Thursday, April 16, 2020

Yes, This Is The New Normal

Amid the Covid-19 crisis, we've become accustomed terms we rarely used before, such as, novel coronavirus, social distancing and intubated. Those words are now a part of our everyday lexicon. I guess you could say it's our new normal.

Many companies may also be experiencing new normals, except, they may not know it yet. Having their teams work from home is one example. A lot of employers had rejected the remote work idea, mostly out of ignorance, I'd imagine. They don't want to lose control. They think that if they don't have an employee locked in an office 8 hours a day, the work will never get done. They think if their employees weren't within eye sight of their manager, they'd be slacking off. If the manager couldn't just stroll through the office and pop in here or there to check on things, then, the company would just collapse.

Of course, there are many industries where working remotely just won't work. Be it hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, gas stations, etc... they have to be there if the place is going to operate. However, out of necessity, we're seeing growing lists of companies allow their employees to work from home during this pandemic.

Photo property of Getty Images courtesy
of cnbc.com
There has been a lot of talk about remote work in the last 2-4 years and it was already gaining in popularity. We have the technology to conduct our business at home, including staff meetings, submitting proposals to customers, project collaborations, interviewing and even hiring and training, all via teleconference. In October 2019, Dragomir Simovic wrote for SmallBizGenius.net that in the US, 4.3 million people work from home at least half the time. He says;

  • 40% of people feel the greatest benefit of remote work is the flexible schedule
  • 16% of companies exclusively hire remote workers
  • Companies allowing remote work have 25% lower turnover than those that don’t
  • 76% of workers would be more willing to stay with their current employer if they could work flexible hours
  • People who work remotely at least once a month are 24% more likely to be happy and productive
  • The number of people who work from home has increased by 140% since 2005
So, if this was just seven months ago, how do you think employers and employees feel now, after having tried this for the last four weeks? Well, this basically amounts to a free trial period.

Now, more than ever, employers are getting a chance to experiment with remote working. Especially when it comes to small companies since they're usually much more nimble and usually have fewer employees. But, even large companies of 1,000 or more employees are seeing how beneficial this can be. My neighbor, who works in IT for FedEx, used to travel to his regional corporate office every day. Luckily, for him, the trip is only about 25 minutes one way. But, with many companies practicing social distancing, he and his team were asked to work from home (I mean, it's IT, come on!). He told me his manager was hesitant at first, however, he said his boss has really come around to the idea. 

Working form home, you not only remain productive, but, productivity actually goes up because there are less distractions. You don't have Bob on his way to the copy machine to stop by and ask whether the company will hand out more than two drink tickets at the summer picnic. Lack of distraction is the number one reason remote workers say they prefer working from home. It's so easy to understand why it's more productive.

So, back to this idea of new normal. I think it's inevitable more companies will transition a portion of their teams to remote work... at least a day or two a week, for starters. It's safer, for one thing, because it's corporate social distancing at it's finest. Another thing is the cost of running a fully staffed office versus having most of your people work from home. There are many ways a company can save money... you wouldn't need as large a space, you wouldn't consume as many utilities, you wouldn't spend as much on office supplies (because people will use less if they're buying the coffee, printer ink and paper). On top of all that, remember, the employee will be more productive. You will get more from them working remotely than you would eight hours in an office.

Whatever happens, whatever our new normal is, it's going to take some time for many to get used to it. But, as with everything, we'll look back and laugh at how we used to huddle twelve people into a tiny office to have a conference call.