Working from home has been gaining popularity like never before. A recent survey by SAP Concur showed that as much as 88 percent of India’s workforce prefers to have the flexibility of working from home and 69 percent believe their productivity has increased while working remotely.
The technology to facilitate remote work has actually been around for over a decade, but it's only in the current environment that thousands of employers and employees worldwide are engaging in a massive, real-time experiment with remote work arrangements.
That brings us to the question — Has COVID-19 caused the future of work to arrive early? Are we accelerating towards the digital future we had once envisioned? The pandemic has forced businesses to not just return to work, but to build on the lessons learnt during the crisis to chart a new path forward.
Gearing up the workforce for remote work
Shifting demographics, new technologies, and changing social norms are transforming the ways people work at an unprecedented rate. It's critical for organisations to create a modern connected workplace where people can meet, collaborate and connect virtually across geographic and organisational boundaries.
As the future workplace will be more connected through technology, it’s crucial to invest in the human elements of our work, which include:
- Breaking down organisational silos and encouraging two-way communication for everyone to share their ideas and opinions
- Streamlining technologies and processes for removing the burden of learning different systems and interfaces, and bringing everything and everyone together into one convenient place
- Giving a voice to everyone, regardless of organisational hierarchy, which in turn empowers employees to do their best
- Investing in online skilling programs to help employees adjust to the new normal
- Going mobile, so that employees can perform tasks and stay connected, no matter where they are
A connected workforce can lead to higher engagement, which in turn can lead to greater employee adoption, retention, and satisfaction.
Accelerating the journey towards the future of work
All the conditions are ripe for a perfect storm that will drive businesses towards a collaborative cloud future. Gartner predicts that by 2030, the demand for remote work will increase by 30 percent, when Generation Z fully enters the workforce. Global survey findings are consistent that employees don’t want to return to old ways of working. Post-COVID-19, is India ready to work from home forever? It is up to business leaders to develop the infrastructure, technology and tools to provide a seamless and secure environment that enables employees to be productive from any location.
An immersive learning programme for founders — ‘Digital Scale-Up: The Medium Business Course’ is here to serve this purpose. As part of the course, leaders from India Inc. provide working knowledge on the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and digital transformation to fuel the growth journey of an enterprise.
The course is designed to help key decision-makers in the medium business segment create a resilient and competitive business. Right from evaluating business ideas to approaching scale in a sustainable manner, the programme aims to provide indispensable tools and knowledge that will fast-track the growth of enterprises.
To know more about the course, click here.
Link : https://yourstory.com/2020/11/organisations-empower-workforce-stay-connected-future
Author :- Jerlin Justus ( )
November 05, 2020 at 12:36PM
YourStory