Future of Remote Work

According to?Gartner’s?2021?Hybrid?Work Employee Survey,?83% of employees reported a preference for working either in a remote or hybrid arrangement. Only 17% of employees preferred returning to full-time work specifically onsite.?The?future of work is human-centric.?IT leaders must be part of the revolution to reinvent what work means in the 21st?century or risk losing critical talent.

“In?the?future,?work?design?must?become?more?human-centric?to?drive?talent?and?business?outcomes. Three?work?design?norms mark a human-centric?workplace:?flexibility, intentionality?and?empathy”?(Gartner, Future?of?Work?Reinvented: Seizing?This?Golden?Opportunity?Requires 3 Actions, 16.07.2021)

No one wants their firm to be left behind as remote work becomes the “new normal”. The growth of cloud technologies and employees' preference for remote work becomes increasingly apparent as we push on into now the 5th?wave of the pandemic. Adjusting the way your firm works can save you money, increase employee satisfaction and with it, productivity. By creating a mobile work policy and implementing the right tools to do so, your team is better set up for long-term success.?

While remote work has always existed, it became truly relevant in 2020 with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like COVID-19, remote work is probably here to stay. Companies realizing the benefits of remote or hybrid approaches to work are paying less for energy, water, paper, toner, and other office expenses than their counterparts not responding to the change.

Neverless, managers must realize that making the pivot to a remote work scenario for their staff also demands an adjustment to work principles and methodologies. Firms must establish a solid foundation for their teams to adapt to the new remote-work norm and this requires implementing the right tools and processes for the job. Whether you have only recently entered the labor market, or are experienced and wanting to better adapt your firm for remote work, we have a few recommendations useful for any transition:

How to Choose the Right Cloud Technologies?

Explore and experiment with cloud-based teleworking software to find out which tools best meet your company's needs. At a minimum, remote workers need:

Secure Internet Access:?Confidential documents and company data will need to be provided with a high level of security and protection. Confidential documents transmitted without adequate security protocols may end up in the hands of organized criminal hackers and result in huge losses to your firm through litigation and theft of intellectual property as well as a tarnished reputation.?

Customer Relationship Management?(CRM):??A good CRM tool such is necessary for tracking both transactions and interactions and enabling employees to work seamlessly in a remote setting.?

Project Management Tools?such as?Basecamp, Trello or Asana?are helpful for creating, monitoring, and organizing tasks and deadlines.

Communication Channels: Being able to participate in productive team meetings anywhere, anytime, on any device using an?office phone system?that has the ability to host group chats, video conferencing, file sharing and task management (ideally all in one) can yield exponential rewards to productivity by stemming the bottlenecks posed by “technical difficulties”.?

After choosing your tools you should document them in your company's remote work policy.

How to Create a Remote Work Policy

Adjusting to the new norm means adjusting work culture as well. Just like firms have policies and procedures for onsite work, they need the same where it comes to working remotely. By meeting with the heads of departments to discuss what’s expected from remote workers, your firm can identify the necessary policies and procedures regarding:

• Who can work remotely
• Opening hours and scheduling
• ?Boundaries between work and personal life?
• Performance evaluation and improvement
• Compensation for home office equipment or building a home space for collaboration
• Hardware, Cybersecurity and Tools/Software

Ensure that all employees agree to the procedures so there can be no misunderstanding about expectations when it comes to remote work.?

To conclude,?COVID-19 has drastically changed our assumptions today about how we work, and employees and firms alike are realizing remote work is more viable than previously assumed. Changing the design of work practices is essential and the pandemic – for all the trials and tribulations it has created for commerce – has also presented unique opportunities to transform the way we lead our lives in beneficial ways as well. We as business leaders must embrace this evolving human-centric approach. “Business as usual” has only ever been a recipe for a footnote in history books. We must redesign work to become human-centric if we expect to keep up in the ever-changing work landscape.?

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