These days, due to spread of coronavirus, remote working has become a norm for most of companies. The question is “Is remote working going to stay for long”?
Remote working will cause some challenges including the nature of employee relationships. Besides, the productivity of employees will be affected. If all the companies decide to work remotely, it wouldn’t be easy.
In the long-term, remote working may become an integral part of business models after Covid-19. However, some business meetings may be held in-person. Large events, workshops and seminars will be digital. As automation is increasing quickly, employees will need to use their existing skills for other jobs or diversify their skills.
The transition for companies in special areas such as IT, marketing, app development
will be much easier in comparison to other jobs.
It is interesting to note that remote working can benefit companies in some ways. For example, remote working can increase productivity, and also virtual collaboration in some companies. Besides, it can decrease the costs such as office rental, travel and events. Due to less commutes of employees working remotely, the use of energy will be reduced as well.
According to Vijay Gandhi, regional director for recruitment consultancy Korn Ferry, the biggest HR challenge for employers is the difficulty in predicting the needs of future workforce. This situation is due to the evolving economic landscape.
Based on a Korn Ferry survey, most of the corporate employees (around 75 percent) are working remotely, while 22 percent of manufacturing/operation employees are working from home. In addition, 23 percent of the customer-facing staff is working from home.
It is interesting to note that the social distance among head office (corporate staff) is more prevalent at 69 percent. While, the social distance among manufacturing and customer facing employees is around 58 percent.
According to a study conducted by Global Workplace Analytics, the number of remote workers has grown by 140 percent since 2005. As well as this, it should be said that 16 percent of global companies are exclusively hiring remote workers. It is estimated that around 73 per cent of all companies will have remote workers by 2028.
Also, here are some recommendations to remote workers in order to be successful:
- Enhance your time management skill: time management is one of the most important skills for remote workers. You should prioritize your tasks. In other words, you should know what should be done first, and what should be done at the end.
- Don’t work too much: try to work when you are energetic
- Pretend to be at your workplace: this helps you be more productive
- Stay away from social media: social media wastes your time
- Have a certain place to work at home