Coronavirus and the Digital Workspace
COVID-19 has changed the landscape of work in an unprecedented way. With office-spaces closed around the world for health and safety reasons, Working from home has become the new normal for a much bigger chunk of the population than ever before. In America, 42% of the labor force was working full-time from home as of late June.
Accelerating Trends
Improvements in technology and connectivity meant that the world was already witnessing an increasing number of people working from home even before the pandemic.
Jonathan Diegel from the Chicago Booth School of Business puts it: "This has taken maybe five or ten years of change and crunched it down into just a couple of short months." 35% of firms in the US believe that 40% of their current switch to remote working will be permanent.
Working from Home Is Here to Stay
What we are looking at then are not short-term reactions to the pandemic, but rather deep changes in the work arrangements poised to last permanently. The hybrid work environment has quickly become the new norm.
Challenges and Opportunities
Remote working does not come without its challenges, however. Communication issues topped the list for difficulties faced by workers and managers. 17% of workers faced troubles in collaborating with other employees, and 32% were concerned that their managers would not notice their contributions in the office.
Managers were similarly concerned about retaining team cohesiveness, maintaining company culture and ensuring employee productivity.