‘Change without story is a mandate, change with story is purpose’: Why marketing and comms execs are being tapped for chief-of-remote roles

By Jessica Davies

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Paul McKinlay had been a senior communications executive at e-commerce firm Vistaprint for a decade, before he was tapped by its parent company Cimpress to become its chief of remote-working seven months ago.

Now with the title vp, communications and remote working for Vistaprint and Cimpress, McKinlay is focused on delivering the CEO’s mandate to make remote-first working fundamental to its culture, in a way that gives it a competitive edge. He spends more than half his time leading the transition to remote-first working for the 8,000 staff members worldwide.

Such a big shift goes hand-in-hand with a robust communications strategy, he believes. “Real-estate, HR and tech leaders are stepping up to lead remote in their organizations. Why wouldn’t the incredible skills of communications and marketing leaders be equally applicable to the challenges of evolving to permanent remote-first working?” he said.

The evidence is certainly mounting for companies to invest in heads of remote. A study of 95 technology companies by real-estate and workplace advisory T3 revealed that the proportion with a designated leader for remote work jumped between August 2020 and February 2021 from 2% to 15%.

That coincides with a 147% jump in jobs advertised as remote in the U.K. at the end of last year, according to online jobs marketplace Adzuna, and 42% of U.S. startup founders have said they will set up remotely.

Cimpress is one of a number of companies like Facebook, Dropbox, Okta, LinkedIn, LogMeIn and more that have recently hired specific leadership for remote working — a role remote-first software company GitLab claims to have pioneered.

And like Cimpress, Gitlab’s head of remote, Darren Murph, sits within the marketing department, which also includes a whole team allocated to owning and telling the company’s remote story.

Companies shouldn’t assume a head of remote is a HR role, Murph said. For those with a “solid level of remote fluency”, a head of remote may thrive in marketing and communications. Their core responsibility will be to evangelize new ways of working both internally and externally, he added — and storytelling is crucial, especially in the midst of the hotly tipped “Great Resignation”.

“Change without story is a mandate, change with story is purpose,” said Murph. “For firms making the remote transition, this becomes an immediate part of their identity.” Conveying the “why” of a firm’s remote transition, makes senior marketing and communication leaders ideally suited to pivot into heads-of-remote roles, he added.

Marketing and communications execs are also getting the nod from HR and remote-work experts as the next chiefs of remote.

“More companies will be sharing their lessons on remote/hybrid, and much of that will require marketing support,” said Lars Schmidt, founder of executive search consultancy Amplify, and author of “Redefining HR.”

Hema Crockett, co-founder of on-demand HR consultancy Gig …read more

Source:: Digiday