01 Apr The times they are a-changing…
The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’
Into my third week, working from home, enjoying Bob Dylan’s music on a routine morning, a colleague called to say that he was tired of remote work and could not wait to get back to office. His saying was music to my ears too…as that meant that he was happy at the work place.
However, I chided him, reminding him that since 2018, globally 52% of workers work from home. at least once a week, and that the number of people who work from home has increased 140% since 2005 (Global Workplace Analytics Study.)
Yes, work from home, remote working, telecommuting, call it by any name – but this has become the new normal. The way we work is changing and the pace at which it is changing is monumental.
Covid 19 has ensured that the paradigm shift is happening in the here and now.
The millennials too are having their say in how they want to work. Nearly 70% of millennials would be more likely to choose an employer who offered remote working for the flexibility mattered a lot to them. They were willing to forsake upto 10% of their salary for this benefit according to a study.
Remote working offers a lot of benefits both to the employer and to the employee.
To the employer, the cost savings by way of investments in expensive real estate and employee benefits are indeed handsome. It also offers them access to talent across the globe at affordable rates for some critical functions.
For the employee, avoiding the daily commute is the greatest advantage – not only does he/ she save on time (a minimum of 3 hours daily) and the pressures of making his/ her way through the daily traffic, he/she also gets to save on the cost of travel which is a considerable sum annually.
The greatest beneficiary of working from home, incidentally, happens to be the environment as carbon emissions and energy usage are considerably reduced.
Much as technology advancements lead to remote working keeping pace with the office place, challenges abound! Organisations whose teams are fully remote seem to be far more comfortable in managing the day to day challenges as compared to those that are not.
So, what are the downsides to remote working?
A World Economic Forum report released in October 2019 states that there are also growing concerns that people’s mental health and well-being can take a hit when working remotely. In the UK, businesses lose £100m every year due to workplace stress, depression and anxiety. Research shows that being “always on” and accessible by technology while working remotely leads to the blurring of work and non-work boundaries, particularly if you work from home.
A 2017 UN report found that 41% of remote workers reported high stress levels, compared to just 25% of office workers. Apart from being unable to unplug, loneliness also seems to be a major pitfall for remote workers. In UK, one fifth of the population reported that they are “ always or often lonely”- and this is outside the world of work.
Currently, remote working has gone beyond customer support to areas such as IT, Education and Healthcare. We are in the nascent stages of remote working; looking to grow exponentially and organisations have a huge role to play in ensuring the well being of the employees.
Yes – everything can happen virtually – an ecosystem can be built towards meetings, training for growth, employee engagement et al.
However, man is a social animal. Why else would he head out in the evenings to the local pub or restaurant if not to socialize and share a laugh with his friends? Which remote worker does not indulge in that?
Our mind, body and brain are not separate from each other – which is why the emotional well being of remote workers will play a huge role -we need to focus on that to reap the benefits of the gig economy.
Post lock-down, the interesting development I am keen to see is how organizations (and their people) will take up work from home as a business practice. Will there be a balance created between work from office and work from home? Or will certain teams from certain industries decide to adopt work from home! So many options, so many possibilities…
No Comments