Over the last year, with the world going into lockdown - working remotely has become increasingly popular and the only viable option. In this blog we discuss whether it's the way forward, or if it's a temporary fix whilst we get back on track.
Since the Covid-19 pandemic took over the world, causing us all to go into a lockdown - working from home became the new way of life for those lucky enough to have this opportunity.
Whilst a lot of businesses are desperate to bring their employees back into the office, others have opted for hybrid models or have stuck with full time remote work after seeing the advantages it has brought to their staff as well as their company, but will this stick?
Pre-pandemic, around 5% of full-time employees with office jobs worked from home, which is now looking to change to at least 20-30% in the 'new normal' - varied across all occupations and industries.
With location becoming less important when it comes down to hiring, and the pandemic proving that remote working is a lot easier than originally anticipated, this is accelerating geographic diversity for many organisations - creating more roles for people who weren't necessarily looking to relocate or commute into the big cities previously.
Tech Industry
The tech industry in particular has seen a huge rise in the number of remote working jobs within this last year. Since March 2020, theres been a 149% rise in the number of home working technology roles including hybrid work.
A few companies in particular have changed the normal office life they used to have and have given their employees more options on the ways they prefer to work - here's a few that we have found and admire.
Microsoft
Whilst the majority of Microsoft employees continue to work from home since the pandemic started, the software giant unveiled "hybrid workplace" guidance internally to allow for greater flexibility once they're officially allowed to return to the office.
Microsoft are allowing their employees to work from home freely for less than 50% of their working week, or managers are now allowed to approve permanent remote work. The employees who opt for the permanent remote positions will have to give up their assigned office space, but will still have the option to use touchdown space available to them at the offices.
"Our goal is to evolve the way we work over time with intention - guided by employee input, data, and our commitment to support individual work styles and business needs while living our culture," Microsoft Spokesperson.
Not only are they changing the way they work, they have also helped many people work remotely. Staying in touch with your employees and clients is crucial whilst working from home. During the early stages of the pandemic, Microsoft Teams became the go-to platform for workers with over 115 million daily users - with this being the case, the company used this success to improve every aspect of the Teams experience in order to make the new working life easier.
Zenzic
For Zenzic, a London-based organisation which brings together all the companies and organisations involved in the UK's self-driving revolution, their team have never been stronger and more productive.
At the beginning of the pandemic, they came together to agree on their new normal working day, ensuring everyone was equipped with a good webcam whilst holding an informal meeting every morning. Popular tools such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Whatsapp were essential for their daily communication.
“The key thing is creating a bond and maintaining the culture of the company which happens sort of naturally if you’re all locked in the same room everyday.”
As the lockdown eased and people returned to work, Zenzic decided to stay working remotely. They were already seeing the benefits when it came down to hiring, opening up more opportunities for different talent in various locations.
"We spend the vast majority of our waking hours working. The manifestation of that at the moment is the fact we can get up from our desk, go do some exercise, do something that refreshes the mind and body and not spend however many hours of the day travelling. As an executive, I feel morally bound to try and find ways of preserving many of the benefits we've enjoyed over the last few months." - CEO, Daniel Ruiz.
Revolut
The digital-only banking app are planning to let their employees choose when and how often they want to work from home. They found that 90% of its team leaders have said that performance was unaffected by remote working, however 65% of staff wanted to have the freedom to come into the office if they wanted - due to this statistic, they're now adapting the office work space by reducing the number of desk cubicles.
"We believe this new policy will be a huge success among Revoluters. As we're eliminating frontiers within financial services, it made sense to align our internal policy with our product mission. Our employees asked for flexibility and that's what we're giving them as part of our ongoing focus on employee experience and choice." - Jim MacDougall, VP of People at Revolut.
Not only are they offering remote/hybrid work for their employees, but they have recently said that they will allow staff to work from abroad for up to 60 days a year, as a part of it's modern working practice. The company studied applicable corporate tax, immigration, income tax and social security regulations to create a policy that's as convenient and as beneficial as possible.
The new temporary working abroad policy was launched to allow their international workforce's requests to visit their families more often and for longer periods, especially after such a difficult year. This is something Revolut are proud to offer their culturally diverse staff.
Square
Square, the American financial service and digital payments company have announced that most of their employees can continue to work remotely, even once the pandemic subsides. The company announced this days after Twitter told their employees they could also work from home indefinitely, which makes sense considering both companies are run by Jack Dorsey.
"We want employees to be able to work where they feel most creative and productive. Moving forward, Squares will be able to work from home permanently, even once offices begin to reopen. Over the past several weeks, we've learned a lot about what it takes for people to effectively perform roles outside of an office, and we will continue to learn as we go." - Jack Dorsey, Founder and CEO, Square.
Jack Dorsey has always been an advocate for remote work, last year the CEO announced that he wanted to move to Africa to continue running the two companies from a completely different continent until the pandemic hit, which put a stop to his plans.
"We can get talent anywhere. There's a lot of folks out there that do not want to move to San Francisco. They feel comfortable working in a much smaller office or just home." - Jack Dorsey.
With today's growing technology and worker preferences, it's clear to see that remote/hybrid working is here to stay. A lot of companies have seen the advantages it's brought to the business and their employees - whether that's less commuting time, greater flexibility, better work-life balance or staff motivation. The last year gave these companies no option but to test it out.
It has also shown that having remote workforces within the tech industry allows employers to tap into a much larger talent pool, opening up many more opportunities for potential employees. Remote and hybrid companies tend to have the upper hand when it comes to hiring new talent, which is something we've noticed here at Talented Recruitment Group, especially with the rise of new remote roles globally.
It will be interesting to see whether remote/hybrid working will continue to increase as the years go on. With lockdown restrictions easing, and a lot of companies having the go ahead for their employees to return to work - will the flexibility continue?