The Remote Shift Is Here…Are You In?
The concept of remote work has received a lot of attention over the last 9 months as we all try to figure out how to safely navigate the COVID19 pandemic. The recent lockdowns and social distancing restrictions have forced many employers overnight to convert their business model to incorporate remote teams. Even schools have been forced to figure out how to deliver meaningful content to highly distractible 5 and 6 year olds via Zoom or Microsoft Teams meetings. The question now is will this forced remote work norm change the overall societal perspective on the value of a remote workforce once COviD 19 is just a memory?
To really answer this question we need to understand how remote work and the societal perception of remote work has changed over the years. How did we view working from home before COVID19? How was it viewed 100 years ago? It might surprise you that the idea of centralized work offices and people going to an office every day is a fairly new idea. Prior to the industrial revolution people almost always were working from shops that were based out of their homes. It was not uncommon to have a small area in the back of your shop that your family would occupy. This eventually gave way to homes built above the actual shops that became very common architecturally prior to the beginning of the industrial revolution.
Once factories and large machinery became the norm it was necessary to have centralized locations as the machinery and assembly lines were too big to exist in individual homes. Factories were built in large populated areas and drew workers in to a shared workspace as part of their daily routine. In addition, the command and control philosophy of management which dominated the business world until recently required managers to have immediate and constant access to their direct reports and their bosses.
With the improvement in technology and the existence of the Internet the capability of remote work became a reality long before the idea was accepted in the mainstream. Some of the remote work pioneers like IBM and Yahoo embraced this work norm early on which paved the way for many start ups to consider remote work options as a way to attract more superstar talent to their businesses. Advancements in Internet technology in terms of speed and reliability along with the transition of analog phone line PBX systems to digital systems allowed for advanced phone call routing and robust features delivered over the Internet. This opened the door to widely dispursed call centers that had sophisticated capabilities with very little in terms of technology or resource investments needed to implement. Now call centers could route through a call center system on the Internet to individual home offices.
And then there was COVID…
Almost overnight the entire office world was thrust into some form of remote work team implementation which presented significant hardships for those businesses who had never faced the challenge of managing remote teams and resources. Without any time to prepare, suddenly a home-based work force emerged, with its kids, spouses and pets showing up in zoom board room meetings, its managers scrambling to ensure their direct reports were staying busy and many parents without day care and forced to split their attention between work and care giving.
IT teams were run ragged trying to ensure the transition from office to home happened with as little disruption as could be expected but once the physical office structure and technology are out of your direct control it is an entirely different set of complications. Many home networks were unreliable, slow and unsecured. Individual home offices did not have many of the peripherals of a typical office like scanners, quality printers, label makers,etc. Those who needed to participate in meetings often did not have the correct audio or video equipment to even use Zoom or Microsoft Teams and did not have a place to work in their home that was away from the distraction of family, pets and other home based diversions. Remote workers began to feel isolated and cut off from their teams and office relationships and some managers were finding it difficult to keep their teams motivated and focused.
It is important to take this brief stroll down memory lane because it is necessary to see how far we have come in a relatively short period of time and how much further we can go. Does it make sense to continue the trajectory to a more home-based working philosophy, or will we simply snap back after COVID is under control and return to our central offices?
A Gartner survey of company leaders found that 80% plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the time after the pandemic, and 47% will allow employees to work from home full-time. In a PwC survey of 669 CEOs, 78% agree that remote collaboration is here to stay for the long-term. This is a huge shift in the perception of the value of remote work from a business perspective. But how has the idea of working from home changed for the individual employee?
A survey from FlexJobs reported 65% of respondents want to be full-time remote employees post-pandemic, and 31% want a hybrid remote work environment—
27% of workers say that they would be willing to take a pay cut in order to work from home. And, 81% say they would be more loyal to their employer.
So what does this mean for you and your business?
It is very clear based on the above surveys and countless more statistics that working from home is a genie that is not going back into the bottle. Companies that want to attract the best talent, have the most produvtivity and compete in the new decade of technology innovation and a globally distributed work force should begin to embrace the concept openly and aggressively. It is clear that employees are now beginning to demand the ability to have some sort of flexible work schedule, wehther that is complete remote work or a partial hybrid approach. Employers are seeing the value in increased productivity, less distraction and more employee loyalty. Technology has become sophisticated enough that it is no longer a barrier, and with the proper planning and strategy, any office-based company can be successful in the transition to a remote work philosophy. The question now is are you prepared for this transition? How will your company address the growing demand for full or partial remote work?
Tell me what you think. How has your business been impacted by remote possibilities? Have you made the leap?
Jason Kistler