Remote working, home working, flexible working, virtual meetings, what will the future of work look like?
It’s probably fair to say that recent events have changed the way many of us will work, forever.
Where working from home never seemed possible before over night business had to make it a success to be able to ride the chopping waters or surving a pandemic. Traditional working hours have been reimagined and meetings are now taking place over video call.
Slowly we are starting to open our country again, more industries are returning to work, shops are starting to open their doors, children are going back to school. There are many things that can’t be done from home but even once the lockdown measure ceases and the pandemic is over the future of work will look very different to how it did at the start of this new decade!
Research has shown that 45% of employees will expect more flexibility once restrictions are lifted as it has been proven that remote working does work. A third of employers expected to be able to work from home for a least 3 days a week and a massive 81% of those asked expected to be able to work remotely for a least one day a week.
Only 15% of 996 employers have said remote working during the pandemic has had a negative impact on productivity for their business which isn’t to bad given that half had less then a tenth of their workforce working from home before the lockdown started.
We have adjusted quickly, the technology was put in place to allow homeworking where it was not available before, organisations have overcome hurdles at speed that would have been the cause to deny flexible working requests in the past so why would it suddenly be taken away again?
Employers will need to think about what has worked well during this time and what hasn’t? What advantages has it given the business and the people? What else would need to be done to make it a ongoing option?
Not all emloyees may still have the rose tinted view of working from home all the time. The future of work may look lonely and isolating for some. As appealing a working from home is humans need company and while we have all been separated and missing contact there are some that cannot wait to get bac to the normality of working life.
There is always the caution that productivity will not always remain so high longer term in remote workers, infact it is expected that there will be a delcine in the second half of the year so employers will need to continue to monitor the productivity of their workforce and make fair decisions to how they manage their employees, for the well being of the people and the business. What works for some will not be suitable for others.
How your business manages remote working employees is critical and it might take some getting used to, if you need any help with that get in touch.