By Vikram Kolar, VP – Software Development, Bengaluru GCC – Sabre Corporation

Introduction

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting adoption of Work From Home (WFH) for a vast majority of the work-force who work in industries where such work is possible, has thrown up an interesting question for companies and their work-force. The question is whether WFH or, more broadly, Work From Anywhere (WFA) (or remote working) could become a “New Normal” for such a workforce in a post-COVID-19 world. Not a week appears to be pass without discussions on WFA, both in leading organisations around the world as well as Human Resources (HR) strategy consultants and economic bodies.

There are a growing number of organisations who are looking to or are moving to WFA in a large way. These include tech companies like Walmart, IBM, Facebook, TCS, Twitter as well as non-tech companies like Mondelez, Nationwide and Barclays. New-age companies like Buffer and Zapier have gone 100% remote-work, while ditching their real estate in the process.

This article looks at the case for WFA, looks at the challenges, presents some solutions to overcome the challenges and a resultant work model for ensuring the success of WFA.

The Case for WFA

The case for WFA becoming the new normal is indeed strong. A recent Gartner survey of 317 CFOs and Finance leaders, revealed that 74% will move at least 5% of their previously on-site workforce to permanently remote positions post-COVID 19. A post from the World Economic Forum states “98% of people surveyed said they would like the option to work remotely for the rest of their careers” and goes on to state that “according to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly one-third of the U.S. workforce, and half of all “information workers”, are able to work from home.” A 2017 Gallup poll reported that “43% of employed Americans had spent at least some time working remotely”. Read the full article here.

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This article written by Vikram Kolar, appeared in Express Computer.