Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home has become the standard for many companies around the world. However, some people still desire to work in an office even if given the chance to work remotely. What does working from home actually do for the common worker’s productivity and efficiency? Will employers still allow their employees to work from home after the pandemic is over?
The “BCG COVID-19 Employee Survey” shows that 75% of 12,000 employees have said that they have maintained or improved their productivity while working remotely. However, the people that transitioned to remote working on collaborative tasks has been affected negatively. This could be due to reasons such as not being used to working remotely on collaborative tasks.
To explain the rise of productivity while working remotely, we can take into account many different reasons. One example could be because employees no longer have to waste time on their commute to work. Some other reasons could include:
- Better work-life balance.
- Not working in a dull office environment.
- Less time wasted on useless meetings.
- Avoiding disruptive colleagues.
- Lower stress levels from working at home.
- Fewer sick days needed because you can still work from home.
Working After Covid-19
We can see how various companies have responded to this increase in productivity from a Gartner, Inc. survey on 127 company leaders from various sectors and management levels. The survey results show that 82% of organizations will let employees work remote some of the time and 47% of organizations will let their employees work remote permanently after the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
From those 82% of organizations, they have announced that will be bringing back their employees on a weekly schedule to allow their employees to alternate working remotely and in the office. Those organizations will also introduce new safety measures such as renovated offices and providing PPE to their employees.
As the pandemic continues on for the foreseeable future due to the lack of any solutions, does your organization have any plans to improve the experience of working both remotely and in the office? Will you allow your employees to work remotely after the pandemic is over? These are some important questions to ask yourself as we get closer and closer to a vaccine for COVID-19.
Sources:
- https://www.bcg.com/publications/2020/valuable-productivity-gains-covid-19
- https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2020-07-14-gartner-survey-reveals-82-percent-of-company-leaders-plan-to-allow-employees-to-work-remotely-some-of-the-time