Evolution of remote working and the role of technology in it
So, we have crossed half of 2020, staying inside our homes and working within our premises. While it appeared to be a distant dream for many, the concept of Work from home is not an alien. It had long been in existence; however, its only concept of Work from home gas gained popularity. Every dark Cloud has a silver lining, and this pandemic situation has boosted the concept of WFH or Work From Home.
Earlier, Work from home was looked down, as the employer felt that the employees were not productive; moreover, tracing Work’s effectiveness was difficult. In addition to this, employees would get easily distracted while being at home. But, you would be surprised that despite the myths and apprehensions surrounding the concept of Work from home, it had started to make its impact felt in the 1970s. In the present scenario, the Work from home has become a mandate and the best alternative to keep the business wheel running while ensuring safety from the Coronoavirs. You must be wondering when and how the concept of work from home evolves, and what led to its surge. In this blog, we will be exploring the same.
Evolution of Work from home-
Many of you reading this would be surprised to know that WFH existed long tome back. It all started with the Industrial Revolution. Later on, with the advent of technology, it slowly started to make its way into the mainstream business. One of the triggers for the growth of work from home was the development of the telecommunication system and the internet’s growth. Here is the chronology of how Work from home grew:
In 1560, the first even corporate office was established. Later in 1760, when the industrial revolution took place, the concept of moving out for Work picked up the pace. Things went on, and we have many offices coming up, but in 1970 when the Clean Air Movement kicked off, it silently laid the foundation of Work from home or remote working.
In 1973 with the telecommunications and transportation tradeoff published by Jack Nilles, the world got to know about remote working. He worked remotely for the NASA communication system. And he is aptly called as the father of remote Work.
1975 was a revolutionary year because the world was gifted with computers, and in 1979, IBM allowed 5 of its employees to work from home, and by 1983 around 2000 employees were working from home.
In 1995 WiFi was invented, and by 2010 around 59% of the US employees were working from home, and this percentage increased by up to 70% by 2018.
In 2020, Work from home was not a necessity. Still, the pandemic situation pushed the companies to accept Work from home. Now they are exploring different ways to ensure more productivity while the employees are sitting and working in a safe environment.
If we have a closer look at the chronology, we can deduce that it was a technology that promoted the idea of Work from home. And today, where we want or not, we cannot eschew from the fact that Work from home or remote working has become a necessity.
Is remote working effective?
If we had talked even a decade back and asked the employers to accept the idea of remote working, they would have balked. One of the major concerns of employers was the employee; however, with the advent of technology, the concept piqued the internet; many of the employees are ready to take the pay cuts to get the leverage of Work from home.
Future technologies
As we have mentioned above the future technologies, have acted as a catalyzing agent in the proliferation of remote working and making it trend. With time, we have seen many more developers, the rise of the internet, growing penetration of smartphones and smart technologies, and other tools and software; remote working can be the next big change that the world would be witnessing. Let’s explore how technology is aiding remote working.
- Tracking the work productivity- One of the primary concerns of any organization is to ensure the organization’s productivity while they work from their home. To strengthen the remote functioning involved in document sharing team collaboration, applications like Google Docs, Microsoft teams have simplified the process. Not only has it ensured seamless movement, but also the security of data. This software has shunned the round-robin affair, and with the aid of cloud-based technology, multiple users can access the same file. Every change is easily tracked, and you can also see who has made these changes and when.
Video Meeting Applications- Video meetings are accessible more than ever; they have become simpler and more productive. Companies like Microsoft team, Google Meet, Zoom have garnered a lot of attention during this pandemic, thus attracting many customer bases. Companies are highly relying on these tools. The efficacy of these tools is not only beneficial for corporates but also for schools, and colleges which are rendering education online in the time of the pandemic. Companies like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet have witnessed an exponential growth in its users. Microsft claims that it has 75 million daily users of Team (April 2020), and Google Meet is adding 3 million new users every day. With this growing number of active users, we can conclude that these apps have simplified our work-life like never before.
Cloud-Based Services- The technology that is aiding remote working and making it productive is the cloud-bases services—Cloud infrastructure allowing the employees to access all work resources from anywhere. Apart from connecting the team, Cloud also enhances the work productivity by up to 20%, because most of the business applications are present on the Cloud.
Employee monitoring software- Oen of the key tools that have got an uptick from most employers is the employee monitoring software. Ever since he shelter-in-place has become customary, companies have now adopted employee monitoring software. As per the research by Market Research Future, the employee monitoring solution industry will be witnessing a rise of CAGR of 22.6% and is expected t reach the market volume of 3.84 billion US$ by the end of 2023. There are many employee monitoring tools like Remokly, WorkTime, etc., which come loaded with features that not only enhance the work efficacy but also ensure complete tracking of employee’s Work, thus assuring that there is no compromise on the same.
The Future-
As per Robert Half, a prominent staffing firm, 60% of professionals who have transitioned to work from home are willing to continue to do so even if the resection is left. It helps them to have a better work-life balance. And hence, there is going to be a rise in the demand for such software which provides a complete solution, applications like Remokly offer a 360-degree solution, wherein the employer can not only monitor the employees, but you can also track their products, call the, and also provide them a virtual office ambiance. With such holistic tools by your side, work-from-home can become fruitful for the employers and the employees.
The stigma associated with Covid-19 is morphing into a reality, and slowly a wide section of the economy is transitioning into a reality. Though it may be challenging initially, we can surely expect a positive change in this with the technological intervention.