ABB CEO Karim Allana: 7 Tips to Optimize a Distributed Workforce

It’s not exactly news that many more people work remotely today than did before the COVID-19 pandemic. Pew Research finds about 35% of people who say they can do their jobs remotely do so five days a week. Many more work hybrid remote and in-person schedules.

Remote and hybrid work are here to stay, whether we like it or not. So too is “distributed” professional work, wherein larger organizations operate multiple branch offices to better serve local customers. Sometimes, these branch offices specialize; in other cases, each is more or less a microcosm of the organization itself.

The remote (dispersed) and distributed models both require some finesse to manage effectively. 

“Leadership looks very different when distance prevents regular, face-to-face contact,” says Karim Allana, and CEO of Allana Buick and Bers (ABB), a California-based architectural engineering firm with more than offices in the United States and Mexico.

Experts like Allana, who’s held positions of leadership at ABB for nearly 40 years, know a thing or two about running multinodal organizations from a distance. Here are seven tips Allana shares with leaders looking to follow in his footsteps.

1. Don’t Add Locations Too Quickly

Most professional services providers have just one office location, even if most professionals work for larger organizations that very often have multiple branches. Georgetown Law defines a “large law firm,” for example, as any firm with more than 100 employees or more than one location.

The point here is to be leery of growth for growth’s sake. Staffing up and branching out simply because it makes you look more successful than you feel is usually not a winning strategy.

2. Centralize “Top” Administrative Functions in One or Two Offices

If and when you do add satellite locations, keep executive and “top” administrative functions centralized in one or at most two offices. At least, until you’re doing business in more than one country, at which point it might pay to have semi-autonomous national fiefdoms.

“Maintaining a single ‘nerve center’ as the organization grows helps maintain cohesion and efficiency of decision making,” Allana says.

However, centralizing decision-making in your home office doesn’t mean establishing leaderless branch offices. Just the opposite.

3. Have Trusted Employees Running “Point” on Key Satellite Office Functions

You don’t have to be in the retail banking business to appreciate the value of having a single, responsible “branch manager” at each satellite office. That’s just good business, as we’ll see

At the same time, your organization should enforce a more sophisticated hierarchy within its branch offices (and between the branches and the home office). Even with centralized “top” administrative functions — that is, each C-level leader and their core teams housed at headquarters — it can be useful to establish individual branch offices as specialist hubs. For example, one office might be overweight on internal finance staff; another on legal or compliance. 

To some extent, this might simply “happen” based on the skill sets of your local hires — perhaps producing some useful synergies in the process.

4. Have a Clear Chain of Command (With a Single Lead) in Satellite Offices

Organizations of virtually any size need a well-defined chain of command with a single leader and distinct process owners. This is especially important in distributed, growing organizations, where individual offices function as miniature copies of the whole, says business dynamics expert Kimmie Meunier of The Org Chart.

A clear chain of command “enhances accountability with clear reporting lines, span of control and a deep understanding of who is responsible for what,” Meunier says. “Each team member, from upper management to entry-level employees, is held accountable for their tasks.” 

Develop branch-office chains of command as soon as you make the decision to stand them up. You’ll want to have all the pieces in place before the rubber meets the road.

5. Standardize Workflows and Communications Across the Entire Organization

Communication is easier than ever in dispersed professional organizations, but that’s no guarantee it’ll be done well. In fact, communication — and the workflows it supports — can very quickly break down in larger companies that use multiple, non-standardized communication channels.

To take an extreme, oversimplified example: If one satellite office prefers to use email and SMS to communicate, another loves Slack, and a third prefers Asana, they each might have no problem getting things done internally. But what happens when they try to collaborate on bigger, cross-functional initiatives — the sort with stakes high enough to get people fired?

6. Enforce “Quiet Hours” in Far-Off Locations (Except for Emergencies)

Nearly half of all workers — 44% — surveyed by SHRM self-report as “burned out.” 

That’s the sort of statistic that strikes fear into leaders’ hearts. For executives at companies with distributed workforces, the prospect of burnout is particularly concerning because decentralized hiring can be expensive and time-consuming. Burnout is a special problem for distributed workforces because lower-level employees often feel like they’re being pulled in different directions or dictated to by superiors they rarely see face to face.

One simple but effective way to combat burnout is to respect distributed workforces’ time and autonomy. Start by enforcing “quiet hours” in the late evening and overnight period local time, where communications cease except for true emergencies (as defined in company bylaws). Unless it’s truly dire, it can wait until morning.

7. Offer Mobility Opportunities, But Make Them Mandatory Only As a Last Resort

The American labor force is slowing down. Not in the sense that it’s any less dynamic than previously; rather, workers are quite literally moving less from place to place. This trend began in the 1980s and accelerated during the 2010s.

“This recent migration trend counters America’s historical experience of ‘restless mobility,’ when individuals readily moved in search of opportunity and advancement,” say Patrick Coate and Kyle Mangum of the Philadelphia Fed.

The reasons for the labor mobility slowdown are multifaceted, to say the least, but one important implication is that it’s more difficult to convince people to relocate for a new or better job. If you run a distributed organization, try to fill vacancies in existing branch offices and staff up new ones on a voluntary basis. You can frame “mobility opportunities” as means for promising employees to advance faster than they would in their current locations, and only make relocations mandatory as an absolute last resort.

The Art of Being Everywhere at Once

You can’t be everywhere at once. No matter how badly you want to be, or how urgently you feel the need, it’s simply not possible.

The sooner you accept this, the sooner you’ll be able to move on and exert effective leadership over your distributed organization. The sooner your employees will thank you for taking it a bit easier, too.

Acceptance is just the first step. With that out of the way, you’ll need to roll up your sleeves and begin implementing the scalable system you and the rest of your leadership team know are needed to keep your entire organization running smoothly as it grows.

Growing at a manageable pace, delegating to trusted “point people,” standardizing workflows and communications across the entire organization, offering mobility opportunities rather than take-it-or-leave-it relocation demands, and more — each of these ideas has a place in that system. Now, it’s time to build it.