The lifestyles of employers and employees going through a drastic change in allowing people to work from home might have been the only good thing that happened in 2020. As COVID-19 catalyzed for most business to shut down completely, several smart organizations quickly adapted to the change and allowed their employees to work from home. Some even agreed to have their employees to work at their own choice of hours. Globally, employees and employers, both were quickly able to see the benefits of working remotely.
Remote work is a working style that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. It is based on the concept that work does not need to be done in a specific place to be executed successfully. - Remote Year
However, for some people, working from home hasn't been as easier. A lot of individuals depend on their work lifestyle to create a balance in their lives. Having no reason to wake up at 7 AM and rush to work at 9 AM had distorted a lot of people out there. On the other hand, a majority of working mothers were able to take advantage of working from home and being able to be around their children for longer.
But how do you manage your time from home? I mean, to be quite frank, in the initial stages of the pandemic - when we started working from home, I could barely find the inspiration to get out of bed, let alone open my laptop and even think about working. This was a major hiccup for many, and not being able to tackle it would lead to bigger hiccups. It wasn't too long until I got tired of that lifestyle and suddenly the laptop became my escape.
Although days before the emergence of COVID-19, several organizations globally jumped onto the discussion of letting employees work from home or for fewer days of the week following the Microsoft work policy change (Remember the one where Microsoft decided to let their employees work 4 days a week instead of 5?)
With corporate slavery breathing its fire into the global market, companies that wanted to boost productivity were ready to try anything and everything to make their employees happy. After all, employee satisfaction is also a thing, right? Let's be honest, we have all been hearing about remote work being the trend of the future, for a while now! And 2020 made it possible! (Not that it started on the right foot but hey..)
Even when things weren't 'remote work-friendly', most colleagues would use texts or Emails as modes of communicating regarding work anyway! So it was never really the communicating part that sounded or felt difficult. Organizations always feared that if work wasn't done strictly under their nose, it would probably not be executed perfectly.
But think about this, updating a shared Google Doc, or a shared spreadsheet, or even adding feedback in comments... that was all remote work. You, your desk, your laptop, and things being communicated directly to your colleague through a text rather than you walking over to their designated workspace.
Reasons why remote work is the future of employment
According to Deloitte's 2017 Survey, futuristic organizations will have a 'network of teams'. Workforces are becoming much more dynamic and work is more distributed amongst people.
Apart from the COVID induced remote work trend, more organizations recognize the benefits of not only having employees work from home but also having a culturally dynamic workforce and hiring outside of a single location. Below is a general list of benefits of why many companies were happy to hire remote employees.
Cost-Cutting
Having an employee in-house is pretty expensive, to be honest. You've got your office to upkeep, electric and water bills, supplies, work gear, and whatever it takes to make the job done smoothly. With a remote employee, you've got none of this worry about! Organizations could save up to thousands of dollars!
Being able to hire top talent
If you manage to save costs, you could use some of the bucks to hire a talented member for your team (someone that would have been slightly out of budget if you had to have him/her in-house). Also, remote work opens the door to hiring outside of your location, that opens doors to some amazing talent in the global market, giving your business a lot of flexibility.
Employee Retention
Did you know that a lot of employees tend to resign from a job simply due to work politics? No office, no politics! Also, many employees can save up on commuting costs, improve their work/life balance, and also improve productivity.
Remote teams almost have an unfair advantage in hiring. I regularly talk to San Francisco teams that lose candidates because other companies offer an opportunity to work from wherever they want. This has become more and more common. - Andreas Klinger, Head of Remote at AngelList
Diversity
As an employer, if you manage to hire top talent from different cities of the world, this puts you at a great competitive advantage due to the experience and cultural background that every employee has to offer as insight toward the same goal.
With the remote work trend still growing, many still assume that a successful remote work team is nearly impossible to have. At Cinemagic, though, we strongly disagree - and we live our truth every day with our internationally distributed team. Because one thing is for sure, whether we like it or not, virtual work may be a thing of the future, but it surely is a thing of the present. And this is why, we would like to share our experience so that you can help your remote teams perform better.
