Remote work consolidated itself as the main protagonist of the new normal in 2020. From the smallest to the largest companies they had to adapt their models to distributed teams. What started as a massive experiment forced by circumstance, turned out to be a win-win solution: a recent survey by Enterprise Technology Research predicts double productivity in remote working by 2021. Its benefits are tangible and create great opportunities for companies and workers.
Agility to reinvent yourself
Beyond the inevitable initial confusion, today it is clear that the companies that emerged triumphant from the Pandemic were those that installed practices in time to accelerate processes: focus on objectives, structures that favor decision-making and teams with clear and verifiable roles through technology.
This type of corporate response involves a combination of resilience and agility that has been critical to many companies, as a McKinsey study notes. Competitiveness will increasingly be on the side of those organizations that design their plans based on data, adopting technologies that support new collaborative work models.
The business world is already responding appropriately. A recent PWC study reveals that 60% of executives plan to allocate more resources to virtual collaboration tools and leadership training to work in this modality.
Talent and flexibility
After the uncertainties of “year zero”, a horizon with greater supply and demand for remote working seems to crystallize for both employees and employers. Once the obvious restrictions related to physical space and movement have been overcome, they have discovered that talent no longer has any geographical border.
For many companies, this is a double advantage. First, flexibility in managing human resources ensures greater chances of success. In fact, a Harvard Business School study indicates that the most competitive companies will be those that combine full-time employees with part-time contractors selected for their ability to insert themselves into specific projects.
On the other hand, offshoring talent is allowing many companies to hire men and women with precise profiles and highly defined skills. This phenomenon, known as the “uberization of talent” is inseparable from the rise of remote learning, which in 2020 has also shown constant signs of professionalization and strengthening.
Equipment and salaries in the new era
The ability to successfully insert yourself into remote work teams is directly linked to the development of digital skills, increasingly fundamental skills, according to a Deloitte analysis on how to build teams in the age of Artificial Intelligence.
Remote learning not only implies that companies train their workforce but also incorporates new technological tools in the supervision of processes at a managerial level. At the same time, many professionals are (re) designing their professional future based on the tools that became popular with the remoteization of work.
The reconfiguration of telecommuting is also impacting the concept of universal salary. If before, the salary was defined almost exclusively on the basis of local references, it is increasingly established according to international guidelines.
Perhaps the average value is a little lower than those handled in more developed countries, but they allow access to transatlantic opportunities in the best companies. According to projections from the Freelancing in America Survey, by 2027 50.9% of the population of the United States will work freelance.
Diversity with a female pulse
If the new remote work scenario has made it possible for companies to benefit from ubiquitous talent, for many professionals it has been a real opportunity to reconcile personal life with work life. Segments as diverse as retirees, people with disabilities or residents of rural areas have encountered fewer obstacles to their employability.
2020, however, has also been a year full of obstacles for women, particularly for those who had to combine motherhood and “home office”. The Women in the Workplace study, published annually by McKinsey, reveals that the impact of the Pandemic on the workplace was more negative for them than for men.
But the turning of the page from the initial bewilderment opens up better remote work opportunities for women. If in the “pre-COVID world”, 51% of women left their jobs when they became mothers due to rigid and analogical schemes, the new context has made the possibility of inhabiting home and office at the same time more user-friendly.
In addition, women provide the differential that companies seek: a McKinsey study warns that a company with women on its board of directors can earn up to 50% more, and is more innovative, because organizations with varied perspectives solve the problems more creatively, they recover better from failures and can transform a challenge into an opportunity.
Although the impact of the “2020 scenario” is still being analyzed in detail, remote work shows strong signs of reaffirmation as companies and workers discover multiple advantages and opportunities. The “mandatory” innovation of the first hours is giving way to the consolidation of more efficient and satisfactory professional environments for both.
