The global pandemic caused by COVID-19 changed the game on how most businesses conducted their daily activities. Many companies started from taking remote works to avoid physical & social contacts; now some of them even giving long and uncertain furloughs for their workforces, to cut costs.
After around 2 years of living and working side-by-side with a pandemic still ongoing, we observed that one particular activity is staying around; remote work. HubbedIn Singapore laid out 4 big reasons why remote working is going to stay a bit longer than most of us anticipated.
What is Remote Work?
Remote work is a concept, a working style that allows people to work outside their office’s environment. It’s only applied to jobs that don’t require their employees to work onsite or meet physically. Remote workers are deemed capable to execute their works and projects from wherever location they are; be it from different buildings, towns, or even from different countries. They have the flexibility to arrange their work schedule, as long as the job gets done at the end of the day.
Surely for the last couple of years, it has been a cultural paradigm shift in society, defining remote work as something that provides employees a newfound lifestyle and freedom.
Now what are the reasons that remote work is going stay around?
4 Reasons Why Remote Working is Going to Stay
Productivity Increase
Research from a variety of sources has shown that in general, employees are more productive when they work outside of offices (remotely somewhere, or even simply by working from home). By cutting down commute time between home and office, and losing all the distractions they might have in the office, employees are found to be more productive. A study conducted by AirTasker (March 2020) showed that “on average, remote employees work 1.4 more days every month or 16.8 more days every year, than those worked in an office.” And yes, those days are fully utilized to get more things done.
Lower Operating Costs
Remote working reduces costs. What costs? You name it; internet, office spaces, electricity, security, food & beverages, stationery, etc. From a CFO’s point of view, it makes perfect sense that remote work is actually equal to cost efficiency.
A recent Gartner study & survey on CFOs and Finance Leaders in US (April 2020) revealed that “74% will move at least 5% of their previously on-site workforce to permanently remote positions post-COVID 19.” Additionally, nearly 25% of those survey respondents will move 20% of their on-site workforces to permanent remote positions.
Time & Money Savings
Not only it helps to spare your energy and mind, remote work is also saving time and money. You no longer have to spend time travelling from home to office, and vice versa— that part alone spares you some extra cash for gas or transport costs, right?
Coffee breaks in a coffee shop, and meal time in a restaurant or café, can also be exclude from your daily routine because remote work allows you to arrange your own time. You can cook your own meal, make your own drinks, or even order them online and have them delivered to your place.
Eventually, you can cut your meal budget up to 50% and transport budget to 100%, monthly. Pretty neat, right?
Wider Access to Best Talents
Now let’s talk about remote work from recruitment’s perspectives. Remote work allows both recruiters and candidates to conduct their meetings online— that includes interviews, presentations, and even recruitment tests. Recruiters will be able to interview more candidates as long as they can properly arrange the interview schedule, and job seekers will be able to be more focused on their presentations because they don’t have to worry about travelling to unfamiliar office areas. Both parties can complete more activities (or more interviews) in a day, compared to what they can accomplished if they have to go outside to complete them.
So, those are 4 main reasons why remote working is going to be around and probably staying for many businesses. If you’re interested to be working in such conditions, many job portals are also creating a whole new category for remote jobs, so you will find it easier to filter out which opportunities supporting remote work.
Go here to check what kind of remote works available for you.
