By 2025, an estimated 70% of the workforce will be working remotely!

The world witnessed a historic shift in the 2020 job market due to the Covid-19 pandemic. While some companies used to offer the ability to work from home as a perk, it has now become the norm for most businesses.

By 2025, an estimated 70% of the workforce will be working remotely at least five days a month.

While 2020 may be considered the year of remote work, it is just the beginning as we see the trend continuing to grow exponentially. In fact, we have seen this trend grow since 2011 by 400%, with the greatest leap been ushered in by the pandemic.

As expected, Big Tech companies are paving the way. Twitter, based in San Francisco, told employees in May that they could work from home indefinitely. Square, which is also led by Twitter's Jack Dorsey, adopted a similar policy around the same time and will allow employees to work from home indefinitely, even after offices reopen.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees that many would work remotely indefinitely.

Remote work becomes permanent

 Another recent Gartner CFO survey revealed that over two-thirds (74%) plan to permanently shift employees to remote work after the Covid-19 crisis ends.

Remote work means less office space

Many companies are also planning a new combination of remote and on-site working, giving rise to a hybrid work model.

One strategy might be to have specific days for in-person meetings and collaboration and then other days allocated for remote work. In-person meetings might be reserved for brainstorming sessions, introducing new projects, or team-building exercises, while remote days would be for work that can be performed individually.

The office could be redesigned and reorganized by getting rid of cubicles and creating more collaborative meeting spaces or working from hotels, restaurants, libraries, or someones converted garden shed.

At Kopus, we have seen demand for all kinds of spaces, to be used as workplaces. One enterprise client asking us to get a series of restaurants to create "pods" of think tanks for creative working and collaboration. While also allowing everyone to be in the same place so that they could amplify their engagement and encouragement of good work!

In a remote setting where employees collaborate mostly via email, engagement is much harder for workers to convey and for employers to identify.

By participating in "offsite" workplaces, often in interesting spaces together, these events can be active while keeping enthusiasm high and employees will be able to stand out as leaders.

What I am loving is the move from presentism to productivity!

The Covid-19 pandemic has proven that we can work from home and do it effectively—without losing productivity. In a survey by Mercer, an HR and workplace benefits consulting firm, 94% of employers said productivity was the same as or higher than before the pandemic, even with their employees working remotely.

The future of remote work will require many changes, including investing in digital infrastructure and freeing office space.

For most companies, having employees work outside the office will require reinventing many processes and policies.

The question many are asking, will the benefits outweigh the drawbacks?

But to you, I ask, can you benefit from the future of work?

Have you got a room, a desk, or an office that can be used for remote work, can you monetize an underutilized asset that is also a perishable good?

Can you help workers, find safe spaces to work, collaborate and curate the future?