The workplace has evolved across the world in recent years making hybrid and remote working commonplace. We need to look at what 2023 holds for the workplace and prepare to meet those challenges.
Core Issues:
- Regardless of the business we are in, people will always remain as the USP.
- The elimination of geographical frontiers has opened up amazing new potential pools for both the employer and the employee.
The number of job listings globally with a remote component has nearly tripled since 2020 and this is not in the least bit surprising. The pandemic has worked as a catalyst for fast-paced change ensuring that the coming years will adopt remote and hybrid working models more commonly.
The number of job listings globally with a remote component has nearly tripled since 2020 and this is not in the least bit surprising. The pandemic has worked as a catalyst for fast-paced change ensuring that the coming years will adopt remote and hybrid working models more commonly.
Even though remote and hybrid working models emerged more out of a revolution rather than an evolution, the enforced pivot has created an environment where these models are here to stay because the productivity can be very high. With a YouGov poll citing that 57% of employees want to be able to work from home, it’s becoming a critical factor in a company’s hiring package.
With 25% of all professional jobs in North America likely to be remote from next year, it’s time to embrace remote working trends and make them work for your organization. Even the more resistant employers who were looking at ‘returning to normal’ have begun to come to terms with the ‘new normal’ and the many positives that remote working bring to a business.
Trends For 2023 and Beyond:
Emerging trends that are impacting organizations in 2023 and beyond are:
1. Employees have begun to expect remote working as a standard:
While remote working was an unique bonus in job offers of the past, it is now a ‘standard expectation’ amongst employees. More than 80% of workers who had to work from home due to the pandemic say that they now plan to work hybrid. Global recruitment firm, Robert Half, found that a staggering 50% of professionals who began working from home would resign if they were made to return to the office full-time. Employees are the people who sell the company’s products or services, who shape it’s future, and who take it forward, step-by-step, day-by-day. Attracting and retaining top talent is key to business success. Remote work creates an atmosphere of trust and future-forward thinking.
35% of employees would change jobs if they could work remotely full-time. It becomes imperative for employers to build in some form of remote or hybrid working facility to their job offers. Remote working models build in a competitive edge and helps in staying ahead of industry peers.
2. Remote working trends linked to high productivity:
Commuting took up a significant chunk of time for office-going employees. The 94% of workers facing a commute before have had a chance to rethink and are now keen to look for a hybrid work solution where they work at least some days from home. The 10% of employees who have changed to home working have reaped the reward of their commuting time as well as being an astonishing 47% more productive than those working in an office environment.
Home workers spend 30 more minutes doing exercise than office-based peers, save five hours a week in commute time and have almost $60 extra in their pocket which they aren’t spending on commuting or office lunch. As employers, a huge amount of positivity is generated by saving time and money for employees as well as giving them a much greater work life balance.
3. Increased opportunities for remote working:
Remote working models have unshackled geographic and socio-economic chains. Hiring now has opened doors for the best in the world and is no more restricted to the best within local commuting distances. While 67% of construction companies and 72% of healthcare providers cannot work remotely, many others have been liberated by remote working possibilities.
4. More competition, more opportunity:
On the one hand, employers can pick the best talent from a global pool. On the other hand, employees now have the option of reaching out to their ideal job, anywhere. These increased opportunities are enhancing employee and employer standards across the board. Companies have to be at the top of their game in terms of corporate culture and benefits to draw in the best employees. Consecutively, employees need to constantly up their skills to remain competitive in a more extensive competitive field.
5. Societal shift:
Employees no longer need to locate themselves in the world’s larger cities to find the best job opportunities. Employees are taking their skills as well as their incomes to smaller towns and rural areas bringing wealth to regions which were historically deprived. Also, unlike earlier trends where employees worked through the week waiting for the weekend to unwind, working from home has introduced a healthier work-life balance enabling employees to love and enjoy their work more. Employees who worked from home were found to be 20% happier, on an average. Employee well-being increased by 3% for everyday that the employee worked remotely. Remote working models have definitely enhanced job satisfaction and happiness quotient.
6. Hiring strategy becoming critical:
A key remote working trend is the investment in hiring protocols enabling companies to broaden the geographical base that they cover. While the base is now much wider to cover international hires, it needs sophisticated systems to appeal to the correct market sector and the top candidates within that. The systems will also need to comply with country specific employment laws.
7. Having a clear remote working corporate policy:
Policies clearly outline expectations and protocols. Policies are put in place to minimize unnecessary risks for the employer and the employee. With employees becoming more and more physically remote, well-defined policies make the model more feasible and scalable. Employees working remotely will always be plagued by doubts and questions that will need addressing from time to time.
Good policies not only answer immediate doubts and questions but are even able to preempt future developments. Policies also help to align employee and employer efforts to a synchronized common corporate goal. 89% of Companies have already introduced a remote work policy or are currently considering one according to a KPMG report, illustrating that the majority are committed to a future where remote working is a key factor.
8. Indepth knowledge of country-specific employee taxation and legalities:
Geocentric hiring (hiring the best people,regardless of their location) is the only hiring policy which truly and openly necessitates remote working. While global hiring opens up boundless possibilities, it comes with complex and numerous legal and taxation hurdles. In the Czech Republic, for example, the status of remote work is itself unsure. While an overarching accountancy plan can tackle global taxation requirements, it is worthwhile to employ local resources who are aware of finer details that need to be explored during hiring. Cultural nuances of hiring to be mindful of range from the Swedish daily practice of ‘fika’(a proper break from work for tea or coffee and cake, and a chat with a friend), to the different Israeli workweek(Sunday to Thursday, to allow the many Jewish members of the population to more easily observe Shabbat on a Friday).
9. Increasing investment in corporate cybersecurity:
Cybersecurity is going to be more and more important for remote working organizations. Apart from supply chain attacks and AI-based spear fishing, hybrid or remote working is a significant threat to data security, keeping the cyber threat landscape significant for business owners. More than 85% of cyber-attacks are initiated with a human factor. The human-machine interface is a really easy entry point. It’s easy to exploit employees through emotional manipulation and social engineering. To improve cyber security and create resilience, five cybersecurity priorities need to be deployed:
- Multi-factor authentication.
- Applying ‘least privilege’ access.
- Keep versions of software up to date.
- Always utilize anti-malware.
- Protect all Company data.
We, at Aligned Studios have adopted, nurtured, and grown the remote working model as a win-win model for our clients, our employees, and our company. We have adopted the model even before the pandemic, recognizing it as a feasible business model and have over time used the learning curve to effectively iron out deficiencies. We have witnessed significant corporate growth, helped our employees find job satisfaction, work-life balance and overall happiness and delivered high quality work to our clients in predetermined time schedules. We have reaped the benefits of recruiting across geographical frontiers in search of the best talent. We have put in place a transparent and comprehensive work policy, we have the best tax and legal consultants to guide our future expansion plans. We have the highest standards of cybersecurity in place to protect our clients as well as our own data. We consciously invest in the remote working model as the future of global collaboration.
Let’s get on a quick call to discuss how we can help you use remote working to your benefit.