The drastic shift towards remote working has numerous benefits for employers, employees and even the planet, including lower overhead costs, increased autonomy, decreased carbon emissions due to lower commute times, and a better work-life balance.
Still, there are some issues that face a distributed workforce, such as the lack of face-to-face interactions, which many argue cannot be substituted by digital communication. Additionally, working from home can be particularly challenging for parents whose children are at home due to school and daycare closures.
Companies that do not have the digital infrastructure to support remote working can also hinder the performance of workers. With millions of workers working from home at the moment, networks and servers are already overloaded, which is why companies need to ensure that employees have the tools to get their best work done. For instance, Senegal-based mobile phone service company Sonatel increased its bandwidth speed and offered corporate clients 3 GB of mobile data for free.
Remote working arrangements are not going anywhere after the pandemic either. In fact, large companies such as Facebook and Google have allowed employees to work remotely until the end of the year, and Twitter has offered this arrangement indefinitely.
This not only allows companies to cut down on costs, but it also widens their talent pool much more. Moving forward, potential top talent will no longer be restricted by their geographical location.
