,Chapter 1 Preliminary research...................................................................................................................7
1.1 Company and product analysis.......................................................................................................... 7
1.2 Preliminary research.......................................................................................................................... 8
1.2.1 Main concepts................................................................................................................................. 8
1.2.2 Context elements............................................................................................................................. 8
1.2.3 Drivers............................................................................................................................................. 9
1.2.4 Benefits........................................................................................................................................... 9
1.2.5 Challenges.................................................................................................................................... 10
1.3 Problem analysis.............................................................................................................................. 11
1.4 Information gaps.............................................................................................................................. 11
1.5 Research questions......................................................................................................................... 11
1.6 Project aim....................................................................................................................................... 12
Chapter 2 Research approach................................................................................................................... 13
2.1 Approach per information gap.......................................................................................................... 13
2.2 Data collection................................................................................................................................. 13
2.2.1 Survey sample............................................................................................................................... 13
2.2.2 Interviews sample.......................................................................................................................... 13
2.2.3 Personal communication source....................................................................................................14
2.3 Data analysis................................................................................................................................... 14
2.4 Operationalisation............................................................................................................................ 14
2.5 Reliability & validity.......................................................................................................................... 18
2.5.1 Survey........................................................................................................................................... 18
2.5.2 Interviews...................................................................................................................................... 18
2.5.3 Limitations..................................................................................................................................... 18
Chapter 3 Results...................................................................................................................................... 19
3.1 Preliminary research support........................................................................................................... 19
3.2 Guidelines for remote work.............................................................................................................. 20
3.3 Remote working tools....................................................................................................................... 21
3.4 Remote work policy.......................................................................................................................... 24
Chapter 4 Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 25
Chapter 5 Recommendations.................................................................................................................... 27
5.1 Increase awareness......................................................................................................................... 27
5.2 Implement provided resources......................................................................................................... 27
5.3 Set up a Remote Work Policy.......................................................................................................... 27
5.4 Create an event on the topic of remote work....................................................................................28
5.5 Create remote work operations service............................................................................................28
References................................................................................................................................................ 29
Appendix I – Sample Calculations............................................................................................................. 33
Appendix II – Survey Findings – question by question...............................................................................34
Appendix – The Actual Guideline Manual.................................................................................................37
Cloud Storage........................................................................................................................................ 51
Real-Time communication...................................................................................................................... 53
,Video Communication............................................................................................................................ 54
Reward & Recognition............................................................................................................................ 54
, Management summary
X is a marketing agency that provides services in marketing, sales, event management and business digitalization. The
company consists of 21 employees, 5 of which are the managers of the five main departments of the company –
marketing, sales, events, web and administration. The target customers of X are in the B2B market with a focus on
production and distribution, e-commerce and SaaS companies on the Bulgarian and the International market.
The monumental shifts of the past year towards remote working affected countries, industries, companies and
individuals. Remote work is a new trend that creates a need for awareness, resources, tools, policies and new
company operations (William, 2021). As a result of the global trends around remote working and the global pandemic
that was a driving force to it, the management team of X started to look for ways to embrace this shift and set a goal
for the company to transition to fully remote working by 2022. The goal is to optimize X ’s processes, create a
productive working environment for their employees and benefit their clients. This defines a need for findings on
remote work for Bulgaria, supporting guidelines for optimizing the remote processes, digital tools to support remote
operations and a way to organize the whole process in the form of a policy.
The research was drawn so that these needs are satisfied. The research consists of desk research, qualitative and
quantitative research in the form of a survey with open-ended and close-ended question as well as interviews with
the decision-making representatives of the management team of X . 295 survey responses were collected and 3
interviews were conducted. The findings were designated according to the research questions based on the needs
and the problem outlined.
The preliminary research outlined global and general context elements such as economic development, geographic
location, cultural factors and activities’ potential, drivers in particular remote work trend, freelance workforce growth
and the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, benefits for employers, employees and clients revolving around lower cost,
employment attractiveness, personal gains and lower risk were outlined. Some challenges for remote work such as
legal issues, communication and distraction, work performance and company culture were listed. While as per the
field research statistical findings the Bulgarian trends for remote work match the global preliminary findings of the
desk research.
The guidelines for both employers are setting goals, assigning responsibilities, communicating standard operation
procedures (SOPs), ensuring regular checkups in order to overcome the main issues of remote working. The general
guidelines for employees revolve around their workspace and technical conditions, preventing distractions and
establishing habits.
A list of tools is suggested to support the remote working processes of the departments in X . The suggestions are for
Administration - document signing and scanning, for Human Resources - real-time and video communication as well
as rewards and recognition, for Sales - engagement, sales dialer and remote prospecting, social media management
software for Marketing, Customer Relationship Management software for CRM, for Project management - project
management software, for IT – security tools, for Finance and accounting - remote accounting software and
Additional suggestions to support remote operations.
A Remote Work Policy template was provided based on the needs of X . The template is to be implemented by X as
well as provided to their partners and clients in cases when needed to further sport their business optimizations and
further digitalization.
