Covid-19 is forcing economies and businesses to swiftly transform their business activities to the digital medium to meet the continuing challenge. As per the available information on the global business scenario, the majority of companies have already adapted to remote work policies.
Many of them are considering whether to have the ‘Work From Home’ (WFH) model as a temporary measure or to keep it permanently. The unprecedented situation caused due to the pandemic has led companies to switch office activities to remote work operations.
While many of the large organisations in Sri Lanka have already introduced the model to their respective organisations, small and medium organisations are also gradually realising the need and adjusting themselves to the concept.
With rapidly evolving technology and online tools such as video conferencing and other effective applications that are widely used, Sri Lankan business entities also hastily transforming to remote office functions.
The concept initially seemed alien to many Sri Lankan entities that were used to work in conventional office routines throughout modern business history. However, the local companies, particularly small and medium-sized organisations are hurriedly adjusting to the WFH concept to reap various benefits that had been already identified.
The opinion of several business leaders I have had dialogues on the subject is of the view that the remote workplace model is tremendously effective in many factors. Almost everybody was highly optimistic about the new arrangement and confidently declared that they are experiencing the model as a fail-safe activity. Many of these companies were practicing WFH models since March this year.
If the organisation has the technical resources in place to work from home and if the physical presence of workers are not essential, the model can be successful in any company whether it’s small, medium, large, or conglomerate.
The employees must be equipped with suitable hardware and software and the company must have digital adoption solutions to support them. Remote work can open up more options by way of employment of various talents easily as the geographical location of the employee is irrelevant and they can be recruited from anywhere in the country, or even from overseas.
No legal binding
Work from home is an arrangement and agreement between the employer and the employee without any legal binding. However, when the employee agrees to work from home, there are responsibilities for him to produce similar or better productivity compared to the previous practice.
Although the work environment is more convenient, the employee must be self-disciplined to offer the necessary output.
Homeworking offers more flexibility in working arrangements. The employee is not tied to an office thus is better placed to offer extra hours if required.
Besides, a homeworking environment can help employee retention as it extends convenience to certain personal issues of the employee. Employers declare that they have already witnessed enhanced productivity from workers.
Working from home concept has already proved that the efficiency and general output of the staff are more due to fewer interruptions. The home environment, when properly organised, allows for a quieter work environment.
For example, in the office, workers experience constant distractions such as colleagues’ chatter, telephones ringing, public traffic, verbal instructions, and so forth that can cause anxiety.
Benefits
During the pandemic, commuting to the office can be unsafe. Working from home eliminates the danger of interacting with others during travel. Also, the burden of the stress of travelling is removed completely and hours of travel time can be used for productive work.
The time saved offers extra health benefits such as additional sleep or resting time and the staff members can enjoy more time with the families. These factors present a better balance in work and home life and a stress-free mindset to employees.
Working from home provides loads of financial benefits to employers and employees. Employers will have savings on expenditure such as office space, rent, electricity, utility expenditure, additional facilities, fuel expenses, traveling fees, and so forth.
Savings in a month from these compulsory expenditures can run into substantial amounts depending on the nature of the business. On the other hand, the staff has benefits such as travelling costs, meals, and other sundry expenses that they spend daily.
Even when the Covid-19 threat is wiped out completely, the staff will have lesser exposure to many other common diseases.
As they are working in isolation, there is a much less chance of getting infected. This will reduce sickness absenteeism.
In most instances, even when they are sick, by being at home, they can offer some kind of service to the organisation. The employees will also feel a less need for regular holidays as the work from home environment offers a natural ‘break’.
An important factor to keep in mind is that a large portion of the workforce such as craftsmen, health care workers, hotel industry personnel, manufacturing concerns, and many more segments are engaged in physical labour.
There is no way to involve these segments in digital work environments. Therefore, when the policies are created, the companies must consider these factors as they can only involve part of the staff in these physical labour oriented establishments.
A clear disadvantage of WFH is that every worker may not be suitable to adapt to the model because of the differences in personality, ability, and possible personal issues.
Some of the employees prefer routine and structured work environments and fancy interacting with colleagues rather than being alone at home.
Such employees will provide negative productivity unless they are psychologically motivated. In my personal opinion, based on my own experience, this mindset can be easily changed by proper guidance. The usual phenomenon is that people resent change but they become accustomed to the situation sooner or later.
Negative factor
Another possible negative factor is that the WFH staff may feel isolated and disconnected from their colleagues.
An effective communication plan can reduce this aspect with the assistance of suitable video conferencing applications.
Regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions, and even personal chats and catch-ups can help overcome the issue where the staff can feel that they are part of the team.
Home distractions and potential burnouts on personal mental health must be avoided.
An office provides a clear distinction between office-life and home-life.
When both these important aspects come together at the same location, the employee must be educated to distinguish the two different important parts of life. If not properly managed, an increase of stress and the potential burn-out will be inevitable.
As lucrative as the idea of remote working sounds, there are several negative factors as well. The advantages are apparent with many beneficial features.
However, the impression that home-based employees tend to work less can prevail in the mindset of conventional businessmen.
This is where a well-balanced monitoring plan is essentially required from day one. The employers must be thorough with supervising and the employees must be exceedingly self-disciplined to avoid possible frictions.
Finally, from the employer’s angle, the most excellent benefit of the work from home model is the operational cost reduction that runs into substantial savings whilst the two most negative aspects are the information security risk and difficulty in performance monitoring.
There are many ways to counter the problem of monitoring through technology with the assistance of many modern software applications and video options. Daily progress can be easily supervised against a predetermined goal through physical remote monitoring or software.
Information security risks can pose a threat to a company’s plans and other important data. The WFH staff is exposed to company servers remotely and much confidential information also will be out in the open. Employers must ensure that they introduce encryption software to protect such data. There are many measures in this regard available with proper systems and technology.