What are the first few things that come to mind when you hear remote work? Let’s pretend you didn’t just picture employees in pajamas filling out spreadsheets or a worker wearing only the upper half of their suit to check in for the day’s kickoff meeting.
Whether you are an employer or an employee, you probably related remote work to the concept of home office. Even though they are strongly related, remote work does not necessarily mean working from home. Now that pandemic-related restrictions are being lifted, we are beginning to see many location trends becoming relevant once again as well as new ones appearing. Buffer’s survey of 2,000 remote workers shows that 84% of people chose to work from home. The remaining 16% were split between coworking spaces, coffee shops, libraries and other locations. However, upon the pandemic’s end a year later, people were asked where they would prefer to work; though just 59% wanted to primarily work from home, the other 41% wanted to primarily work from other locations. This gives us an idea of how flexible remote work can be. When it comes to productivity, 40% of those who shifted to remote work confirmed they have been working more since they began remote work, whereas only 20% indicated that they were working less; the remaining 40% said they were working the same amount. If we compare this to the results from a study by The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, in which 10,000 surveyed employees said they were just as productive working from home as they were when working in the office, we might assume that remote work does not always mean more working hours but can mean greater productivity.
Coworking spaces are becoming more and more popular for a reason. Companies can rent office spaces or employ other strategies in order to work with remote teams while also offering them office space, maintaining the benefits from both models. There are multiple ways that companies can go digital and grow internationally. Harvard Business School talks about the digital talent platforms that are helping to build a new on-demand workforce. This tells us that even many companies are leaning toward workplace flexibility as they embrace the benefits of remote work. There are also companies that have given up their offices as a result of the pandemic, thus fully implementing remote work in addition to co-working spaces as they determine new solutions.
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The problem is that many employers still find it hard to trust remote work to be as effective as in-office work, even when shown supportive data. Fortunately, remote work is something that can be introduced in phases, transitioning in-office work to remote work as administrative or operational support is required. This can all be conveniently handled through solutions such as contractors or through a nearshore staffing company.
Human resources are among the most important investments that every company must make. In a global market where vast distances must be covered and versatility is key, why would you ignore the numbers and let bias make the decisions for you? Business opportunities can be identified in numerous ways, such as using your preferred source of information to take a quick look at the top growing industries to invest in. Most of those, in case you were wondering, happens to be directly or indirectly related to remote work.
Have a look at a few:
- Cloud computing (market size expected to reach $1,251.09 billion within the next six years)
- Internet of Things (expected to reach $1.6 trillion before 2025)
- Information security (forecasted to reach $345.4 billion by 2026)
- Home technology (10.3% year-over-year growth)
- Telemedicine (38.2% compound annual growth rate from 2020 to 2025)
- Education technology (an expected increase of approximately $605 billion by 2027)
At the end of the day, the right digital solution will make a difference as remote capabilities become a factor of success and even survival among the competition, and the choice will not be about whether to go remote but rather which virtual platform best meets the company’s needs.
Is your company among the leaders who already have a remote team?
