What are your thoughts on remote working?
It was national work from home day on Friday and I’d like to hear what you think about remote working?
Technology has made remote working a real possibility for many people, but there is still a perception that remote workers are lazy, anti-social, unproductive and lounge around all day in their pyjamas.
You may be one of the enlightened one’s, but unfortunately there are still an awful lot of managers that are not comfortable with allowing remote working.
They assume remote workers are disconnected from the rest of the team, but actually they can be more sociable and make more effort to build strong relationships.
This new image for a typical remote worker is demonstrated in a report by Future Workplace and Polycom called ”The human face of remote networking.” The report gathered data from over 25,000 people across 12 countries: USA, Canada, Brazil, Japan, UK, India, Singapore, Germany, Russia, France, Australia and China.
The report also shows the benefits don’t just favour the employee. There are substantial benefits for employers too. You’ll gain access to talent, potentially globally and you don’t have the expense of providing office space for each and every worker.
Staff retention will also be better as you’ll be offering a better work-life balance while receiving greater engagement, loyalty and improved productivity.
And when you’re hiring, offering remote and flexible working puts you ahead of your competitors.
If you don’t have the technology to offer remote and flexible working, the benefits of better productivity and better talent retention, will be passing you by.
But if you do have the technology but you’re still keeping your workers chained to their desks, please tell me why.
However, if you have the technology and your workers use it, please feel free to share your experience.
💙 NHS & Local Government ICB Lead / ServiceNow 🚀 / Artist / Father
7yBeing a fully operative remote worker its important to embrace unified communications as part of the flexible working as to keeping in touch with the organisation and business network. We have open federated access using Skype for Business and this allows me keep connected and clinging onto (Just!) the part that I am one of those millennial workers I look for flexible working to help balance work / home lifestyles. I am most productive when working from home, especially as the weather has been good over the last few days - @Citrix we have a mantra "work is not a place" and some of my more productive days have actually come from working / relaxing in a country park with the dog. Good post, on point with all points made
Account Director at Academia
7yI would say that any manager that has the view that home workers are " lazy, anti-social, unproductive and lounge around all day in their pyjamas" should not be in a management position. This type of negativity and distrust will surely spread through a business and from my experience negativity only ever breeds negativity. Working from home is far more productive IN SOME ROLES, entry level workers need mentoring and support that can only be achieved in an office environment. You are less likely to have a hard finishing time at 5pm, spending additional time finishing off jobs rather than wait until morning. My only advise to any companies considering moving to home workers would be to make sure there is plenty of contact with the home workers, a couple of calls a week just to make sure they are okay is always appreciated. Social events are important too, try to do something every quarter to keep them integrated in the team.
Counsellor
7yI think it's great that more and more organisations are embracing remote working! Work isn't a place you go, it's something you do - that's the phrase isn't it? And I think it's so true. It empowers people. Of course, good communication is key, but the way we communicate now is changing, and how we do business is changing and I think it's something organisations need to keep up with the times and attract new talent.
With everything in life, it is all about balance, work is something you do not a place you go. Remote working has big advantages and should be available to more people, but you need the human connection and to spend time with people in the office every now and then.