Remote Work is the Hot Trend for 2020

Remote work format across many sectors has changed the paradigm of work scenario. The location of employees is not relevant anymore, what matters is their knowledge, experience & willingness to deliver results on time. According to experts, the trend is showing no signs of slowing down, in fact, remote work is rapidly on the increase all around the world. More and more employees are desiring to work from remote positions, either full time or part time, & looking towards finding job opportunities with flexible schedules. Companies are also embracing this growing desire, increasingly using flexible work options as a way to entice new employees. We talk to experts and find out how the concept is doing, the changes it brings along, & the challenges facing remote work both for employees & employers

Advantages of Remote Work format

Tushar Desai, Director at Talent Acquisition, FIS is an accomplished and seasoned HR professional with two decades of experience and expertise in multiple facets of HR. Currently, in his 14th year at FIS, he is leading the Talent Acquisition function at the FIS India and Global Delivery Organization. According to him, “Remote Working comes with multiple benefits like more time with family, better health both physical and mental, monetary benefits by saving on spending on travel and food, lesser carbon footprint and at least in my case, increased productivity.”

Key challenges in Remote Work format

The discipline of a professional working environment. Remote working does not necessarily need to follow a routine or structure.

• Isolation/professional loneliness.
• Technological issues may not get required/immediate attention or resolution.
• Escaping social obligations when working remotely becomes increasingly difficult
• Communication gaps and probable risk of being ‘invisible’ when required.

Ways to make ‘Remote Work Format’ a success for an organisation

• Build discipline and structure around the remote work life.
• Define rules of engagement with personal eco-system.
• Make the best of options in technology while in a remote working environment.
• Ensure the meetings are face to face over video interface rather bland voice calls.
• Dress up and pretend that you are in the office for those hours. Trust me, it really helps.

The key trends in Remote Work format to expect in 2020

Remote working, though very desirable is now posing a challenge for companies wanting to up skill and re-skill their employees. Talent upgradation for remote employees is trending for 2020.

The demographic mix will increasingly find remote working attractive as it gives them work-life balance.

Remote Workplace data security as well as risk and compliance apprehensions being meet with ever-evolving technology.

Advantages of Remote Work format

SRIVATSAN PADMANABHAN
COO and Co-Founder, GoFloaters

At GoFloaters, by design, we hire talent from different parts of India, as we truly believe in the power of remotely distributed teams. We have seen some awesome remote talent deliver so well for us as we have learned how to manage them over the last several months and got better at it.

A whole lot of advantages to having a Remote Work model are:

Talent pool: There is a large pool of talent out there in the market who excel in different areas but are not able to tap into the right opportunities due to their personal or logistical issues. Remote work mutually helps in finding the right talent who are driven by the same, similar passion.

Cost: This open arrangement has helped us keep our costs much under control and light on overheads. We don’t need to worry about the infrastructure and other resources to manage our talent under one roof. Low-cost structure!

Flexi-work: With the freedom to work from anywhere and everywhere, no commuting and snuggling in heavy traffic every day, team members get to start and end their day as per their convenience, are super productive and motivated to make a difference.

Happy workforce: Overall, the work-life balance is much better, people get time to work out and take care of their health, able to devote time to their loved ones and are happy and contented.

Environmental Impact: Yes, we do save time and money by not commuting but this lifestyle is also able to impact the environment in so many ways. As remote culture becomes mainstream, there are unlimited benefits such as lower carbon emissions, less traffic, lower cost of living etc.

Key challenges in Remote Work format

Challenges help us in building a better future. We love overcoming them and at certain times it has made us make choices, choose the best alternatives to beat them.

Working in isolation: We agree that working out of our homes or closed environments can lead to loneliness. So, at regular intervals, we do encourage each of our city teams to have team meet-ups, work out of our cafes (this also helps us read our spaces well), work out of different spaces to meet and socialise with other solopreneurs, gig or independent workers. We also regularly conduct networking events at our spaces where our employees meet and socialise with the wider community.

Lack of bonding: In a typical office set up, people get a lot of opportunities to talk to each other and share their happiness and difficulties over a cup of coffee or while waiting near the water cooler. Hence, people get to bond and develop personal relationships, which help imbibe a positive culture in the team. This is not even remotely possible in a distributed team. Hence, we actively promote a culture of sharing information, both personal and professional.

Communication: One of the biggest risks in a distributed set up is information may get lost in translation or worse does not get shared at all. Hence, we make it a point to communicate every single aspect of all the initiatives transparently and frequently. The team follows through and communicates even granular updates, which has eventually promoted a culture of active and watertight information sharing.

Managing tasks and overwork: Sometimes because you are working on your own and have ‘N’ number of things to finish, you tend to get tempted to work throughout.

Distractions: This could be the biggest challenge if you are at remote work especially from home. In fact in India, it could be anybody from sales reps to family members who are a constant distraction from productive work unless you discipline yourself. We need to get our focus mode and get to work when it’s work time!

"With the growing stress and strenuous lifestyle, the next-gen is seeing alternative work opportunities and making the best of the situation"

-Srivatsan Padmanabhan

Ways to make ‘Remote Work Format’ a success for an organisation

Culture: Even though people do not meet each other, shared goals and working towards a singu-lar vision lays the foundation of a culture within the team. This is an important aspect to keep the morale up and help getting the best out of everyone.

Clarity, Confidence, and Trust: Clarity in thoughts and clarity in action is what a goal oriented team is all about. Mutual value is crucial.

Employee onboarding: In a remote set up, new employees need to feel welcomed by the team, understand the role of everyone in the team and have a well-defined onboarding programme. Having a mentor assigned works very well and integrating the person to the team.

Goals: Setting precise, time-bound and measurable goals are very important to extract the best out of remote talent and keep them motivated.

Connectivity, Communication and Collaboration: Technology plays the most important role in keeping open and ongoing communication within and with the teams. In the age of Slack, Zoom and Asana’s of the world, team collaboration and communication are seamless by design.

Its indeed a small world: Geographic boundaries do not matter anymore. Across the world, distributed teams are coming together and started to deliver amazing results. It’s very important that companies adopt best practices of managing remote teams so that they can truly embrace and empower remote talent in order to achieve their business objectives.

The key trends in Remote Work format to expect in 2020

“Remote Work = Retirement, this statement today is passe. As per buffer.com study, 99% of the interviewees reported that they would like, at least once in their career, to be able to work off-site. With the growing stress and strenuous lifestyle, the nextgen is seeing alternative work opportunities and making the best of the situation. One thing that hasn’t changed since the industrial revolution is the way we go to work every day.

The current workforce doesn’t see any impending need to travel to work every day. With the growth in the remote ecosystem, with more companies adopting beyond Work-From-Wherever options, teams are creating unique and positive practices to adopt, adapt and live the change.

The game changer in the ‘remote work’ paradigm is the diversity and inclusion that we can bring in through this. Far and wide, we can attract underutilised talents.”