Introduction:
Work from home or on the go or even anywhere has gained
tremendous popularity mainly after this global pandemic breakdown. Nowadays,
more and more young professionals prefer to embrace a job that allows them to work
from the comfort of their own home. Either, they might be snowbirds who might
travel every winter or would like to spend quality time with their family or
travel lovers who are on the move all the time.
Whatever be the reason, the demand for work from anywhere
jobs have grown several leaps and bounds in this modern era. Even a few
employers prefer this new-age office model that allows them to save a
considerable amount of money involved in renting and running a physical office
space. As a matter of fact, this new normal termed as the Work from Home (WFH),
could well become a common practice for a majority of the employees post the
Covid-19 crisis as well!
The perks of WFH:
Already over two-thirds of the 4.3 million IT and BPO
workforce across India has migrated to the work-from-home model to ensure
business continuity and maintain their reputation. Various business experts
claim that several leading tech giants are actually pushing to make it a
permanent practice as well in the near future. This revolutionary practice will
in turn empower more qualified women to join the workforce. Further, it will be
highly beneficial for new working moms to take good care of their babies and
also efficiently perform their household chores during office hours.
Work from anywhere has numerous benefits including
convenience, cost savings and productivity gains if followed properly. In fact,
it would help businesses cut on several operating costs such as air-conditioning,
transportation, ventilation, furnishing and cafeteria expenses. On the
contrary, this WFH model can’t be seen as a viable option for several key personnel
who are in-charge of crucial and confidential business functions.
Since there is no hectic travel involved, employees could concentrate
more on their task in hand. Also, employees will be happy to spend a lot of
time with their family members while working simultaneously. This will result
in higher employee retention ratio on the long-run. By providing work from
anywhere flexibility, organizations can access a wider pool of workforce across
the country for a particular position. WFH offers freedom to employees to work
in their very own style at their desired time. In place of salary hike, work from
home facility can also be given as a reward to boost the morale of high
performing employees!
Work from anywhere – Challenges:
Work from anywhere option poses a very serious threat to the
company’s data security and regulatory compliance policies. Without frequent team
meetings, casual conversations and business discussions, the productivity of
the entire company might suffer to a huge extent. So, in order to brainstorm,
build a team spirit and good rapport among team members, it is absolutely vital
to have an in-person meeting at least once a while.
On the other hand, it could be pretty challenging for the
employees to manage their various additional expenses that are involved in the
work from anywhere option. Especially financially struggling employees who are
living in a cramped up living space or those who are not permitted to install a
power backup system or few others who could not get a broadband line could find
it extremely difficult to adapt to it during the initial few days.
Companies are also left with a bunch of headaches to deal
with. How can they restrict usage of mobiles or other entertainment equipment
during work hours? Similarly, how responsible will be the employees who are
dealing with confidential client data? How to keep track of the exact work
hours of each individual employee? Will it cause a higher attrition rate, since
the employees can skip jobs quite easily? There are indeed a lot more questions
like them that are to be effectively dealt with by the management in this
regard.
Conclusion:
With the aid of instant messaging, high speed internet
connectivity, smart phones, cloud computing, project management software and
VoIP technologies, adopting work from anywhere choices have almost become a
breeze for anyone these days. But, as far as our nation is concerned, we are
still at the pilot stages of this particular work culture. It would definitely
take a lot of time to evaluate the various advantages and disadvantages
associated with this specific methodology. But this technique will definitely
enable firms to gain huge resilience and necessary capabilities to match their
client’s expectations, while also keeping their staff safe in their homes in
this desperate situation for sure…
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