The concept of working from home isn’t new. In fact it’s something that many employees have been requesting over the past few years, in a bid to find a better work/life balance.
Some organisations have embraced the change, understanding that a happy and motivated workforce is a higher performing workforce, while others have been resistant to embrace change.
Yet the global Pandemic forced the hand of nearly every organisation around the globe, with the overriding advice from all governments to stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.
Working from home was no longer negotiable, it was a necessity.
All of a sudden we’ve all been forced to embrace a work from home business model. We’ve had to adapt to a new way of working and transition quite quickly in order to maintain a ‘business as usual’ service.
And it all had to be done without a blueprint to follow. It’s not something we’ve ever experienced before and it wasn’t something that we had time to prepare for.
For all of those organisations who said that working from home could never happen, had to make it happy pretty quickly!
Business leaders very much had to step up and lead from the front in order to ‘keep calm and carry on’ in a world that was anything but calm!
Keep calm and carry on!
The biggest saving grace for us all has been the integration and reliance on technology to keep us connected. Technology has enabled us to communicate and collaborate even though we’ve not been physically present with our teammates, our suppliers or our stakeholders.
Software platforms such as Zoom, House Party and Google Hangout have enabled us to be present and work together as a team, wherever that team is based.
~Business Game Changer Special Promotion~
Working from anywhere has become the new normal.
For many businesses, this concept is now a permanent fixture. They’re realising that a connected, remote team cuts down on many unnecessary overheads, as well as eliminating the need to commute to work, travel for work and of course, helping to reduce the number of carbon emissions.
The ideology of being able to work from anywhere is now our reality.
But, we know from statistics that working from home can have its disadvantages. Even though we’re able to stay connected and keep camaraderie and motivation as high as possible, as human beings we crave physical touch and intimacy and that can’t always be recreated online.
Or can it?
We’ve seen the statistics and heard the reports around working from home and how it creates loneliness and can cause feelings of isolation.
It can also have a negative impact on mental health as some people can struggle to switch off and create boundaries between work life and home life when the two are now so intrinsically entwined.
Scheduling regular Zoom catch up calls is great for keeping the team on track and working towards the overall goals of the business, but it’s not the same as being able to stop by someone’s desk to ask a question, or bump into Moira from accounts in the kitchen and catch up on last night’s episode of EastEnders.
Technology has the ability to radically alter the workforce as we know it.
Technology can also be used to drive change internally as well as externally.
Technology keeps employees engaged, connected and supported. It allows everyone to work towards one mission. To reach goals and milestones that once-upon-a-time could only be reached in the traditional office environment.
In a world where we’re now having to embrace the work from home business model, it’s important that businesses focus on driving cultural change, to ensure that the workforce still feels connected, yet diminishes any feelings of loneliness and isolation, which have certainly increased since the start of Covid-19.
It’s important that employers recognise the need for a change in the way they communicate, that team teleconferencing calls aren’t just to catch up on workload and progress, but to address other issues they’re facing, such as increased levels of stress and anxiety, which in turn have a negative impact on performance.
Working in an office environment is fun and engaging and that’s something that should be recreated online too. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, as the saying goes!
With a new approach we truly can work together, from anywhere
Platforms such as Wurkr have been developed to recreate the traditional physical workspace on the cloud.
All of the positive attributes of working in a bricks and mortar office have been replicated so that teams can continue to collaborate, see each other, and have the water cooler chats that they would usually enjoy.
It’s important to communicate and work with your distributed or remote colleagues visibly and in real-time, wherever they may be.
I think the industry needs more solutions that go way beyond the typical conferencing digital tools to support the workforce of the future, today. It helps businesses to seamlessly and successfully adapt to working from home, or anywhere in the world, whether it’s for the interim, the short term or the long term.
Working from anywhere is a must have now for people and companies – and platforms that emerge to support this transition need to put flexibility, connectivity and employee wellbeing at the heart.
How have you found the transition to the work-from-home business model?
By Annil Chandel, CEO and Co-Founder of Wurkr
Annil Chandel is an Entrepreneur with 20+ years of work experience, having launched a few companies with his own money, started multi-million pound business for companies and lived and worked in three continents around the world.
Annil is the Co-Founder of Wurkr where they are developing Technology Products for the future of work. He has been championing remote working, distributed team engagement and video technology for office environments and is a keen advocate of work-life integration.
Additionally, he is the Co-Founder of KnownFour, a disruptive “working together from anywhere” Recruitment Company. He makes a difference in the way experienced recruiters and salespeople work in modern-day office environments through remote working and technology.
