It is common knowledge that the working environment of any organization has a direct and inevitable impact on employee productivity.
As is made clear by research conducted by Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Lithuania, that states that one unit change in Physical Environmental Factors of an employee incorporates a 35% change in Employee Health.
Subsequently, one unit increase in Employee Health increases Employee Productivity by 80%.
Consequentially, this makes employers very careful and cautious of the work environment for their employees.
A major decision that falls under this umbrella of Work Environment and Employee Productivity is the debatable and often controversial choice between Remote working and office working environment.
10 to 15 years back in the pre-smartphone age, the collective energy-born motivation of all the employees working together in an office/co-located working space often led to the celebration of offices.
But, with the ease of digital communication and the advent of connectivity and productivity enhancement tools, Remote working has become the new norm.
Talking about the current scenario of the work environment and employee productivity, a post-COVID-19 world is in for some global changes in the working pattern and working decisions of employers and employees both, and these changes are going to be permanent.
Even though both of them offer their unique pros and cons but, as evident from the current post-COVID-19 scenario (as mentioned above), Remote working outweighs Office working not only in the social adjustment aspect of it but also because it is the only way for organizations to adapt to in the coming future.
And here is why Remote working is the future, besides increasing employee productivity.
Lesser carbon footprints
Any environmentally conscious company would ensure mitigating their carbon footprints and overall environmental impact.
Firstly, this includes cutting down on solid waste in the form of paper, staple pins, electrical resources, etc. Secondly, employees tend to consume way more energy in offices than in their homes (for example-lights switched on all the time, overusing paper in fax machines, etc.).
Finally, the carbon emissions with respect to fuel combustion that employees produce during their daily commute to the place of work.
Remote working not only helps a company reduce its carbon footprints in terms of all the above-mentioned points but also aids the long-term sustainability of all organizations alike.
Lesser distractions and interruption to increase employee productivity.
A worker at home has the liberty to customize his environment to effectively increase his/her productivity and least distractive for himself.
The constant obligation of socializing in an office takes a toll on employee productivity, and that along with unnecessary commotion and noise is totally avoidable in a remote working environment. The employee can either work from home or choose any location of his/her choice with minimum distractions.
Find out how you can deal with distractions here: blog.hubspot.com/agency/deal-distractions-focus.
Autonomy to the employee increase employee productivity.
Working from a place of their choice and at a time of their choice enables the employees with autonomy.
This autonomy, in turn, let’s the employee focus more on the work and less on the environment and commuting, which ultimately benefits the company directly. Increasing employee productivity.
Self-discipline and skills increase employee productivity.
Remote working grants the worker with considerable authority in terms of the flexibility of the work, this leads to the onus and initiative lying directly on the workers themselves.
The workers need to constantly motivate themselves to meet deadlines.
Since Remote working brings the office to your home, the actual physical distance is covered via technology.
Multiple emails, simultaneous uploading on clouds, team communication chat groups, and virtual timetables are additional skills that remote workers hone through the process of remote working, which helps their employee productivity in the long-run.
Easy work-life Balance increase employee productivity.
As a major part of an employee’s day at home goes into work, in Remote working, the employee has complete control over the proportion of work-life balance.
More often than not, employees might find themselves being easily able to devote more time to their familial responsibilities than they would have had, had they been working from an office.
Again, the additional responsibility of demarcating work and life lies on the employee himself.
Eventually, there’s another window of opportunity opened for the employee to master another skillset and, ultimately, increase their productivity.
Conclusively
With, the meritorious pros of remote working, the conclusion that one can confine to is Remote Working is the present and future of ‘working’. And the one definite solution to increase employee productivity.
It took a global pandemic for us to realise the actual importance of Remote working as compared to co-located/office working places.
On the whole, Remote working will not only keep the employees motivated, but will also ensure that they aren’t overworked and take orderly and intermittent breaks as and when required.
Most importantly, it will also ascertain that a healthy sense of work-life balance of the employee remains intact, thereby increasing his/her overall efficiency and employee productivity.
