The Future of Work: Embracing Asynchronous Work

Traditionally, work was done in the office during consistent work hours in a synchronous fashion. In 2024, however, more companies than ever are supporting flexible working locations and hours. 

Whether you plan to have employees work remotely or support a hybrid office environment or not, you should know that’s what employees want. An EY study of more than 16,000 employees showed that nine out of 10 employees want flexibility in when they work and where they work. More than half said they would be willing to leave their company in favor of a more flexible work arrangement. 

What is Asynchronous Work? 

With asynchronous work, employees can work without needing to engage with each other in real-time. There’s flexibility in scheduling, including handling tasks on their own time. 

Asynchronous work differs from remote arrangements, although the two can work together. Remote work is really about where work is done. Work can happen at the same time as in the office and may include real-time collaboration or video conferences. By contrast, asynchronous work is more about when the work is completed. It can be done at any time, regardless of when colleagues are working. 

In most companies, much of the work is already asynchronous. Email, document sharing, recorded videos, meeting minutes — these are all asynchronous. There’s no expectation of real-time documentation. In fact, much of project work is already done on the employee timetables rather than immediately. 

The Benefits of Asynchronous Work 

Studies show that employee disengagement has substantial financial implications — estimated in the billions of dollars. For smaller businesses, the loss may be lower, but the impact is no less substantial. 

Working asynchronously has been proven to increase productivity. In no small part, this occurred because employees could work when they were most productive. For some, that’s early mornings. For others, it’s the evening or late at night. 

Other benefits of asynchronous work include: 

• Improved planning: Employees need to plan better because they might not be able to get immediate answers. This improves project planning significantly. 
• Improved focus: There are fewer distractions, which waste time and interfere with workflow. 
• Accelerated workflow: Companies can work across time zones. Without relying on real-time communication for every task, you can work coast to coast, overnight, or collaborate with teams across the globe. 
• Improved talent pool: You can draw from broader talent pools, hiring top-caliber talent regardless of where they live or what time they work. 
• Enhanced job satisfaction: Flexible arrangements support better work-life balance and promote a healthier lifestyle, creating greater job satisfaction. 

Asynchronous work arrangements are significantly easier to set up and manage today than in years past. Online tools and cloud services allow for sharing, collaborating, and communicating in a variety of ways. 

Challenges and Key Considerations 

Despite the benefits, there are some key challenges organizations must overcome for effective asynchronous workflows, such as: 

• Lack of immediate feedback: Unlike face-to-face or real-time communication, asynchronous communication lacks the immediacy of feedback and clarification. This can lead to incomplete information exchange. 
• Potential for miscommunication: Without the benefit of non-verbal cues, tone, and context, asynchronous communication can be prone to misinterpretation. The intended meaning or nuance may be lost. 
• Information overload: With the constant influx of emails, messages, and notifications, it can be challenging to prioritize and manage the volume of information. Important messages may get buried or overlooked. 
• Fragmented communication: Asynchronous communication can lead to fragmented conversations, where the context or thread of the discussion is lost, making it difficult to follow the logical flow of the conversation. 
• Delayed decision-making: Since asynchronous communication lacks the immediacy of real-time interactions, the decision-making processes can be slowed down while waiting for responses or clarifications. 
• Accountability and responsibility: With asynchronous communication, it can be difficult to ensure that important messages are received and acknowledged, leading to potential issues with accountability. 

It can also be challenging to build trust and make personal connections when teams are working at different times. This requires a greater focus on culture to build the collaborative workplace you want and establish trust throughout the organization. 

Strategies for Implementing Asynchronous Work for Finance Teams 

Here are a few strategies for implementing asynchronous work for finance teams in your organization. 

Clear Communication 

Effective communication in the workplace is fundamental to success. Making sure you have clear goals, objectives, and deliverables is crucial for teams working asynchronously — whether it applies to project-based work, company culture, or travel and expense management. 

Poor communication can create misunderstandings and conflicts, hurting productivity and morale. 

Policies and Procedures 

With well-defined policies and procedures for expense or travel requests, approval, and reporting, you can eliminate much of the back-and-forth nature of travel planning. By defining expectations for responses, approvals, and reporting, you can keep information flowing. 

Since communication is not in real-time, you should encourage those needing approval to submit requests in advance, allowing time for review and approval. You may want to develop a checklist that explains timetables and policies. 

You also need procedures in place for when advance planning is not possible, such as emergencies. Employees need to know what to do when time is of the essence. 

Embrace Technology 

To make things work, you need travel and expense management tools that support asynchronous communication, task assignments, and document sharing. For example, SAP Concur solutions simplify travel and expense management by enabling employees to capture receipts digitally on their smartphones, automatically populate expense reports, and trigger an automated review and approval workflow. 

Training employees on using digital T&E tools and best practices will also aid in adoption and use. 

Self-Service Resources 

Shared documents can also help maintain current policies and guidelines and serve as a reference tool for employees without having to have a real-time conversation. Self-service resources also reduce the manual workload for travel managers and finance teams. 

Feedback and Check-Ins 

Don’t forget to schedule check-ins with team members. You still need to have a dialogue about policies, systems, and software to make sure things are working as expected. Feedback is crucial for creating streamlined systems that everyone is comfortable using. Encouraging feedback and keeping communication open helps refine processes over time. 

Feedback and communication also help improve compliance. View our latest e-book Closing the gaps in compliance and check out the Effective Communication in the Workplace blog post for more workplace communication insights.