Sunday, February 9, 2020

Remote Working

How many of you work from home either daily or once a week?

Remote working - It is one of the recent revolution that is going on, all around us, in places that we work. It is also referred to as telecommuting or teleworking - it is nothing but a person doing his official work from home or any remote places.

Yes it is remote working and NOT working remotely😏

I have been telecommuting  for the past 14+ years and just thought of sharing more details  including pros and cons of it. Let me tell you, how I started my remote working….  I just started to do my remote working for medical reasons. When I  conceived my  second baby,  doctors advised less commute  and hassles , hence  worked with  my company  and  got the approval to  work from home.
I  felt  it was blessing in  disguise , in order to  pay it back -   I  worked  more than 100% and made my  boss /employer  happy. This culture continued and still I work from home.  

The ideas behind Remote working is - Talent is border-less and work is border-less.
Not everyone can telecommute. Rather designing our life around work, we are designing our work into our life. Most work from the service sector can be done from anywhere - if you have the right skill and technology.

Let us see who prefers Remote working

1)      We see young people like to Travel and do remote working.
2)      If you want to raise a family and spend more time with the loved ones or take care of any one ill in the family - remote working is the viable solution.  You can work and at the same time be next to the loved ones.
3)      If you are bound by immigration law - remote working is one such solution.  For eg , associate with  US Visa issue , get Canada work  permit and work  for US clients.
4)      If  you  feel  you  have exhausted all  the challenges in the local  market , you  can do  remote work for  challenges from  other countries.

There are 3 layers for remote working

1)      Individual   - how do you make individual workers more attractive as remote workers - so that they are hired.
2)      Company /Organization - how do you make company   great places to work and facilitate remote working.
3)      Government - how can government kick start initiatives and encourage remote working people.

Individual 
Below  6 qualities, makes us good individual remote workers.
1)      Organizational skills - how organized are you.  Are you  someone, who  needs to  chased to  do  a work, are you  a procrastinator -  need to  improve these qualities to be  good remote worker
2)      Communication - how good do you speak to people?  In fact are you bilingual / are you multi-lingual. How effective can you communicate to get the Job well done. Better you communicate, the better you are a remote worker
3)      When  you  telecommute ,you  are more autonomy  and you  set your  own schedule 
4)      You will be lonely - you will not be seeing people for a long time.   Like me - I hardly see coworkers 2 or 3 times a year in offsite / planning discussions.
5)      Visibility  and deliver-ability  - At office we are fine tuned  to be at our  desk  from  9  to  5.  May be we stay in desk after 5 to tell others, we are working hard 🙂.  But with  remote working you  are  totally  invisible -  you are accounted for  the what you  accomplish  that day or that week. Is the project moving fwd? Am I making the number to meet my set target.
6)      How you  navigate working -  getting used to  work  from  anywhere home, airport , hotel  rooms, library, cafe….  The more you are able to navigate around these uncertainty - the more you are a successful remote worker.

See how you can cultivate these qualities and PUSH these qualities, when you interview new work stream, so you push these traits to them.

Company
1)      Hire remote worker, with the qualities we spoke. If not start pilot project work with remote workers.  
2)      You cannot  discriminate anyone  -  that  he or she telecommutes
3)       With telecommuting increasing, what kind of software are being used talk to each other or communicate – WebEx.
4)      Have metrics to check  how  effective are the remote  workers

Government  
We need govt to protect us individual and our company to facilitate this new kind of remote working.
1)      Immigration - mobility is one big issue. If we do NOT allow people to move freely to get better jobs, we are going to  stagnate our economy
2)      What are we giving companies incentive / subsidy to  hire these remote worker
3)      What kind  of training programs available  for these  remote workers.

Advantages 
1)      You  save time on your  commute
2)      Flexible Schedule
3)      Work from anywhere
4)      Quality Time with your  Family
5)      Save 💲 on your wardrobe / gas / after school charges for kids etc and company save on rental space /insurance and the funds saved can be diversified.

Disadvantages
1)      Unplugging from  work
2)      Loneliness
3)      Collaborating & Communicating
4)      Distraction from Home
5)      Stay motivated

To conclude - no other generation has had the freedom to carve out its own lifestyle. Please try  to  revolutionize this remote working culture
1)      Ask your current employer, if it is OK, to  telecommute….
2)      If you  are a recruiter -  check  if you  can hire  the workforce , who  is more interested in  Remote working

This will  help  Talent to  move around , this  will  make the world so much better place in terms of getting the required skills  and  in  terms of jobs that are getting available .

1 comment:

  1. Yes it to work as remote recruiter. But we should be dedicated on working hours .

    ReplyDelete