In this account, the upcoming trend of work from home: the future of employment as it is predicted is elucidated.
In 1973, NASA engineer Jack Nilles speculated the future of work from home. Back then, he coined the term “telecommuting” or the use of electronics to work remotely. His speculation proved correct and in various parts of the planet, people began working from home. Recent decades have set a good example of the same. Harriet Molyneaux, managing director of Hot Spots Movement, a London-based specialist research consultancy approved of this. According to Molyneaux, “With globalization, teams are spread all over the world and technology facilitates us to work from anywhere, anytime.”
Work from Home: The Future of Employment
As coronavirus has taken the world by storm, remote working has become a necessity today. Several companies have made it mandatory for their employees to work from home to maintain social distancing and check the spread of COVID – 19 on their part. Let’s have a look at the future of work after COVID-19.
Key Indicators
According to ‘the 2017 state of telecommuting in the US employee workforce’ report, 3.9 million employees of the total American workforce did all or part of their work from home during 2015-2016. This indicated a 115% increase over 2005. Compiled by flexjobs and global workplace analytics, this report has concrete statistics. Figures by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics also confirm this trend.
Work from Home Careers
Work is not about the place. You can continue with your work without going to the office and still be a professional. There are many high-profile professionals, who work from home and still excel. Many employers have noticed that their employees perform better while working remotely.
Digital presence marks serendipity of its own that can’t be beaten by physical presence. As the gig economy is on the rise, people prefer to work at their convenience; whether being a full-timer at home or a freelancer. This work style is also a cost-effective solution when you earn, without having to invest money.
Five Reasons Why Working from Home is the Future
Considering these factors, we can see that future of working from home is promising and more and more people are looking forward to it. Let’s have a look at reasons that assure why working from home is the future. These 5 factors explain the future of remote work.
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Cuts Commuting Time
I know how long commuting hours feel like. Commuting for almost 3 hours every day, I dream of every other thing that I could be doing to utilize that time.
Long commuting hours never come alone. In their train, they bring stress that has an adverse impact on employees’ productivity. Commuting also results in a waste of fuel in these tough times of global warming. Considering these factors, a plethora of organizations will be advocating remote work from home jobs or hiring freelancers.
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Increases Employee Productivity
According to the latest study by Canada Life, employees working remotely rise to a 7.7 level of productivity on a scale of 10; whereas those working from office set up were on the level of 6.5. This defines the current remote work trends.
Major reasons for better productivity of home-based professionals are:
- Those working at home have relatively lower stress levels because they don’t commute daily. As commuting is cut from their schedule, they feel relaxed and this relaxation results in better work quality.
- Home-based jobs set employees free from the hassle to dress up formally. This saves time, which can be invested in completing the work of the day.
- People engaged with online jobs work from home, report that they could focus better. As no distractions are there such as on and off office buzz, colleagues who drop by for chit-chat sessions, and random and pesky meetings; they can give more time to their work.
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Reduces Attrition Rate
Work from home has been instrumental in retaining talent and skills as well as lessen the rate of attrition. Moreover, work from home jobs in India is on the rise. Having seen the results, employees are eyeing this advantage. Those who can’t commute daily can have their jobs saved while working at home.
With regard to the studies conducted by Society for Human Resources Management and various companies, employees have to bear the brunt of staff attrition. Companies suffer losses in form of costs incurred on advertising vacancies, man-hours involved in interviewing jobseekers, expenses for training, as well as the impact on coworkers.
Recommended Reading: 10 Things To Do When You Are Unemployed
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Attracts Better Skills and Talent
Every sector of the industry is facing competition and industries are going through tough times to attract unbeatable talent. Professionals who are experts in their domains and are highly qualified don’t want to relocate. It thus, becomes more challenging for organizations to hire professionals locally who have a particular skill set, in the best interest of the organization.
This situation can be eased out with work from home job options. This brings more talented, skilled, and polished professionals to organizations. With remote working, organizations can conveniently source skilled personnel from any location that is distant.
In addition, employers also cut on relocation costs that is incurred in relocating an employee and offering them perks as they shift from their hometown to a new place. Telecommuting or work from home jobs online facilitates highly skilled professionals to work from their comfort zone, without having to relocate to an unknown workplace or even a new geographic location.
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Provides Rewarding Freelancing
In a survey covering 180 countries and over 23,000 respondents, Global payment gateway Payoneer found that freelancers earn much higher than full-time employees who work from offices. It is a known fact that the freelance workforce all over the world is on the rise. This is among work-from-home jobs without investment. Studies conducted regularly indicate that freelancers earn almost 18% – 23% higher income as compared to office-bound employees.
Additionally, freelancers are at the benefit of tax exemptions in most parts of the world, whereas those having fixed employments don’t enjoy such exemptions. The number of platforms is sky-rocketing where freelancers can easily bid for projects. And what’s more? There are work from home jobs for students as well.
Additionally, with crowd-funding, there is a constant rise in the number of professionals who are more towards taking up work from home rather than rushing to and fro the office. All this adds to the work from home advantages.
What is encouraging is that organizations have begun to count on freelancers for specialized projects rather than hiring full-timers and going through tedious formalities and costs incurred in the process for a short time. This establishes the potential that freelancers will be the torchbearers of work from the home job market in times to come.
In a nutshell, a host of factors determine that work from home is fast gaining impetus. The future of work is foreseen in working at home, thanks to statistics from economies of Europe and Asia. Escalating real estate prices makes it difficult even for large organizations to open offices at multiple locations. With work from home facilities investments in terms of financial commitments and manpower are avoided.
Canada life studies also indicate that telecommuters avail only 1.8 days of sick leave per calendar year in comparison to more than 3.1 sick leaves by office-bound employees. Although it can’t happen overnight, with the course of time it will prove suitable to all. So, it can be said that the future of work from home culture is bright.
