Bridgers! We are in an era when a big shifting of generation behavior happen including in their work behavior. Employees recently put flexibility as their must-have-benefit on their workplace. They want this flexibility so that they can do their hobby, more time with family (or soon to be family), and other personal interests. Some companies and organizations answer this wish by establishing remote working program.
Harvard Business Review (HBR) shows that at this decade, number of remote worker are increasing 115% in the U.S. Moreover the average worker are willing to accept 8% less pay for the option to remote working. Are people really willing to exchange their salary with this so-called remote working privileged? Like seriously? Yes, it is seriously true. Not just in the U.S., 24% employees in Asia Pacific, 25% employees in Latin America, and 27% in The Middle East are the prove. What about Indonesia? Here it is, 34% employees in Indonesia are willing to work remotely. How is remote working at the practice actually?
Remote working, the other name of agile working or Working From Home (WFH) or Working From Anywhere (WFA) or whatsoever it called means employees can live and work where they want to be. At their bedroom, beach, mountain, or in a deep sea, well literally anywhere as long as they have reliable internet connection. At practice, here are two type of remote working. The first one is when worker lives in different city or country with the company office and the second remote working just as a benefit given by the company in some times like once a week or another.
Many companies applied this facility and it brings benefits for them too. They pay less for office rental, electricity, water, and particularly this bring more flexibility to their employee and impacting their performance! Yes, HBR study found remote working increase 4.4% in company productivity! But still nothing is perfect, Bridgers. Remote working without face to face interaction can decrease company bonding culture and connection. Apart from the benefit and consequence, many employees nowadays see this remote working as something appealing. So should your company directly announce that remote working program? Wait a minute, Bridgers! You need to identify these criteria should your company apply remote working or not:
- The Business Needs It
There are many talented designer in Bali and they will be more productive to work there while your company is in Jakarta. It’s really okay for you to consider remote worker. But if your company are doing F&B business for example, you need employees to prepare and cook the food, is it possible for remote working? No, just no.
- High Trust Culture
Do you have the confidence in your employee to deliver the work with minimum or no supervision? Can your employee being responsible without your eyes on them? If the answer is yes, you can do remote working.
- Aligning Expectations
Both company and employee need to understand that remote working has its benefits and consequences. For example company need to be ready to provide the necessary tools and support for remote working such as laptop, high speed internet, and remote worker need to be ready that there will be no excuse for slow response when they are working remotely. Technology can be a key element to bridge both sides too. As a tracking tools, communication tools, and many more.
That’s all. So, Bridgers do you think you are ready with the sunset at the beach in Bali as the view while working?
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Source:
https://hbr.org/2019/08/is-it-time-to-let-employees-work-from-anywhere
https://medium.com/@theresiatanzil/bekerja-secara-remote-2e835c5b28c4