The pandemic has brought a paradigm shift in the existing day-to-day life. For many people, going to the office is a regular daily task. However, the lockdown and social distancing across the globe have forced many companies to shift their work hours to online. And with that, remote working became the new normal. So, what is remote working? What are the advantages and disadvantages of remote working? Let's find out.
What is remote working?
Remote working is a working process outside of the traditional office space under a fixed time regulation. It doesn’t have to follow a traditional 9 to 5 routine. The concept came as part of the idea that work doesn’t have to be bound to the traditional workspace. Rather, with proper delegation, it can be done from anywhere. Even from the comfort of one’s own home.
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The concept of remote working is not new. The idea got developed through freelancing. Now on a global scale, some freelancers are offering their service remotely in different sectors from the comfort of their homes. You don’t have to be in the same city or country even, the total process gets delegated online. This not only saves the extra hassle of work commute but also ensures ease of task completion.
However, working remotely is gaining more popularity as the world has been forced to adjust to the COVID-19 pandemic situations.
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Pros of remote working
Better productivity
A number of studies found that people working from home tend to have better productivity. There are several reasons behind it. Working from home liberates a person from the traditional work hour regime.
One of the key advantages of remote working are the lack of office distractions. You can set up your own workstation in your home and work without any unnecessary interference. This helps to boost productivity as well as work concentration.
Since there are no fixed office hours, you can work as per your wish, at the time of your choice. As long as you are finishing tasks and meeting deadlines, there shouldn’t be any problem.
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Work-Life balance
Many people working 9 to 5 complain that they don’t have any work-life balance. Whether it's missing out on important events in their child’s life to being distant from family. The usual work routine makes it difficult to maintain a healthy social life.
But if you are working remotely, you get to spend more time with your family compared to the regular office schedule. You can start by saving time on the commute alone. On top of that, the flexibility of choosing work hours makes it easy to prioritize family and maintain a better work-life balance.
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Employee experience
Many businesses fail to understand that the employees are the main asset, not the product itself. If a company takes good care of its employees, the employees will take better care of the company or business. Remote working helps to boost the employee experience.
We have already mentioned how working from home helps to boost employee morale. Ensuring optimum employee satisfaction will help to further drive employee performance.
Employee appraisal gets determined by performance. And if working from home helps to boost performance, it’s definitely preferable compared to a normal in-person office routine.
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Employee retention
In this day and age, employee retention is becoming increasingly tough for businesses. Study shows of over 84% of prospective employees will choose a workplace that provides some form of work from home opportunities compared to full-time office opportunities.
Some 74% of the employees are ready to leave their current job for a work-from-home opportunity given the same salary structure. As more and more companies get adjusted to the new normal, it’s easy to see that employee retention becomes much easier with work-from-home opportunities.
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Decreased business and infrastructural cost
There's obviously associated cost with running an office. From rent to bills to hiring office assistants, an organization has to spend a considerable sum to keep an office running. But if the majority of the employees undertakes work from home opportunities, the associated cost can be minimized greatly. In fact, an organization can save a good amount of money per employee just by shifting them to a remote work scenario.
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Cons of remote working
Hands-on experience
Most of the offices use hands-on training opportunities to familiarize the recruits with the office process. However, with remote work, this opportunity becomes increasingly difficult to undertake. The lack of face-to-face meetings makes managers skeptical about the work performance of the employees. The lack of training also has a negative impact on the performance of the recruits.
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Access to information
In addition to hands-on training, every office has a proper onboarding process. It basically entails how the office structure is, how information can be accessed, and the overall process and procedures.
With remote working, the onboarding process gets handicapped. An average employee spends more than 30% of their work hour searching for information. Needless to say, the number is much higher in the case of remote workers.
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Collaboration
Office works are mostly a team effort. Even though you are individually responsible for your performance, the coherence and interdependence make office environments vibrant and motivated towards a collective organizational goal.
With remote work, this collaborative behavior is hampered. The online meetings are limited to work-related matters only with a limited scope of informal interaction. As a result, the organizational coherence might be lost and it might cause disjointed behavior among the employees.
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Bottom Line
Whether by choice or by force, most offices got forced to rework their office works during the pandemic. It's safe to say that the pros of remote working outweigh the cons greatly. But as the world battles out the Covid-19, many offices are returning to their usual physical office structures. While in most cases, it’s looked up as a positive aspect for the offices. What's left to see is whether there is actually an improvement from what’s achieved through remote work?