Remote Work: Remodeling The Work Lifestyle In The New Normal

Time has arrived for:

• Employees will check work from home policies first before salary
• While selecting house, People will check Coworking Zone in societies over other
• Noise-cancelling headphones, remote work essentials will be priority over fancy gadgets.

“Location independent is not about fascinating lifestyle, It is about high work efficiency and work life balance”

Covid-19 accelerated remote work growth at least by few years if not decade. It forces Corporate houses to think on the real need to have a workforce in offices.

Two years back when I read “There will be 1 Bn digital nomads by 2035” on levels.io it was very tough to imagine or digest.

Now, it looks imaginable.

“As they say – There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen”.

Recently, TCS COO N Ganapathy Subramaniam said TCS is aiming to have 25% workforce at facilities by 2025.

Unexpected changes always push people way ahead to adopt a new lifestyle.

In the digital age, the world of work has rapidly changed and will undoubtedly continue to do so. Location-independent companies and remote working is a huge part of that evolution – and overall, a positive leap forward for employers and employees.

“When world become remote, there will be no additional advantage to startups being based at silicon valley or at any fancy location” 

Below stats from Owl Labs which helps us to imagine 1 billion digital nomads by 2035

• 42% of remote workers plan to work remotely more frequently than they currently do in the next 5 years
• 55% of remote workers would be likely to look for another job if they were no longer allowed to work remotely
• 16% of companies are fully remote now
• 34% of workers would take a pay cut of up to 5% in order to work
• South America has 81% more fully remote companies when compared to the global average
• Small companies are twice as likely to hire full-time remote workers

As per Owl Labs study, around the world, 44% of companies don’t allow remote work at all, I think this percentage will drop to a great extend in the next five years.

Working remotely is now widely seen as a temporary measure, but I believe that it is likely to become the norm. Major IT companies in talks with their clients’ approvals for permanent WFH shift.

“I think in next 7-8 years, more than 50% of the workforce will go remote at least seven days a month”

Mark Barrenechea, OpenText (Over 12,000 employees) CEO and CTO recently said, OpenText will not reopen approximately 50% of our offices and will institute a hybrid model with those employees continuing to work from home post Covid-19. (Source – zdnet)

By hiring employees who work from home, organisations can easily find a bigger pool of qualified talent from all over the world as well as stay competitive by having a foothold in foreign markets by employing local talent.

Cost savings, better productivity, global coverage, and a diverse workforce makes remote work one of the best business models a growing company can implement.

Some benefits with Remote work –

• Saving time spend on office commute
• Saving money
• Flexible work schedule
• Work from any location
• Having more time to do things which you love

Some Struggle With Remote Work

• Unplugging after work
• Loneliness & staying motivated
• Surrounding Distractions
• Being a different timezone than teammates
• Reliable WiFi, Comfortable table & chair

Many big corporate houses will exponentially hire a remote worker to solve many existing issues, e.g. workers having to leave a job due to the expiry of their visas will no longer exist

Remote work creates lots of opportunities especially developing countries. Companies will access to talent worldwide and access to opportunity will be localised.

Due to Covid-19, many companies have taken their teams to work from home for a time and when companies will decide to switch back to their offices, be prepared with a strong argument as to why you’re making the change.”

Taking all of these cars off the road will make a huge difference to the environment. Time will tell, but the world is set to change one way or another.