrid workforce.”

After two full years’ successful experience managing remote workers, today many employers are changing onboarding and employee management processes to accommodate their hybrid and remote workers. During their session, Wood and Webb posed three questions to answer when moving a workforce to remote work.