There may be many different opinions on the effects of a pandemic, and will the world ever be the same? There is no denying that one thing we can all agree on: The economic effects of a pandemic will result in widespread changes to employment.
As you might expect, those changes vary based on the type of job that has been affected. For example, as more than 32 million people die worldwide due to the H1N1 virus (revised from initial estimates), fewer people show up to their jobs across all industries. An enormous gap is seen in the transportation industry, where fewer pilots and drivers are available to ship goods worldwide than usual.
This effect cascades throughout the economy as those who make deliveries or transport patients to hospitals and other medical facilities quit their jobs. Those people then impact everyone else downstream from them in the supply chain leading to lower production of goods and services.
To minimize disruptions caused by a future pandemic event, employers may choose to put plans into place to continue utilizing their existing workforce as much as possible. It includes remote work trends, using remote computer terminals to complete job duties, and training employees to work in areas with a reduced risk of passing along a pandemic disease.
This article will discuss why employees prefer remote offices and work from home.
Reasons why employees prefer remote work nowadays
Use of AI, automation, and freelancing
Many organizations will have to function with a smaller staff because of layoffs during the epidemic. Left workers will be increasingly reliant on technology, accelerating current remote work trends toward artificial intelligence, automation, and contractual jobs. It is a win-win situation.
As a result of the high cost of human labor, automation is more prevalent during economic hardship.
Measurement of productivity is changing.
As a result of the belief that measurements like how long you stayed in the office mattered to management, the system was set up to favor young men without children who could work longer hours. Managers’ evaluation of an employee’s success will also change due to this shift.
It has become more critical for knowledge employees to put in the hours, RGP’s Duchene said.
Two years ago, when it came to evaluating individuals in the workplace, aptitude, attitude, and attendance were the three most important factors, Duchene said. The focus is on production now in remote work trends.
According to IDC’s Kurtzman, productivity measures in the future will be more qualitative, focusing on the result of production rather than the volume of something generated. It’s not just about how many products you can make; it’s about how satisfied your customers are and whether or not they’ll purchase from you again.
The trend of working from home is here to stay.
Many individuals will continue to work from home even after the epidemic is no longer driving us to do so. The reason for this is that both employers and employees have found remote offices or working from home to be unexpectedly successful.
Employers imagined a future in which they were no longer shackled to pricey office space because workers are more productive now. It’s also possible that many things that aren’t working, such as needing to home-school your children while also working, may be reduced when we’re not in the midst of a global health crisis that adds additional barriers and stress to working from home.
Flexibility may be both a blessing and a curse.
More flexibility in the workplace has long been sought by professionals who want to balance their personal and professional lives better. That’s why employees prefer to work in remote offices with more flexibility. Some of our colleagues have told us that they are getting more sleep, working out more, creating their healthy food, and getting to know their neighbors better due to using Slack.
As a result, people appreciate that type of return to their daily routine. People work longer hours, attend more meetings, and generally grumble about constantly being on because of greater flexibility.
The office will still exist but in a different way
While many businesses are reducing their office space, the majority are not eliminating the need for offices. The office will indeed continue to play a vital part in people’s work but in a new way.
Collaborative work that is more difficult to do at home will take up more time at the office. Employers are also reviving serendipity and problem-solving when working in a physical office. Imagine running into an unfamiliar coworker in the break room who can give you an outside perspective on a problem.
As Slack’s Rayl put it, we’re thinking of the workplace as a piece of our toolkit for doing specific types of remote offices. We have scheduled meetings with employees to discuss and plan collaboration in person a couple of times a week. The workplace will also have to be redesigned to support this new work.
Increased Need for Security
While discussing the digitalization trends that have prevailed due to the pandemic, it would be unfair to discuss the increase in cybercrime during remote work trends. The pandemic has increased cybercrime as well as the number of targeted attacks. Unfortunately, this is an unavoidable situation, and every business has to adapt to this new form of a crime wave. Every remote worker should install a VPN app for mac to prevent an attack. So, are you looking for a beast mac VPN for your remote offices? Among many VPN apps or VPN mac software available in the market today, VeePN is the best mac VPN that is also free. Also, the download and installation of this VeePN VPN for mac are simple; just visit VeePN official website and install the package.
Summary
Digitalization has had a profound impact on the way we live and work. The pandemic has only accelerated these changes, with more people working remotely in remote offices than ever before. The freedom and flexibility to work from home have significantly impacted employee productivity and satisfaction. While this remote work trend offers many advantages, it also comes with its own set of risks. So, employers need to be aware of the dangers of working remotely and take steps to protect their employees and data.