In recent days, with the coronavirus crisis at a peak, remote work has appeared on the scene. Some companies and professionals are betting on this way of working due to the impossibility of moving to the usual place of work or due to the risks of contagion that may exist. But, is working remotely effective?
Scientific studies carried out by the North American consulting firm Gallup show that remote work not only improves results, but also increases employee satisfaction, increases employee branding and is also one of the most desired actions by the most talented workers.
Remote working levels are growing remarkably in recent years. However, they are still at low levels overall. It is a general trend that will increase in the coming years and its growth will possibly accelerate with this coronavirus crisis. According to Gallup research, 54% of professionals say they would leave their current job for another job that offers greater flexibility of hours.
Having employees committed to the company is essential to achieve better business results. Companies with high levels of employee commitment have 41% less absenteeism, 40% fewer errors in production, and 21% higher profitability. Job flexibility has been shown to have a very positive effect on worker engagement. In fact, the commitment to combining face-to-face work allowing contact with other workers, together with the flexibility of working remotely, offers the highest levels of commitment on the part of the workers.
Remote work also has very positive aspects in other areas, apart from strictly business. For example, at the environmental level, you can improve pollution levels by reducing travel. At a time when concern for the conservation of our planet is on the rise, telework can bring interesting benefits in this area.
It can also help in the challenge known as “emptied territories”. In other words, as remote work grows, it will encourage more and more people to live in rural areas or in less inhabited areas. With this, we will improve the challenge that countries have to stop the excessive growth of large cities and empower less inhabited areas. For this, great technology networks will be needed to facilitate teleworking from anywhere.
But, above all, the great improvement that remote work will bring is the increase in the quality of life of many workers. Many professionals waste several hours a day commuting to the job and returning. Apart from the economic cost that these commuting expenses, the cost in time and in quality of life is very great. If you add time spent on commuting to long working days, many people spend almost half their time on professional tasks, which is outrageous. Furthermore, many workers are forced to live in large cities, to be relatively close to their jobs. On many occasions with frankly high rents, which makes it difficult for them to have high quality of life.
In short, betting more and more on teleworking will be very beneficial both for the company and the worker. A trend that has come to stay and that, with the coronavirus crisis, will only increase. Because as Jason Fried, North American author says, “one of the secret benefits of remote work is that it is the work itself that is going to be judged to measure the performance of the worker”.
