Top 3 Benefits of Work From Home!
So you finally got your wish of getting to work from home (“WFH”)! And how! 2020 has been a year where the world over has had to work from home.
Yes! There have been businesses that have been compelled to have their teams go to the office because WFH was not possible for their business especially in the manufacturing sector or those who are in the healthcare industry. There have also been businesses that have adopted policies of working from the office while following social distancing measures and bringing in a few team members to work from the office where it was essential to do so while permitting others to remotely work.
Many global corporates have taken the decision to permit their employees to work remotely for most of 2020 and for some part of 2021 including Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. Some organizations like Uber have even brought in measures to give a stipend to each employee to set up a home office. Mastercard has said that it will permit WFH till its’ employees feel safe to return to work.
With the world adapting to WFH as not something that is a reality of 2020 but perhaps for times to come, WFH predominantly may not just remain a current trend but something that is here to stay.
While individuals, teams, leaders, businesses, and people the world over try to grapple with this new reality, WFH isn’t without its challenges. For sure WHF in a forced environment where it isn’t a choice but has been imposed because of the Global crisis is not something anyone would be happy about.
Having said that, I will leave that for another day and tell you why more organizations will see benefits in WFH long term asides protection for its human resources from a worldwide pandemic:
- As an Employer, you can hire a resource from any part of the world. So you can attract the best talent from anywhere. As an employer, you save the costs of relocating employees and you save the cost of expensive investment in real estate in terms of physical office space.
- Leaders & Teams will have less time or opportunities to engage in idle workplace gossip, and will use their time more effectively to produce results. WFH will be more results-driven, and will be less about who is showing up at work, staying at work long hours, or passing time by idly at the water cooler, just to show they are physically present.
- Teams will save commuting time and this will reduce the stress of commuting for each team member.
Interestingly, prior to the pandemic, WFH teams were looked at with distrust in terms of productivity, and in terms of client delivery. However, with WFH becoming the norm, Leaders and Teams are compelled to experience this and are beginning to realize that WFH requires a higher level of focus and discipline. They are beginning to realize that WFH doesn’t mean someone who is not willing to deliver but means being someone who despite all odds shows up, performs, and delivers.
As a Leader, I know it’s a tough choice! Do you make it a long term culture to insulate yourself from a Global Crisis? Do you get back to work from office culture post the Pandemic?
I would say just one thing — assess the challenges in WFH for each individual, assess the challenges as teams, and use this time to see how to evolve and find solutions to each challenge to help each team member be a peak performer, and help your business grow. Make this a time where this is WFH version 1.0 and solve all the challenges at an individual level, team level, client level, management level, and business level to evolve a WFH version 2.0, which is the WFH version where WFH is a thing of ease at all levels.
I wish more success to each Leader, each Team Member, each Organization, and each Business. Keep striving! Keep evolving! Keep shining!
If you resonated with this, please share this with the person who you feel needs to read or hear this the most.
Cheers,
Namrata Vishwanath
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