Remote work vs office: It’s all about possibilities
The global Covid-19 crisis has shaken many pillars of our daily life. During the lockdown, 70% of Europeans left their offices to work remotely. The proportion is probably similar in North America.
Is remote work becoming the new norm?
Software start-ups have shown that a 100% teleworking company can do pretty well. Some of them are now valued at more than one billion dollars! They have shown the way and now more and more companies want to do away with offices. But certainly not all of them! Hybrid forms are likely to become more widespread, with, for example, one part of the workforce working remotely and the other not.
While for some the experience remains mixed, for others it is an opportunity to try a new relationship with work. In any case, the remote work paradigm has definitely changed.
Remote work will not go away after the pandemic ends
Remote work has already been here for a while, but the great novelty is that now it is available worldwide. What happens when almost 70% of employees switch from a full-time week office work to working from home?
Whether the experience of remote work under these conditions has been positive or negative, it has at least put the topic on the agenda. Remote work will no longer be a gimmick or a taboo. Every employee now has it as an opinion, and perhaps some will want to negotiate going remote in the future. Few companies will then be able to claim that they do not have the necessary technological arsenal. Organizations that already had a remote work culture are doing much better than those that were cautious about it. The latter had to embrace it, but they did so in a hurry and really in a hitty-missy manner.
The trial by fire?
According to some reports, 76% of workers who were forced to work remotely already want to forget about their life in the office. And for a good reason - the current global crisis, as a matter of fact, has busted some myths and proved remote work to be a viable option. People who have been practicing it for years know that working remotely does not normally mean having to do their children's homework while, at the same time, reassuring your aunt on the phone and frantically answering professional e-mails.
Moreover, remote work does not necessarily mean working from home. It is when you work outside the physical walls of the company (at home, in a café, in a coworking space, on a beach...).
Making recruitment easier
Recruitment is becoming more and more complicated in some sectors and it is necessary to stand out to attract new talents. Employer branding and social networks can help you attract the people you need, but sometimes they are looking for other advantages.
And lately, more often than not, they want to work remotely. By offering telework options and promoting it, employers and recruiters can attract new candidates. By being flexible, they become more competitive in the job market, which is a considerable plus nowadays.
But why are candidates attracted to teleworking? First of all, it allows them to manage their working hours better by having a flexible schedule that makes them more autonomous and less stressed.
Lower absenteeism and late reporting rates
Do you remember the winter? A few snowflakes and the city streets are in a panic, public transport is blocked and everyone is locked in their homes. Thanks to teleworking, it is not a problem anymore. Employees can work from home and employers can have complete peace of mind in case of awful weather. One of the advantages of working remotely is reducing absenteeism and late reporting rates. And yes, teleworking avoids traffic jams and delays in public transportation.
However, teleworking does not mean less work. Employees must work the same number of hours as if they worked from the office. It should go without saying - but hey! - there’s no harm in mentioning it. Just to be on the safe side.
Opening the possibilities
There are a great number of remote work advantages including higher employee satisfaction, working efficiency, and the possibility to work from everywhere you want. So if, after this experience of a few weeks of forced telework, some will be reluctant to repeat, it may be because their company did not take adequate measures beforehand. But for those who enjoyed working from home, who felt more efficient, less tired, more concentrated, it was the discovery of another organizational world.
After this crisis, reluctance to let at least part of employees work from home can only be a matter of ‘corporate culture’. The technologies already available made it possible to switch to remote work in a few days, even less if the transition took place under better conditions in organizations that were already using those tools.
At the end of the day, it’s the result that matters so if employees are trusted and more productive working remotely, there is no reason to make them do office work just on a dare. A company is not about four walls and a roof, it is about a collaboration among its members.