In just a week’s time we’ll go into Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) again, and remote work will once more be the alternative work arrangement for most. While it is still an option for many, rethinking how work should get done can open many more possibilities for workers, teams and the organization.

Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic and one of the biggest proponents of remote work, outlines “five levels of remote work” that can help organizations see beyond the transitory nature of their use of this viable work arrangement. Here’s how he breaks it down –

LEVEL 1: WORK REMOTE BECAUSE YOU CAN

In other words, remote work is simply an option for now as you can put things off until you are back in office. The mindset behind this stage is the notion that remote work just allows for convenience; “we don’t know what employees are doing” therefore you want to minimize the ability for people to work remotely or flexibly as much as possible.

LEVEL 2: COPY THE OFFICE EXPERIENCE

In this case, you and your organization have better tools and access to working remotely. In this scenario, work is still designed to operate around face to face dynamic and people working remotely are expected to follow similar hours as everyone else. At this level, if someone works remotely, it is often with the worry that the person may harm actual work productivity.

LEVEL 3: USING VIRTUAL TOOLS

In this phase, people start adjusting to working remotely, upgrading their equipment, creating a space at home for working, having a basic familiarity with the conference and collaboration apps, but still mostly work in ways as if they are in the office. This stage still surfaces challenges: people used to working in the “old way” reject the approach and insist remote work is difficult. More capable teams, meanwhile, start working in new ways, rethinking meetings, using video when appropriate and optimizing online collaborative tools.

LEVEL 4: REAL REMOTE WORK

Once companies get use to working remotely and the kinks are worked out they can start shifting to unleashing the power of remote work. This is when things start getting interesting as in this level, you realize that you can’t track when people work so you shift to judging on what they produce: outcome versus in-seat performance. A paradigm shift occurs and trust becomes the primary principle and rallying point of all work.

LEVEL 5: NIRVANA

The true value of remote work is when you can start working more asynchronously than synchronously, and there is more autonomy for workers to decide when to work and how to operate within their teams. This takes a tremendous amount of trust and even more of a paradigm shift, but this is more of a “true north” than day-to-day reality. Employees can design day around health, wellness, well-being; they are able to operate around peak creativity, parenting, health, etc.

Developing a capacity for remote work is the greatest strategic advantage these days. At what level are you currently practicing remote work and do you hope your organization realizes the potential and advantages it offers to both employees, their teams and your strategic objectives?

Read more of Mullenweg’s work here.