Will Coronavirus-led Remote Working Change the Future of Work?
Published on : Friday 08-05-2020
As more people have sent to stay home to prevent the virus from spreading, companies around the world said their employees to work online and remotely. This can be a seismic shift in the way we work and live. Working remotely is no new concept in the corporate world; multinational companies and big tech firms are already offering remote working options. But as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread, smaller and medium-sized companies now even realize the importance of remote working offering to their employees.
As the pandemic has accelerated the working transition significantly, it is also turning remote work from an option to a requirement. Covid-19 has also caused many jobs to vanish and companies are learning what jobs really need for them. This leads them to revamp the workplace at a large level, resulting in many jobs being cut and redefine.
India’s prime minister already spoke in a recent social media post about how the workplace is becoming Digital First, and how India has an opportunity to be the architect of a new era of flexible working spaces. According to a Stanford study in a Chinese travel agency, remote working led to a 13% increase in employees’ performance, with a 50% fall in attrition, shorter breaks, and fewer sick days. The study further showed that the employer saved almost $2,000 per employee on rent. On the other hand, many people believe that the shift towards work from home, or remote working, will be a more permanent change, more willingly than a temporary one.
A survey conducted by Gartner with 317 CFOs and business finance leaders found that 74% of respondents plan to move their previously on-site workforce to permanently remote positions once the Covid-19 pandemic gets flatted. The study revealed that the biggest factor driving this permanent change amongst the respondents was the cost-saving benefits of working from home. This comes from the reduction of both on-site technology spend and minimized costs in real estate expenses.
Technology is also playing a crucial role in this transition as organizations are relying more than ever on technology to enable work to keep running seamlessly with employees dispersed. The demand for virtual workplace solutions that help teams continue to collaborate, communicate, and operate as usual is clearing the way of remote working in the future.
Today, teams are turning their meetings to conference calls, and their workspace to a project management board and their processes to digital workflows. With this change, many are seeing the huge benefit in efficiency, convenience, and transparency that come from bringing work online.
Therefore, remote working can draw huge advantages for businesses and employees alike. But due to the various distractions in the house or workforce preference to commute to a physical work space, companies must introduce proper remote work policies to strengthen strong workplace culture and efficient operations as they work with distributed teams.
