Business Report- Remote Working

Business Report- Remote Working

The business environment is constantly changing, with regulations, technologies, and global competition constantly changing. While working from home has held a bad reputation, organizations continue to embrace it due to the evolving business environment. Most companies are implementing work-from-home policies to complement the office-based working arrangement. Working from home is largely associated with the occupation and type of tasks to be handled. Several factors have motivated this form of working setup, including the advancement of technologies, balancing the benefits of working in the office, and, more recently, the COVID-19 pandemic. Recent studies suggest that more workers want to work from home to avoid commuting and save the foregone earnings—the working from home arrangement trend has become common and has compelling practical implications.

Teleworking was a growing labour practice even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic has heightened the implementation of work-from-home policies in a majority of companies. Recent Household Economic Studies suggest that the overall proportion of individuals working from home in the USA from 2019 to 2020 grew by 20%, out of whom men’s proportion rose by 16%, while that of women moved up by 16% (Phillips, 2020). Upwork server predicts the number of Americans working remotely at the end of 2021 as 26.7%, or one in every four Americans (William, 2021). This situation reflects a monumental shift between 2018 to 2020, when only approximately 7% of civilian employees in the nation had the opportunity to work from home (William, 2021). These statistics are coupled with organizational policies that reinforce remote working shifts in the current business environment. Some organizations that have announced moving to permanent work-from-home arrangements include Shopify, Twitter, and Dropbox. The pattern shows a significant change that continues to happen quickly, where individuals and companies continue to adjust their preferences per experience.

Work-from-home setup is especially suited to office-based employees, such as administrative workers, professionals, clerical, and managers. Performing these roles involves using computers, lacking large structures to work, and requiring less interaction with the public. Census data from 2016 estimated that those who have worked from home include about 52% of managers, 75% of clerical and administrative employees, 52% of managers, and 53% of professionals (Australian Government Productivity Commission, 2021). Similarly, overwhelming studies show that more than 35% of employees reformed roles that were amenable to the work-from-home arrangement (Australian Government Productivity Commission, 2021). The practice seems to have increased due to the pandemic when various industries reported a high take-up of work-from-home setups. Several factors are attributed to the lower trend of the practice than after the pandemic. Common factors that hindered the broader implementation of remote working policies in the past include stigma linked with working from home and workplaces’ cultural norms and management practices in workplaces. To this end, employees and organizations alike continue to prefer and implement remote work, respectively.

Contention About Virtual Workplace

Despite its wide popularity, there is a lack of consensus about the benefits of working from home. According to the Australian Government Productivity Commission (2021), evidence of whether working from home has worked and will continue to be successful is lacking. The lack of consensus manifests in a wide range of views expressed by industry experts. While some agree with its benefits, others expressed doubts about whether this new shift in labour practice in business firms will be sustainable. For instance, supporters of the arrangement contend that remote working carries immense benefits, including better work-life balance, local independence, saving money on rent, less commuter stress, and a customized office (Phillips, 2020).

On the other hand, disadvantages of the work practice abound, including lack of motivation, risk of productivity, security concerns and lack of office equipment, distraction and lack of concentration, and burnout. The varied opinions are backed by mixed empirical evidence that suggests how teleworking affects productivity. Nevertheless, virtual working unlocks more benefits to employees than it does to organizations. As such, the work arrangement continues to be preferred more by workers than companies.

Benefits and Costs of Virtual Working

While some organizations continue to adopt work-from-home arrangements, others are reluctant to embrace them. Many firms continue to reap benefits by instituting work-from-home arrangements. One of the benefits is the reduced real estate expense by eliminating space for office-based work (Phillips, 2020). The trending work setup has seen firms save a significant part of their annual saving cost (Phillips, 2020). Additionally, companies complementing traditional and virtual work arrangements report increased productivity and increased profits.

Conversely, organizations opposing the work formula report a loss of cost efficiencies. The argument behind such realization is that many users can access equipment and services concentrated in one area and maximize their productivity. Howbeit, distributing the same resource leads to a loss of efficiency. The feeling of isolation is another factor that impedes the implementation of teleworking in some organizations (Phillips, 2020). These insights show that working-from-home arrangements are not appropriate for all jobs. It requires a company to evaluate each parameter of the job it considers for a virtual work program. Service and knowledge-oriented jobs, such as engineering, marketing, and consulting, are less suited for a home-based work setup.

New Trends in the Face of Remote Working

Despite the several downsides, remote work continues to generate new trends due to its broad adoption. Top on the list of remote workplace trends include hybrid models. Ideally, organizations continue to adopt virtual and office-based work arrangements to foster productivity and flexibility (William, 2021). Another trend in this regard is reduced conference calls. A collaborative conference call has become the norm as firms spend at least 20% of their budgets on collaborative conference technological solutions (William, 2021). However, it is worth noting that these technologies can sometimes be obstructive when entirely used to replace the human workforce. The adoption of cloud-based Human resource (HR) technologies is also taking shape. The reason behind their wide adoption is that the technologies provide a seamless experience for virtual teams (William, 2021). Also in the mix is enhanced cybersecurity. Cybersecurity has become more important than before as more firms have shifted their business activities online. In the same vein, there has been an increased demand for relearning and reskilling employees to enhance their expertise in their current jobs. Consistent with the literature findings, the prominence of remote working continues to boost the market for working from software, technologies, and equipment. These practices have spurred research studies investigating the potential benefits of virtual working, especially regarding face-to-face interaction.

Figure 1: Example of a working-from-home model

Source: Alburo Alburo and Associates Law Offices, (2021)

Future Evolution of Working-From-Home Arrangement

While virtual work has been around for a long time, the recent outburst of its adoption has forced the discovery of its feasibility and benefits. From an economic standpoint, the newfound possibility to work from home increases people’s well-being. The Australian Government Productivity Commission (2021) espouses that virtual working is different from past innovations that have been deployed to heighten productivity, such as production lines and computing technologies. Increased output from these innovations benefited firms. On the contrary, the benefits of teleworking are derived from allowing employees to avoid commuting (Australian Government Productivity Commission, 2021). Such a case suggests that firms’ and employees’ preferences will not coincide neatly. According to studies, commuting presents workers with substantial costs, implying that saving on commute enables employees to invest in other activities (Bell & Bell, 2018). There is an urgent need for a negotiation and bargaining process between employees and employers for these reasons. Therefore, the future labour market will have a dynamic process of allocating employees as workers continue learning and firms innovate and discover better models.

Effective leadership and management are also becoming vital elements in the success of the virtual working arrangement. Organizations are forced to invest in remote management skills and attributes that are overlooked in office-based work, such as culture, processes, and camaraderie. Management must acquire the most important qualities essential for leading a virtual workforce, such as communication, trust, and shared values. Achieving these milestones will ensure that remote workers meet deadlines, honour commitments, and become accountable for each outcome. In this regard, as organizations continue to value efficiency and effectiveness in their business operations, they should consider adopting a hybrid model of working to boost productivity and realise additional benefits from virtual working arrangements.

References

Alburo Alburo and Associates Law Offices. (2021). Telecommuting as An Alternative Work Arrangement – ALBURO LAW. Retrieved 20 November 2021, from https://www.alburolaw.com/telecommuting-as-an-alternative-work-arrangement

Australian Government Productivity Commission. (2021). Working from home: Research Paper (pp. 9-105). Commonwealth of Australia. Retrieved from https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/working-from-home/working-from-home.pdf

Bell, J., & Bell, J. (2018). Firing for online behaviour. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0918/pages/firing-for-online-behavior-.aspx

Gillis, C. (2015). He’s fired. Who’s next? Retrieved from https://www.macleans.ca/work/jobs/hes-fired-whos-next/

Phillips, S. (2020). Working through the pandemic: Accelerating the transition to remote working. Business Information Review, 37(3), 129-134. doi: 10.1177/0266382120953087

William, J. (2021). Council post: 10 remote workplace trends to look out for in 2021. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/03/19/10-remote-workplace-trends-to-look-out-for-in-2021/?sh=

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Read Chapters 9.4, 5.3 to 5.7 and 6.4 to prepare for writing the Business Research Report.
After reading these chapters, follow the guidelines in Exercise 2 at the end of Chapter 9.4 for writing your report.

Business Report- Remote Working

• Write a report on a trend in business that you’ve observed, and highlight at least the main finding. For example, from the rising cost of textbooks to the online approach to course content, textbooks are a significant issue for students. Draw from your experience as you bring together sources of information to illustrate a trend.
In addition to the guidelines in Exercise 2, your report will need to include the following requirements:
• The report will be five pages double-spaced, not including the cover page, abstract page and list of references.
• You need to use at least four reliable outside sources published within the last five years.