Angie Stocklin: How to trust your team to work from home

Recently in my entrepreneurship class at Purdue University, we discussed the trend of return-to-work mandates—not only for Indiana and federal government employees but also for major tech companies like Apple, Amazon, Meta and Google.

I was curious to know what this generation of future entrepreneurs thinks about remote versus hybrid versus in-person work. Just like the rest of us, their opinions ranged from believing employees should be in the office full time (unless they have the day off) to believing remote work is the way of the future.

However, most students like the idea of a hybrid approach to work. This generation grew up in pandemic times and is comfortable completing work in a virtual environment. But the students value and crave relationships with people.

A few talked about lonely, fully remote internships where they failed to develop strong enough relationships with peers or leadership to even feel comfortable asking questions. Another student described an internship where he was stuck in the office by himself, while full-time employees were allowed to work from home. Other students spoke of feeling stuck at a previous job, counting the minutes or hours until they could leave at 5 p.m., yet having no work left to do. The idea of working in an environment where you’re trusted to do your work and allowed the flexibility to complete that work in a way that works best for you was appealing.

So how do companies ensure they are getting the best from their remote or hybrid team members? One student said you shouldn’t need to put heroic measures in place to track productivity, because if you don’t trust your employees to do their work remotely, then you have the wrong employees. She isn’t wrong. But who ultimately owns the burden of creating trust? I would argue that the ultimate responsibility of creating a culture of trust begins with company leadership.

Trust between an employer and an employee begins with a clear company mission and strong core values and goals. Aligning individual goals with company goals allows each team member to understand how they are adding value to the organization and to feel like the work they’re doing matters to the overall company mission. Clear goals also can allow the company to give each team member space to do their work and meet their goals in the way that works best for them.

This trust builds when the company offers employees autonomy to make their own decisions and gives them psychologically safe spaces for them to learn, fail and grow. Continued trust is only possible when team members have consistent, clear communication from other employees across the organization. It is the leadership team’s responsibility to foster a safe environment and create a systematic pattern of communication through meetings and touchpoints.

Is this uncomfortable for companies? Absolutely! The founder’s brain often works inside of a financial model, calculating every expense to make sure the funding will be enough or that profit remains steady. And, like it or not, people are expensive. It’s human nature to want to maximize every cost for a return.

But companies that get this right understand that people are more than entries in a spreadsheet. Setting your team up for success and trusting its members to do their best work also can maximize your return, without the pesky confines of micromanagement.

The truth is that there’s no one right answer for every company. As a founder, you’ll need to create a plan that works best for you and your team. In our pre-pandemic company, we didn’t think much about in-person versus remote work. I loved spending every day in the office building strong bonds through little moments throughout the day, but I’m not sure I would choose that exact same approach if I were starting a company today from scratch.

Whether you are in-office, fully remote or somewhere in the middle, creating a culture where you trust your team members and they trust you is the most important thing. Set the structure, hire the right people and trust your team to pull through. I promise you’ll be happy with the results.•

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Stocklin is an angel investor and exited founder who currently teaches entrepreneurship at Purdue University.