While so many are focusing on the drawbacks and challenges we’re all facing in the wake of COVID-19 and the shift to working from home (WFH) operations, we’re adapting, staying positive, and seeking out incremental improvements as we go.
To help you on your journey, we’ve looked at all aspects of the new WFH model and put together the best insights and benefits for you.
WFH benefits for employers:
- Working from home has helped many companies cut costs, scaling back on expensive office leases and other physical expenses.
- With people discovering their potential to work from home the freelancing market is seeing a surge in entrants, giving firms opportunities to work with talented professionals they previously wouldn’t have had access to.
- With firms discovering their ability to keep functioning with a remote workforce, many are finding new opportunities to reduce work scopes and outsource projects to freelancers across everything from customer service to mobile development.
- There’s ample potential for growth, with organisations racing to find solutions to new market gaps (for example tech firms attempting to solve poor connectivity issues, digital security, collaboration tools, etc.)
- Though we’re further apart we’re more connected than ever, with leading senior managers finding that thanks to greater adoption of telecommuting technology they can engage with teams quicker and easier, no matter where they are.
WFH benefits for employees:
- Many companies are offering employees the opportunity to work from home for the rest of their career (Twitter, for example).
- As firms cut costs on property expenses they have more funds available to invest in their people, opening up new opportunities for training and development.
- Flexibility in your work means flexibility in your home, with many families choosing to relocate ahead of their retirement, moving closer to family or excellent health care providers, and into areas that have a lower cost of living.
- More time at home means more time with your children, helping families stay better connected.
- With freelancing on the rise (powered by the work from home revolution), employees are able to increase their income and learn new skills.
- Freelancing is being viewed more positively than ever before, with society’s perceptions of freelancing as a career continuing to improve.
- Mindsets and mental barriers have shifted, with workers who have found they can successfully work from home becoming less fearful of remote work, working from a different time zone, or building an income and career through alternative paths.
- Commuter stress has decreased, as less workers go into the office and those that do find less traffic on the roads.
- When they do return to work, many employees will find that their office environments are now less densely packed and more spacious.
WFH benefits for society :
- Cities and small towns that were less attractive to workers due to limited employment opportunities are now much more appealing thanks to remote work, and are already seeing population numbers grow.
- With significantly less planes in the sky, and fewer cars on the roads, global carbon emissions are down and the climate is improving.
- As a society, we’re becoming more adaptive, more aware of ourselves and our surroundings, more active, and healthier, with a rise in people walking and cycling, and governments taking action to meet these new priorities.
At Ultimate Edge Communications, we actively push ourselves to be better and meet new challenges head-on. What we’re seeing right now with COVID-19 is that the disruption of previously normal business operations with the rise of remote work (WFH) as a viable business model, it’s a new dynamic approach to management that allows us to adapt to new benefits and is helping us thrive as a team and a business.
Contact us if you’re a freelancer we’re always looking for new talented professionals to add to our extended team.
You can refer to our previous posts on how to manage the shift to working from home (WFH) for both employers and employees that prove when done properly, it’s a win-win proposition.