Why Work from home is the New Normal

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has strained all industries and businesses are struggling to exist. Very few enterprises have managed to stay comfortably afloat without fears of cessation. They are the ones who have embraced the work from home and remote work culture, way before the pandemic. While the Covid-19 pandemic is posing serious threats to the entire world, there are some positives to drive home. Making us realize the ease and importance of remote work is definitely one of those positives.
Listed below are some of the reasons why embracing work from home as the new normal is a good thing to do.

Remote work fights environmental issues:

Some of the most important environmental issues that mankind has faced/is facing are global warming, urbanization, and pollution. Wide-spread implementation of work from home could have a significant impact on each of these issues. If a considerable percentage of the workforce starts to work from home, then individual fossil fuel-powered vehicles’ usage would come down, resulting in reduced consumption of fossil fuels. This would lead to better air quality and easing out of global warming in the long run. Reverse migration from urban areas can be stimulated, if employees start working from home, regularly, and for sustained periods.

Work from Home reduces real-estate overhead expenses

Real-estate is one very speculative industry, where investments by enterprises can backfire anytime. Employers are spending a bomb, in trying to rent or lease a workspace in any metro. Moving out of the top metro cities is not an option as they would miss out on access to the talent pool. Getting rid of all real-estate costs might not be a realistic option. But, making use of coworking spaces can drastically reduce the real-estate expenses of businesses. As organizations are trying to become leaner by shedding out everything unnecessary, it is about time for them to realize that owning or leasing large office spaces is becoming more unnecessary by the day.

Remote work can double up as an employee retention tool:

Work from home, if well implemented, can prove to be great employee retention too for all businesses. Implementation of work from home policies might stop employees from relocating from one city to another. The migrations which are done to undertake new jobs, are generally not easy on employees and can have a long-term negative impact. The tiresome long commute that employees embark on daily, can also be avoided when working from home. This would in-turn the extra family-time and personal time at home can put an employee in a happy space. Employees would feel they are not being controlled when working from home and can build more confidence in their work. These benefits are considered by employees as perks. All these facts put together make work from home or remote work, a powerful employee retention tool.

Working from home reduces IT infrastructure costs:

Letting employees work from home would need the provision of secure remote access to enterprise resources. This means that employees can use their own devices to work. So, a systematic remote work policy paves the way for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, which can result in significant cost reduction to the employer. The costs incurred in the purchase and maintenance of end-devices can be reduced. At the same time, the support team could be put to better use in other areas of work.

Remote lets you access wider talent pool:

Businesses can reach out to talent pool which is geographically beyond reach if a systematic work from home policy is introduced. The exact location of an employee would not really matter, as secure remote access can be provided to people thousands of kilometers away from a data center. Employers’ needs are also becoming more and more specific by the day, and this problem can also be solved by implementing a remote work policy.

Overall, work from home benefits every stakeholder – the employer, the employees, and more importantly, the environment. These are the reasons why work from home and remote work is here to stay. As awkward as it sounds, we might all live to see the day when a person who is going to the office to work is laughed upon. Work from home is indeed the new normal.