The COVID-19 pandemic has forced nearly 35% of the earth’s population under complete lockdown. The events we are witnessing concurrently is something that has happened very few times in the entire history of mankind. The pandemic has not only affected the day to day routine of the working class people globally but it has had some serious consequences on the global economy as well.
Consider this, there is a widespread agreement among leading economists that the consequences of the pandemic on the global economy will be severely negative. Early estimates suggested that should the COVID-19 outbreak become pandemic the world economy will plummet as major economies will witness a loss of at least 2.4% in their gross domestic product (GDP). While there is no way to turn around this economic depression, it can certainly be counter measured.
While economists and world leaders are working rigorously to deal with the problem, what’s best an organization can do is to keep their heads above the water and try to paddle through the problem. Several companies all over the globe have already started implementing measures to cope with a recessive economy.
However, the conditions are pretty stable for now and multinationals are trying to retain as many employees as possible. This has only been possible because of remote working that allows employees to work from the safe comforts of their homes. A digital workplace allows anyone to work remotely in collaboration with the team. Here is a list of a few benefits remote working brings with it:
Comparatively Lesser Cut Downs: The global employment index indicates nearly 61% of the population relative to working-age individuals, is employed. This accounts for an excess of 3 billion people of which nearly 80% commute to work or their workspace daily. With nearly 35% of the global population under complete lockdown, it would be safe to assume that nearly one-fifth of employees are unable to commute to work. With remote working, nearly 45-50% of these employees are still able to perform their tasks and although there are a few challenges this is a relief to a lot of people who would otherwise be out of employment sooner or later.
Effective Social Distancing: Although the lockdown is mandatory for the people undergoing it, it is quite plausible the lockdown wouldn’t have even taken place if there was no option of remote working for so many people. The economy would certainly fall apart and people would have no other option to generate household income, especially in developing countries.
Less Stress and More Output: Several surveys have already been conducted on the upsides of remote working and one of the most crucial factors which result in better productivity for remote working employees is that they are under less stress while working from home. Given the current situations have not been very promising, both professionally as well as psychologically. Remote working not only helps reduce stress in employees but also improves productivity which is certainly a luxury in a time of crisis such as this.
Reduces the running cost: It is no secret that setting up an office is an expensive ordeal and running and managing one is even more. Several studies have revealed that companies with a remote workforce have decreased overheads and save more. One of the studies also suggests that every year a company can save up to $22000 from each employee working remotely. The numbers projected are for the scenario when almost half of the workforce is still working full-time from office. Right now, a reduction in running costs is something that every organization is looking forward to. Remote work is already allowing organizations and their employees to carry out their business.
Increased Employee Retention: Studies have revealed that 54% of employees are willing to change jobs that offer flexible timing and convenience of working from any place they want. This leads to an average 12% reduction in turnover. Moreover, 28% of the workforce in the US agrees to up to 20% reduction in their pay if they are provided with the option of remote work for the same employer. These figures certainly reflect that remote working is more preferable to employees as compared to a conventional office setup. Also, with enough cost-cutting in the office running, the expense retention period for employees will certainly increase in the worst-case scenario where employment is jeopardized in numbers.
What’s Making Remote Working Effective?
Remote working is certainly helping millions of people globally in stabilizing the economy. Also, the increase in demand for tools and technologies that help support remote work setup is increasing exponentially. This is also helping in creating an employment and business opportunity for professionals and entrepreneurs.
Such online tools help organizations and individuals in efficiently managing and completing day to day professional errands. It is an ingenious innovation and however small it is helping in creating a positive impact on the global economy.
Some of the most efficient tools are:
- Slack: Basically a chatroom for your whole company. Slack is designed to replace email as your primary method of communication.
- InfinCE: An all-in-one infinite cloud platform to enhance your remote working ability, efficiency, and productivity. With innumerable live chats and video calling options, InfinCE helps you communicate faster and coordinate effectively with your teammates.
- Zoho Remotely: Zoho Remotely is a suite of cloud applications that help your teams to communicate, collaborate, track project progress etc.
- Krisp: Krisp is an AI-powered noise canceling app for windows that eliminates background noise for incoming and outgoing calls, enabling a pleasant work-from-home experience.
These tools not only increase productivity by saving time but also mitigate the use of several offline tools completely. The functions of these tools are elaborate and yet the ecosystem built around them is intuitive and simple. Here are some of the functions online tools can help profoundly:
Secure Cloud-Based File Sharing: Cloud-based file-sharing tools, as the name suggests, allow users to share files online and offer a very secure channel to do so. Certainly, there are several online file-sharing tools, however, the fact that no remote work setup is complete without them is what makes them a crucial part of every team working remotely.
Collaborated Worksheets: Collaborated worksheets allows your team to work conjointly on a single source. Collaborated worksheets are feature-loaded like the offline worksheets and require only an active Internet connection and a laptop.
Online Task Manager: Online task managers keep the entire team up to date with the progress of the project and the tasks. The task manager allows the team to easily and efficiently cross out the to-do list for the team.
Scheduler: Online schedulers allow users to schedule reminders for various tasks and meetings throughout the day.
These are tough times and we certainly need to stand together and face the odds. With remote working allowing employees to take part in day-to-day activities efficiently, we can only hope that a lot of organizations will adapt to the change and make this a regular practice even after the COVID-19 pandemic is a thing of the past.
