Companies who can't operate remotely are in trouble
Covid-19 has highlighted the lack of capacity most companies have for remote work.
This will be viewed as an existential threat to businesses and every board will push their companies towards developing a strategy to cope with any future situation immediately.
The reason is incredibly simple: duty and contingency.
Duty
Every company has a duty of care to its team. Workers should not have to work in a location where there is the possibility that their health will be affected by doing so. Remote work ensures teams are safe and able to continue working. A great strategy makes sure they are safer, more comfortable and productive at home than they would be in an office:
📍Health
The current situation highlights a key problem with the modern office. Open-plan spaces with a large number of people grouped closely together.
Remote work lets workers control their work environment
⭐Access
Workers who are immunocompromised shouldn't be operating from an office while any health situation is ongoing. To force them to do so is irresponsible.
Remote lets workers with underlying health issues work without any disruptions
🚦Continuity
Where some workers can work and others can't entire business functions crumble. This happens when you need every person to be in the office to get work done.
Remote work ensures teams can still collaborate and get their work done where they rely on other team members
Contingency
Companies that are flexible and have the capacity for remote work are able to continue operating efficiently. Companies that don't have become paralyzed or forced to insist their workers continue to attend the office. A contingency plan is essential:
💰Continuation
Where people can't get into an office and there is no remote work capacity companies are being forced to shut down operations.
Remote work lets operations continue without disruption.
🚨Recovery
When situations happen that disrupt the operation of a company alternative opetions are a key strategy.
Remote gives every company who has the capability a plan for recovery
⌛Productivity
Remote work is more productive on almost every measure. Companies who can do remote work well will be far more productive than their office only competitors.
Remote work empowers workers to do a greater volume of better work
What about Companies that Don't?
Companies who don't develop a remote work strategy right now signal two things:
- We don't care about our teams
- We don't care about disruption
Companies who adopted technology 20 years ago replaced every company that didn’t.
Companies that can operate remotely will beat every company that can't in 5 years.
The current situation has accelerated this growing trend. There are 20m full-time remote workers working from home today across the EU and the USA. It was projected to be 40m by 2030 but I expect it will be closer to 80m as the current situation accelerates the adoption. Eventually, any of the 255m desk jobs globally will be able to be done remotely.
Remote work is the biggest workplace revolution in history and nothing will deliver a higher quality of life increase to workers in the next decade than this. Workers having more flexibility to decide their work schedule, able to operate when they are most productive rather than a fixed day, enables a far better future of work than the one we currently experience. Organizing work around your life is a huge transition with major implications. Gone is the requirement to beg your bosses permission to go to an appointment, it is the ability to drop and pick your child up from work every day with time in the afternoon to go for your recharging run.
For companies, the benefits are even more dramatic. Rather than only being able to hire the best person in a 30-mile radius of your physical office location, you can hire the best person on the planet. This increases the average talent level of remote companies significantly above their office-first peers. Every 1,000 workers operating remotely save a company $16.4m per year in real estate costs. At worst, having a great remote work capability for 10% of the cost of current real estate is a wise strategic investment for every company.
How Do I Develop a Remote Strategy?
We built an all-in-one provisioning platform that lets companies develop a remote work strategy instantly.
We provide all the practical equipment remote workers need at the touch of a button. Firstbase takes care of everything as a monthly subscription per worker, including delivery, upgrades, maintenance, repairs, and collections when a worker leaves. We help you:
- Be more cost-efficient
- Comply with regulation
- Save time on onboarding
- Continue your operations
Sign up for a demo of our platform here
