How work-from-home is creating new workplaces for companies

1. How work-from-home is creating new workplaces for companies. If there’s one silver lining to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will have to be the newest trend that emerged out of necessity - remote working. When the news of a deadly contagion transmission broke, the world scrambled to make sense of what was soon going to become the new normal. In seeking a semblance of stability, remote communication began on personal and professional fronts. To add to the chaos, work-from-home policies were enforced upon unwitting professionals who suddenly had the comforts of their workspace replaced by the comfort zones of their own homes. It was a major adjustment for everyone, especially professionals who coordinate with larger teams. Productivity seemed to drop initially, but the new normal soon became something that many cherished. Workers who had issues with coordinating online were soon enjoying the experience as they were saving time and energy. The speculations around remote work always existed. They were never confirmed. The pandemic offered an opportunity to check the relevancy of working from any location. Even without a pandemic, if professionals wanted and policy allowed, they could be away from their offices and yet not miss out on work. It is the newest workplace trend that’s here to stay. Remote working isn’t just about home offices – it is about working from any location A trend works when industries sign on to continue indulging it. Seeing the rise in productivity and employee satisfaction, many leaders are considering the shift. According to a report from Gartner, 47% of employers plan to allow remote working permanently. Additionally, 82% of company leaders plan to allow remote working for limited durations to all their employees. Company profits are up. They’re also saving overhead expenses as lesser equipment and lower real estate space are required for remote working teams. A Global Workplace Analytics report shows how employers are saving an average of $11,000 per part-time role for each job that goes permanently virtual. Companies like OwlLabs have been promoting the ‘Work from Anywhere’ message since 2019 with their superb tagline - “Location is Irrelevant.” With the stay-at-home orders, companies and employees did find out how in many instances, location is irrelevant. Many giants like Facebook, Twitter, Square, Shopify, Groupe PSA, Box and Slack have already made remote working a permanent fixture of their organisation. The Differences between Onsite work and Remote work To put it simply, there are three major differences: 1. Virtual Workplace Accessibility

2. 2. Asynchronous Communication 3. Results-Based Tracking To create these new workplaces, companies that can operate via remote working have to incorporate these elements. Virtual Workplace Accessibility The workplace at home needs to be functional. Every member of the team should have all the digital infrastructure required to create the ‘office’ away from the office. For instance, telecom operators cannot remote work over Wi-Fi due to security concerns and will therefore be required to have an ethernet cable to connect to their servers at work. As most manual access is rendered moot, information management software s makes employees get unfettered access to the relevant documents, people, meetings, and decisions. Asynchronous Communication Assuming that the virtual workspace is setup and ready to go for the entire team, irrespective of time zone conflicts, scheduling problems, geographical locations, and interruptions at home, teams can start operating normally with asynchronous communication. Time and location become irrelevant and completing the task at hand becomes the sole priority. The thing which matters is a communication channel. Emails, telecommuting softwares of choice, collaborative document mangers, audio memos, and video notes provide seamless communication channels which lets you work, whenever, wherever. Results-Based Tracking Currently, one of the biggest challenges facing onsite work environments is how companies measure employee productivity. They’re based on sensory feedback. How much time employees spend at work, how much work they do over the cacophony of a busy workplace, and such. Management doesn’t always have visual confirmation on the reports submitted. With remote working, this technique is rendered moot. Mangers can now start focusing on delivered results, employee learnings, and algorithm-generated reports. Productivity will automatically become something employees can prove and disprove in an instant. Remote working is here to stay It has become a trend. Many big companies have incorporated this trend into their regular work environments. Ideally and to a huge extent practically, remote working is solely about getting the work done. It has a learning curve attached to it, like most new experiences do. The ‘stay-at-home’ orders in essence forced everyone into giving remote working a try. For now though, at least for some aspects of each industry, it looks like remote working is here to stay.