The world of work is rapidly changing because of a number of obvious reasons. Top of this list of reasons is the drastic reorganization in the world of work because of the pandemic. This singular causative agent is one of the core catalysts fast tracking the rapid adoption of several changes in the world of work.

Considerably, the changing work scene already had a taste and shift towards the essential ingredients that are significant to the working mechanism of the future of work. Artificial intelligence, robotics, process automation among other changes are quite evident in several workplaces as of today.

Remote work was a benefit that a handful of companies offer to their employees in time past. However, remote work is now a norm in most businesses and work environments. In effect, what could remote work’s impact be on the future of work? What factors should businesses be considering in getting the best productivity from their employees considering these new working conditions? This article focuses on the impact of remote work on the world of work. It also explains how companies can better position themselves to benefit from these changes

The Future of Work and Its Working Mechanisms

Remote work is a permanent change that the majority of workers will demand as a condition of work. According to the metric on productivity, there is data to back up the claims that remote work is actually working. These productivity metrics among other metrics prove that there is no drop in the productivity level of employees.

For this reason, several companies are already adopting the remote work policy. This work policy is applicable to almost the entire workforce in corporate industries. Obviously, the big tech companies are leading the charge in this area. Tech giants like Google, Twitter, and Facebook among others are helping workers set up their workstations remotely and considering the possibility of keeping the remote policies.

Other ways remote work will influence the future of work includes

Office Management

Fewer workers in the office mean one thing – less need for office space. Remote work will influence the need for a large office space. Although some companies might require a hybrid working mechanism, the workspace will gradually become smaller.

For the estate management of these companies, a co-working space will become the norm. Interestingly, forgoing the office space is a definite cost-cutting expense for companies. This reduces the overall operations expenses from the balance sheet.

For estate managers who are in charge of office floors and buildings, the redesign of office spaces becomes necessary. This is to allow for brainstorming sessions, accommodate hybrid workers and integration of technology software for the management of schedules. This development will influence the way office arrangements will be going forward. This redesign will lean towards a collaborative approach and forgo the design of the cubicle.

Productivity and Performance Management

The metrics for measuring performance and the productivity level of workers is greatly shifting away from what it used to be before. Now, companies rather focus on the work done by the workers instead of the number of hours spent in the office. To aid this advancement, tools and software solutions are instrumental in the management of remote employees to perform to their full potential.

Performance and productivity tools help to monitor and maximize the efficiency of employees. It also provides the visibility that employees will like to get from the work that they do from day-to-day. This rethink of how to measure performance and manage productivity is important to identify who is making progress and manage remote workers.

Tools and Technology

The tools and technologies are central to the success of remote work for any organization. Unlike the office space that has the tools, technology that employees can use, and share, remote work requires employees to have their own tools for work. For most employees, the quality of tools at their disposal is important for productivity and efficiency on the job.

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The communication culture of the team is another important aspect of remote working. The inner working and productivity of the team is almost depending on the seamless communication that exists within the team. Tools like Microsoft Teams, Google Meets, and Zoom among others are some of the tools that are central to communication among teams.

Building a culture that maintains the communication of the team is important for continuous development and delivery on a project while working remotely.

Visualizing the future of work

So far, the impact of working remotely until this date is showing promises about what the future of work could look like. Visualizing how the future of work will look like from the current development already points towards some benefits and convenience of remote work. To start with – Remote work is permanent.

Other possible ways through which remote work would influence the future of work will look like include:

1: Development of communication culture and standards around tools and technologies
2: Development of new leadership roles and positions for the monitoring and management of remote work
3: Flexibility in work structure depending on different companies and across different industries
4: Metric management for measurement of productivity and performance of employees over a given period
5: Data security standard for workers that work across different continents and jurisdictions
6: Employee rights and privileges in different countries and across different time zones
7: Tools and technology integration serving different functions in different organizations. Payment tools for calculating per hour balance and project management tools for calculating task completion for workers.

Summing It Up

Remote work is rapidly changing the work structure and this is a sure and solid practice for the future of work. This point to the rearrangement of several mechanisms that are currently in place. Overall assessment in the workplace like pay scales, time management, hierarchies and others might go under reassessments. 

At the core of the future of work is the communication and workflow of the different teams that make up the company. Intentionally redesigning and reassessing the current structure to a more flexible standard that accommodates remote work is sure to become prevalent.