As we see the of the end of the surreal global pandemic within our grasp we are all asking ourselves one question: what will the future of work look like? One thing we know for certain is that remote working is here to stay. Lets explore why remote work will become the new normal and how you can make it work for you.
REMOTE WORK IS THE FUTURE OF WORK
It should be noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated existing trends while bringing entirely new ones to light. During the past couple of months a new resurgence of hope has graced the globe that 2021 will be a positive turning point to return to some form of pre-coronavirus life.
Due to necessity most organisations introduced remote work almost overnight as a result of the global pandemic! In fact, we saw a 900% increase in the remote workforce in the UK alone (5% in 2019 and 45% in 2020!). This will change the way we work forever and many companies will never go back to how they used to work. Remote working is the new normal.
And to prove that here are some of the key statistics:
53% of office workers say they’d leave their job for one that offers flexible work time (source)
85% of Millennials demand remote working (source)
You can save up to £10,000 per new remote worker (source)
The Office for National Statistics showed 46.6% of adults in employment were working from home, as a result of the measures put in place during the pandemic (source)
65% of workers said they would be more productive in a home office than a normal office (source)
Getting remote working right is hard
The issue with remote working is that it presents a new operating framework that employees have never worked with. Honestly, getting remote working right is hard.
One study of 70 remote teams found that 82% fell short of their goals and 33% rated themselves as largely unsuccessful. Another Deloitte study of IT projects outsourced to virtual workgroups found that 66% failed to satisfy the clients’ requirements. An HRB research, they’ve discovered that most people consider virtual communication less productive than face-to-face interaction, and nearly half admit to feeling confused and overwhelmed by collaboration technology.
However, there are studies that found remote working increase productivity, an Aon Consulting report noted that using virtual teams can improve employee productivity; some organizations have seen gains of up to 43%. Owl Labs State of Remote Work 2019 report adds that remote work or the ability to work remotely makes employees significantly happier, feel more trusted and better able to achieve work-life balance.
Clearly there are many benefits of remote work. But how do we make remote work, work?!
Key challenges with Remote Work
The main reason remote teams fail is not caused by the lack of hard skills but by the lack of soft skills! This includes:
The lack of understanding of individual strengths, roles, and the team dynamics
Team managers struggle to find out which team members will enjoy remote work and which ones will need more support. Uncovering people’s personality, core values, and team culture remotely can be very challenging for every team member. This results in people being demotivated and unhappy in their roles – affecting productivity.
Communication & Transparency
Remote work, especially during the pandemic, brings a lot of fear and uncertainty. Neuroscientists found that uncertainty is the worst emotion we can have. It produces more anxiety than the pain itself. This is why it is extremely important to communicate clearly and swiftly to other employees about how the pandemic will impact their work.
Making Remote Work – Work!
Define your individual strengths, roles, and the team dynamics
There is a whole psychometrics industry that can help you with that. Especially, when the personal contact is limited, personality tests can really help the team learn more about its strengths and weaknesses and use them to effectively define team roles and eventually improve productivity.
Sadly, the psychometric companies have made their tests extremely complicated and teams can really only take advantage of them once they certify themselves for a £2,000 fee to be able to understand the reports they receive.
The Solution!
Your FLOCK – Digital Coach for Remote Teams
This is why we’ve created Your FLOCK, an easy solution that helps managers define their team and individual strengths. The design is simple and doesn’t require extra costs.
Teams can use Your FLOCK to continuously monitor how their team culture evolves and use Your FLOCK as a digital coach that nudges employees with weekly activities tailored to their strengths and designed to align the team and improve productivity.
And the technology is based on research from The University of Manchester and expertise is provided by multiple Learning & Development professionals with a combined experience of over 200 years in the space. Your FLOCK has also recently won an Innovate UK grant to develop its Machine Learning fuelling platform’s algorithms.
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