Work on the Go – Remote Working

The last 12 months have seen more people than ever before working on the go and working from home and many businesses have been surprised to discover that it has plenty of upsides. 

Hiring remote workers can be very beneficial in a lot of ways, while workers themselves often find the ability to work remotely, either part-time or full-time, very rewarding and a lot more flexible.

Does quality and productivity suffer?

There is a perception that if an employee is to be productive and create quality work, they need to be physically present at their place of work to do it and being away from the office, will cause too many distractions

According to Harvard Business Review (To Raise Productivity, Let More Employees Work from Home ) the opposite is actually true, with productivity increasing by 13.5% when workers were allowed to operate remotely.

The absence of co-workers and gatherings actually reduces the number of distractions people have, making it easier for them to maintain their focus. Without the interruptions of conversations, people or requests from colleagues to look at or help with things, there’s no need to break focus and then spend time refocusing.

The result is actually an increase boost in productivity and quality!

Who Is Working on The Go?

COVID pandemic caused a surge of the “work on the go” quashed notions that remote working was just something for traveling nomads whose lifestyle demanded they be able to perform their jobs from anywhere in the world, it was in fact, needed for business survival over the last year.

With the vast majority of remote workers doing their work from a home office, or occasionally close to home from a friend’s house, coffee shop, restaurant or even the beach or park. The fact is that remote work allows you to work on the go from pretty much anywhere and doesn’t mean you can’t work remotely from a single location. 

Is Work on the Go good for people?

While the social side of remote working is more deliberate than being in an office, it’s not absent. Many office workers (especially introverts) are delighted to have the opportunity to do their best work free from the burden of social interactions.

While working on the go can be, at times, lonely, there’s still a great deal of social interaction going on throughout your day. In fact, many remote workers choose to view their time saved commuting as a way of off-setting social time.

Many remote jobs also involve collaborative elements that require frequent conversations with co-worker. This may be via email or instant messaging, but these days, video chatting has exploded over the last year and now very common.

In addition, just because you’re remote working doesn’t mean you won’t need to participate in meetings and discussions. There’s also no reason to exclude remote workers from regular social events, with many companies now host virtual social events.

Is Work on the Go here for the long-term?

Many businesses have approached the concept of remote as a temporary solution. It’s often viewed as something needed for businesses as a stopgap with health concerns making it impossible to commute to the office.

The pandemic has certainly led to many people working from home on a “temporary” basis, in that when restrictions lift, we’re expecting to go back to normal. But is that truly a realistic expectation? Or has remote working become the new normal. 

The other myth is the fact that many remote positions are for contract work, which is, by its nature, less permanent than other roles. While it’s true that many contractors take advantage of remote working to broaden their prospects, it doesn’t mean all remote work is temporary. In fact, the opposite is true, with more and more businesses offering remote full-time permanent position.

Is Work on the Go suitable for all jobs?

There are some jobs that would be impossible to do from a remote location, like working in a retail store for example. And yet, more and more, we are seeing that remote roles are possible for most people. Even the medical profession is realising the advancements with remote surgery not being possible.

It may be that there are parts of a job that can be done remotely, adopting a hybrid approach. Continued advances in technology are also broadening the possibilities of what workers can do remotely on a daily basis.

Between cloud computing and storage, video technology, and remote access software, the days of it only being possible to do certain things remotely are long gone.

What’s the reality of Working on the Go?

Remember how many jobs didn’t even require the internet 20 years ago? We have seen time and time again that true innovators aren’t constrained by what’s possible today. They’re already looking ahead to the next normal. Technological advances have given us the means to create and maintain an unprecedented level of global connectivity globally, and businesses are waking up to the advantages this brings. 

Searching for the best talent or finding your dream job is infinitely easier when you’re not limited by geography and the practicalities of commuting to work. 

Working on the Go is the future, and it is here to stay….

Digital Disruption – The Future of Work

There are many views on the future of Work, including opinions on AI, Robotics, Skills and the impact on businesses, and Leaders must be able to cut through this noise. Sustainable performance will require much more than digital disruption, technology is straightforward, however, the mindsets and behaviours of people are not

According to MIT Sloan 66% of businesses have not reached digital maturity, and have not prepared their culture for the future transformation. In reality, what the last 12 months has taught us is that the future is already here and now, and we have accelerated digitally more in the last 18 months than we have over the last decade, with this speed of change accelerating.

This is causing anxiety, with many people afraid of new technology, often thinking it will replace their jobs. A recent Harvard Business study (Your Workforce Is More Adaptable Than You Think) suggests that managers are more anxious than the workforce and less prepared than their people, with employees being more optimistic about the future with better opportunities and more meaningful jobs.

Leaders, on the other hand, are struggling to shape the workforce of the future. The problem is that senior executives are focusing mostly on disruptive technologies, with employees being more conscious about the impact of the change, and therefore being more adaptive and optimistic about the future.

But people do need support, and managers and leaders are not prepared for the journey. Digital Transformation is in essence People Transformation and digital transformation is the path for business growth, with organisational culture being the most critical obstacle to overcome.

Companies must not just focus on digital transformation; they should also focus on culture and change and while most companies are going through a digital transformation, only a few are thinking about their people in the process, transformation is challenging for everyone.

Technology should serve people, strategy, and innovation, not the other way around.

Most initiative on change fail because leaders in businesses want to control the transformation. Success requires more than the right business model or technology. Don’t underestimate the emotional journey.

Technology is straightforward, humans are not. All transformations are people transformation. Get ready now and build a culture that pushes your organisation into the future.