A decade ago, working from home was a rare anomaly, treated as a superfluous novelty by most individuals and organizations in the professional world. Today, most people with jobs that can be done remotely work remotely at least part of the time – and many businesses, especially those in the tech space, operate fully remotely.
It seems that remote work is here to stay, thanks in part to the ever-increasing accessibility and power of technology. But how are companies going to evolve from here as these technologies grow in availability and sophistication?
The Ever-Increasing Power of Technology
Technology is the foundational building block that has allowed remote work to grow as popular as it has. Today, we have access to hardware and software that allows us to communicate, collaborate, and accomplish a wide variety of tasks, regardless of where we are. We have chat platforms and video conferencing platforms. We have robust management systems and project tracking tools. We have monitoring and productivity tools to keep people on point. We even have health and wellness apps to make sure that working from home isn’t getting the better of us.
Perhaps, then, it’s no surprise that tech companies seem to be some of the most ardent supporters of remote work overall. Not only do they understand the power of technology for connecting people in remote locations, but they may also play a role in developing and maintaining it.
The Pros and Cons of Remote Work
Still, there are both pros and cons associated with working remotely.
For example, these are just some of the benefits:
- Lower office expenses. If you work remotely, you don’t need an office building. If only part of your staff works remotely, you’ll need only a relatively small office building. This can help you greatly reduce office expenses, improving your profitability in the long run. And if you currently own commercial real estate, you may be able to rent or sublet it to other businesses as a secondary stream of income; it’s also possible to manage commercial real estate remotely, but this isn’t always a good organizational fit.
- Higher productivity. Many organizations with remote or hybrid work benefit from higher productivity. When people have more flexibility in how they approach work and more freedom on an individual level, they tend to get more done.
- Higher morale. Similarly, remote work environments often promote higher morale. People are happier working for organizations that grant them autonomy and flexibility, and they’re much more likely to stay there.
- A bigger talent pool. When you operate a company remotely or mostly remotely, you open the doors to candidates who would otherwise be unable to work for you. With a bigger talent pool, you can find better fits for your open positions.
- Increased retention. For these reasons and others, remote and hybrid workplaces benefit from increased employee retention. Not only does this reduce costs, but it also increases consistency and continuity within your organization.
- Sustainability. As you might imagine, remote businesses are greener and more sustainable. With fewer people driving to and from work, there will be fewer greenhouse gas emissions.
These are some of the drawbacks:
- Detachment. Work culture is important, but it isn’t easy to maintain in a remote environment. When you have people living in different places, interacting with each other less frequently, you tend to lose the cohesiveness of your culture.
- Lack of transparency. Even with robust employee monitoring and productivity tools in place, your organization may suffer from a lack of transparency. You may not know exactly what your employees are working on or exactly how they’re spending their time, leading to gaps in knowledge and collaborative potential.
- Less information. It’s often harder for managers and supervisors to do their jobs in remote environments. It can also be harder for decision makers, who need to incorporate many independent pieces of information to make effective decisions. With less information available, every organization suffers.
- Loneliness and isolation. While many people benefit from higher morale and higher productivity when working from home, some people suffer from increased loneliness and isolation. Even people who work well by themselves need occasional in-person socialization to feel connected with others.
- Higher stress. Studies indicate that broadly, remote work is associated with lower stress levels, but for some workers, the opposite is true. They may not be happy or comfortable in their home environment, or they may simply work better in a traditional office setting. In any case, for these types of workers, working remotely is a source of additional stress.
Technology and Company Evolution: Possibilities for the Future
So where does remote work go from here?
For starters, we need to recognize that technology is only going to become more advanced and better capable of connecting us remotely. With so many companies offering remote work to at least some of their people at least some of the time, the demand for better remote collaboration and communication tools is almost constantly growing. And, of course, with rising demand, there’s likely to be a rising number of entrepreneurs and innovators trying to meet that demand. So, in some ways, the advantages of remote work are almost certainly going to continue increasing, with the disadvantages increasingly being compensated for.
But how will businesses adapt to these circumstances, and will the trend of remote work remain indefinitely? These are harder questions to answer. It’s very unlikely that all businesses will go fully remote, or even strive to be fully remote, given the persistent disadvantages of remote work and, to a lesser extent, stubborn mindsets in professional industries. But because the advantages of remote work are only growing, it’s also unlikely that any business that has dabbled in remote work will ever go back to being fully in-person.
Accordingly, the most popular approach will likely be a hybrid one. As technologies that enable remote work become more advanced, companies will likely discover and reinforce strategies that enable “the best of both worlds,” with options for both remote and in-person work.