The Outlook for Remote Work in 2020 — Before and After COVID-19

Back in November 2019, The Futurist Institute released its 2020 edition of The Robot and Automation Almanac.

While almost all of the almanac's articles focused on various expectations for automation, AI, robots, and robotics developments, the article I co-authored with my colleague Nawfal Patel focused on remote work.

The article, which was published as part of our 2020 outlook, seems particularly prescient following developments in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Future of Remote Work

While many futurists are focused on automation as computerized technological leverage for companies and workers, there has already been a major — and often overlooked — change in the way people work.

And that’s in remote work.

Simply put, remote working is not just a stopgap on the way to robotic process automation, even if it is a global flattening of workforce activities. Of course, this trend toward increased remote working has been going on for a number of years.

But it is now at a tipping point.

And, most interestingly, it is creating efficiencies — and benefits — for both workers and companies.

Remote work offers people more freedom and flexibility to live where and how they want. New technologies have made it easier for more and more people to live far from the office but still perform their job successfully. It is a trend poised to accelerate.

In 2019, 54% of U.S. workers already worked remotely at least once per month and 30% work remotely full time.1

Expectations of More Future Remote Work

In 2020, we expected the trend for remote work will continue to increase, with more companies offering opportunities for employees to live wherever they want as long as they get the job done.

Technology and automation are key to making long-distance work manageable for employees and freelancers. Digital tools can give remote workers access to whatever they need. 

Since over 51% of the global population has internet access, there is some level of internet connectivity available in almost every corner of the world, so distant employees can always stay connected.2

Platforms like Upwork and Fiver allow workers to advertise and offer their services to people around the globe while automating a lot of the small details, such as invoicing and marketing. This allows them to focus more on their work and not worry about the minutiae. Remote workers will seek to take advantage of new technologies and applications that allow them to be more efficient with their time outside of the office.

A remote working world is a billable hour world, where workers are also reviewed for their work, which leads to curation that favors the most effective workers. It is a world where everyone is more focused on their highest value tasks. This means that individuals — microentrepreneurs — will also be looking for technological leverage so they don’t waste time on redundant mundane tasks.

Even more than large corporations, individuals do not want to waste time if there are more efficient solutions available.

And remote work is not just for low-level tasks.

There are attorneys, statisticians, economists, machine learning experts, and countless other high-dollar professionals that post for jobs on Upwork and other sites.

And an attorney, whether in an office or at the beach, does not want to waste time with accounting or scheduling minutiae. They will use applications to automate those kinds of tasks that add no value — and no revenue to their lives.

But this isn’t just a dynamic for microentrepreneurs.

Implications for Major Corporations

This is also a big deal for major corporations. Because remote workers are more productive — and because remote work saves companies money.

A recent Global Workplace Analytics Costs & Benefits survey showed that teleworkers in some large companies are 35%-40% more productive than office workers doing the same job.3

Another positive impact of allowing for telecommuting or remote work is the reduction of overhead costs for employers.

Additionally, 60% of the companies in the survey claimed cost savings as a significant benefit from remote work, with IBM claiming to save $50 million in real estate costs alone.4

The increase of remote work could also have a big positive impact on smaller cities and towns. The cost of living in major cities is skyrocketing everywhere.

Younger workers who want to live in cities are finding it increasingly difficult to find affordable housing.

This has led to a small exodus of remote workers into smaller second- or third-tier cities and towns, where they can find higher quality living situations at affordable prices. 

Companies are beginning to see the positive impact that remote workers can have, and they are starting to take serious notice by offering more flexible work arrangements to a significant number of employees.

However, not all aspects of remote work are positive. 

Maintaining a company’s delicate balance of work efficiency and employee happiness will become even more difficult as more workers go remote. Employers have less visibility over their employees’ actions, and they need to watch out for employees who try to take advantage of their newfound freedom.

Distractions and Work/Life Balance

There are a lot more distractions while working outside of the office, and some employees can get easily sidetracked if not supervised. 

Conversely, some remote workers find it difficult to maintain a good work/life balance.

Since there is no physical separation between a remote employee’s living space and their place of work, it can be hard for remote workers to fully disengage from their responsibilities and enjoy their free time.

Also, remote workers have reported to feeling isolated from their co-workers. 

These feelings can lead to lower morale and disconnected employees who don’t form full relationships with each other.

For employers, cybersecurity will become more critical as they allow people to work from remote locations. By spreading the work, the company is also increasing the attack surface and may be leaving itself exposed to bad actors due to one lax employee.

These are just some of the reasons that remote work can be great.

But they also underscore why remote work also needs to be managed properly to be effective and secure.

Looking Back to Look Ahead

Back in November 2019, we wrote that we expected that more workers in 2020 would seek remote opportunities and hope that the companies they want to work for will allow them to do so.

After COVID-19, this has rapidly been forced to come to fruition.

We also wrote that companies would have to make sure that they maintain efficiency and balance within their organization while still allowing workers to operate with a degree of autonomy. 

This means that effective project management and maintaining communication will be even more critical for success in the future. And those factors will only become more critical as ever-increasing numbers of workers seek out remote opportunities.

As we see more remote workers in the year ahead and beyond, we expect to see automated bots, AI solutions, and RPA that is specifically designed to help — and marketed to target — remote workers.

This move in automation will make an increasingly distributed workforce more efficient, more effective, and more productive. ~

ENDNOTES

1. Source: https://owllabs.com/blog/remote-work-statistics 2. Source: https://qz.com/africa/1490997/more-than-half-of-worlds-population-using-the-internet-in-2018/ 3. Source: https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/resources/costs-benefits 4. Source: Ibid.

About the Article Authors

— Jason Schenker is one of the world's leading futurists. He is the Chairman of The Futurist Institute and the President of Prestige Economics. He is also an instructor for LinkedIn Learning.

— Nawfal Patel is the Operations Manager of The Futurist Institute and a Senior Associate at Prestige Economics.

The Future After COVID

To read more about the future impact of COVID-19 on the future of work, more content can be found in Jason Schenker's book The Future After COVID, which was released on 1 April 2020.

It has been a No. 1 New Release for Macroeconomics on Amazon.

The Future After COVID is online here: www.FutureAfterCovid.com

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