Here's why the World 2.0 belongs to Remote

The Corporate world took well over the past century to come up with the quintessential office, and it took a pandemic somewhere less than half a year to unravel the known, tried, and tested. Remote Work became the sole savior to keep companies up and running. As jarring as this transition has been for the employed and their employers, the new normal of work from home comes with a fair set of realizations, starting with a universally felt sentiment:

I first got to know about Remote work in 2017 when I visited the US for a conference. After reading the Gitlab handbook, Zapier's guide, and some other resources, I found my conviction in remote work.

Being a newbie developer myself, I realized the gap in opportunities across different ecosystems and firmly believed in the fact that the globalization of opportunities is bound to happen because it just made so much sense! From changing the way workplace interactions take place to achieving new paradigms of work-life balance, remote work is undoubtedly logically sound!

Remote work is poised to become a norm for Millennials and Gen Z, and its benefits are immense. Results from various surveys have confirmed that once you’ve gone remote, there’s no looking back. And, that’s why I’ll talk about the benefits, impact, and challenges of remote working both from the perspective of an employee and an employer, backed with data from the various survey including the one we conducted in India because World 2.0 is remote!

The New Normal

As the present workforce grapples with the new normal, managing schedules and averting the risk of burnouts, once the system is streamlined to allow for better work-life balance, remote working can prove to be the boon of one’s professional life.

In a survey conducted by Pesto on remote work in India, we found more than 85% of respondents have been working remotely for less than a year, clearly showcasing the switch due to pandemic.

However, remote work had already started gaining popularity in pre-pandemic days, unlocking the true potential of human productivity and addressing the loopholes of the traditional office set up.

Here, I believe the bigger picture that emerged was that of talent being universal. Over a period of time, businesses have also started recognizing the wider talent-pool accessible to them once they go remote and are no longer confined by borders. Some of the companies that were already aboard the remote work bandwagon pre-COVID include Invision, Stack Overview, and Zapier (to name a few). In fact, more than 57% of our respondents were employed by global companies.

As per a report by Flexjobs, the growth in remote work over the past twelve years is whooping 159% with more than 44% growth taking place in the past five years. A growth of over 8% was reported in a span of just one year (2016-2017).

An important point to note here is that this is the data in pre-pandemic days. I believe the new data is going to look insane as the tables have turned. The world will have to work hard to get back to the old ways instead of vice versa. I would expect 60-75% of all tech workforce to work remotely either part-time or in a full-time capacity.

In March 2020, as global restrictions and lockdown ensued as a result of COVID, others quickly hopped onto the wagon. Few months into the pandemic and teams going remote, giants like Facebook, Apple, and Twitter were amongst the first few to extend work from home till the next couple of years.

Though work from home is going to stay and it’s not going away anytime soon, I do believe that remote work can very often be misunderstood. Perhaps, it would help to look at work under the following self-explanatory categories:

• Work from anywhere - co-working spaces, cafes, etc.
• Work from home: office in your house
• Work in a traditional office setup
• Working in a pandemic - No social life, no vacation, no sports, little interactions ??

It's critical to understand that currently, we're all working during a pandemic. So, we might be facing problems that will not exist in the near future. With a lot of things changing around us, the lines often get blurred!

The Benefits

Well, it isn’t hard to guess who the binary beneficiaries are in this situation, so I’ll directly delve into the benefits that remote employers and employees can reap, and as a bonus, we'll talk about the environmental impact as well.

Benefits for employers

1. Job satisfaction: As remote workers tend to be more satisfied from their jobs and likely to stay in their current job for the next five years 13% more than their on-site colleagues (Owl Labs), employers end up saving a lot of money and resources that goes in the hiring process and finding the best-suited candidate for the job.
2. Sense of belonging: Not only are remote workers more engaged than office workers by putting in longer hours, they also develop a stronger sense of belonging than their on-site counterparts. As per the latest Gallup State of the American Workplace report, it was found that regardless of the fact that remote workers often communicate with their teams only over the internet, they feel like their opinions matter and their work receives its due acknowledgment.
3. Work-life balance: Further, the flexibility of remote working (be it work from home or any other place) allows the majority of workers to take only 2-3 weeks of vacation per year since they have more control over their schedules and therefore, do not require as much time off as their office-going counterparts.

As per Global Workplace Analytics, all the factors together help organizations save an average of $11,000 per year per part-time remote worker leading to 21% higher profitability, and once you take into account the infrastructural costs that are minimized, the figure goes significantly higher. This number of course increases when you look at arbitrage by hiring across different geographies.

Benefits for employees

Now, let’s look at factors other than flexibility that contribute to the satisfaction of remote workers.

1. The comfort of home: Working from the comforts of your own home and the option of switching from your workstation to bed to your balcony or whatever is your favorite corner can be particularly appealing in terms of relaxation and breaking the monotony of staying at one spot for multiple hours.
2. Not having to commute: Saving time and money and all the hassles of driving and public transport, sure, why not? Time spent in traffic will look as bizarre as sending letters to communicate in 2021. It just adds to human inefficiency.
3. Being with Family: Ability to spend time more time with family and be near your loved ones.
4. Global jobs: Working with people across the globe on opportunities that excite you.

In our survey, flexibility in schedule and work location were seen as the two major benefits of working remotely, followed by not having to commute.

Benefits for the environment

A few months into the lockdown, we all came across news reports of decreased pollution levels all over the world, thanks to 'not having to commute'. Employees working from home helps companies in cutting their electricity costs. And, let’s agree to the fact that while working at home, we use less electricity than we would in the office.

The Global Analytics report studied the environmental impact of roughly 4 million people working remotely every year and concluded the following

• Reduction in greenhouse gases: 3 million tons of greenhouse gases can be avoided because of fewer trips
• Reduction in traffic accidents: Up to $500 million can be saved
• Reduction in oil usage: Up to $1 billion can be saved
• Reduction in air pollution: Up to 83 million pounds can be avoided
• Reduction in Carbon emissions: Equivalent to planting 92 million trees!

Given these astonishing figures, maybe remote work is the first step to saving Earth without even going to Mars!

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