It was a common belief that only physical workplaces could encourage employee productivity and work engagement. But the Covid-19 pandemic has changed this perspective, along with the working landscape, after a very long lockdown promoted remote working and set new ground rules for work.
The pandemic accelerated digitalization around the globe, generating a remarkable effect on how we work together, our work environment, and our workplace relationships. According to a survey carried out by Harvard Business School, 16% of Americans will continue remote working after the pandemic is over. After enduring a drawn-out pause, with lockdown lifted everywhere, we have found ourselves in an entirely new world, so no doubt we have been wondering about what we can expect now from the new work setting.
A More Flexible Working Environment
Everyone’s reaction to the pandemic has led to the quick renovation of the working environment where remote working has become the new normal since it promotes a more flexible work setting. Along with our personal life, the current challenges we face have also changed our everyday work life and transformed how we connect and communicate with our co-workers, clients, and providers. Before such eminent change, all of us were trying to have a healthy work-life balance, where we scrambled everything to get to the workplace on time or struggled to manage multiple responsibilities simultaneously. You cannot deny that the Covid-19 has encouraged many organizations to revalue the individual needs of their employees and allow them to continue working from home if they need it, or include a hybrid working model within its structure. These measures have also increased productivity as workers feel more motivated and committed to their day-to-day tasks. Surely a flexible work environment will help everyone meet their goals and keep a healthy work-life balance.
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Better Work-Life Balance
The capability to have the right blend of work, family commitments, and personal affairs has always been challenging for workers, regardless of their job positions. Of course, lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic had many downsides regarding the corporate world and economy, but it also impacted our perception of work-life balance. We have argued over the work-life balance for ages, but it has never been such an authentic debate as today. And it appears to have developed new significance since the beginning of COVID-19, and surprisingly employees have been able to have a better work-life balance due to the new digitalized and innovative work setting. While working from home, employees can appreciate a flexible schedule that offers a better work-life balance. So, there is a silver lining after all.
The Rise of Smart-Working
The social distancing rules prompted the most significant remote working trial we have ever lived, which became a new norm for every worker. This gives rise to the idea that we can all benefit from the innovative technologies that we have developed and that they can become allies that ensure that remote teams can uphold productivity. And when you connect the dots, you will see that smart working is the key to powering the remote work. But what is smart working: is a “model of work that uses new technologies and the development of existing technologies to improve both the performance and the satisfaction that is obtained from the job.”
By introducing a hybrid model that allows workers to work from home and at the office, smart working is becoming the right tool to manage such a diverse work environment since it aims to support job performance with the best possible technology.
Since the number of workers working remotely duplicated, many businesses started bringing Smart work to the table. The advantages that come with this working model caught the attention of those managers or C Level executives that what to give their teams more freedom and autonomy and desire to have the tasks more organized. Also, Smart working promotes the reconciliation of work life with personal life, allowing a better work-life balance.
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How does Smart Work Benefit Workers?
What could be better than using technology to bring workforces and assets under the same shade and improve everyone’s work life? This is what smart work provides and helps workers become more competent and prepared while increasing their productivity and success. Smart work has made work easier for workers as it eliminates the need of being micromanaged by managers, which can be mentally tiring for both parties. So far, several companies have used smart work and have protected servers and arrangements that allow workers to transmit or sync their work no matter where they are as long as they have a stable internet connection. Well, this has saved the workers and made their life easier in many ways.
There’s still a long path to go through regarding remote work, but we´re evolving one step at a time!