The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the practice of social distancing have forced companies worldwide to address productivity and telecommuting. This pairing has been seen to respond to the global health threat we faced in 2020 and still face now.
The circumstances of telecommuting due to the coronavirus may introduce a broader adoption of remote work practices. These options can be extended even after the crisis has passed.
This article will discuss how the global pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital workplaces and remote work. Even after the COVID-19 crisis has been resolved, these places may be here to stay.
Productivity And Remote Work With Coronavirus: The Era Of Digital Workplaces
Companies of all sizes have gradually moved to remote work amid the coronavirus pandemic to demonstrate social responsibility and keep their employees safe and healthy.
This change helped many businesses thrive and survive the worst of the pandemic while possibly also marking the end of traditional office structures and work environments that separated work from life.
Working from home on the coronavirus has tested company culture and traditional workplace notions. As we move into the long-awaited post-COVID-19 era, the way many businesses operate may change forever, possibly never returning to the old “normal.”
What Will This Economic And Cultural Reorganisation Of Work Bring To The Table?
On The Positive Side:
- Worker satisfaction can increase
- Office costs and emissions can be reduced
- Family and work roles may be better balanced
Telecommuting Challenges Can Include:
- More incredible difficulty managing staff remotely
- Adverse effects of professional isolation on well-being and professional development
- Possible long-term loss of productivity without the right changes
The potential challenges of telecommuting due to coronavirus can be overcome by using contactless solutions that help employees work more efficiently outside the office and keep them safe.
To achieve these goals, it will be necessary for these solutions to be adopted as soon as possible. This is the case, for example, of things as insignificant as electronic forms. These contactless solutions maintain the balance between productivity and remote work. We will take these simple digital documents as examples.
How Mobile Forms Make It Easier To Work From Home
Much of the world has adopted telecommuting due to coronavirus as the safest and most secure work formula. But the change experienced in 2020 shed light on some pain points and the benefits that companies can share with remote work.
Increased productivity from coronavirus telecommuting is possible if mechanisms are in place to keep all systems running smoothly and all employees on board.
We must understand our own company’s perspective on employees working remotely. This premise is even more critical if the situation occurs over an indefinite period. To appreciate it, it is helpful to answer these questions:
- Are we having difficulties managing employees?
- Does the company have issues with reporting, delivery, timesheets, and data collection?
- Do we still need to mobilise some of the employees and interact with customers?
- Are the current processes for managing remote staff a combination of text messages, emails, and spreadsheets?
Answering these questions will provide a better understanding of the need for solutions like mobile forms, which can help us increase productivity at work.
Productivity And Remote Working With Mobile Forms
The advent of remote work since the COVID-19 outbreak has caused these common pain points for employees and business managers:
- Less visibility of employees, which causes difficulties in the distribution of work.
- Oversight deficit resulting in substandard work quality and deliverables.
- Inability to report to management promptly.
- Centralised processing and storage that paper forms require.
Mobile forms provide companies working remotely with a more effortless, faster, and more productive telecommuting flow. They also allow complete visibility of employees who are remote for management.
With electronic and mobile forms, telecommuting companies can:
- Create educational forms that update employees on new processes and procedures.
- Use the built-in automated workflow engine to create approval process forms.
- Replace paper tickets with digital job tickets.
- Send employees remotely.
- Manage employees who set their hours to work remotely.
One of the standout features of electronic forms programs is contactless signatures. These are particularly useful in times of global pandemic and social distancing.
Without getting in the way of workflow, the feature enables document transactions while keeping all parties in the safety and comfort of their own homes. Essential data jobs are collected, and documents are digitised efficiently. The entire process is done without any direct human interaction.
Contactless signatures improve productivity and telecommuting over coronavirus because they don’t require many people and don’t need centralised processing as paper forms do.
Telecommuting Stats: The Changing Face Of Work Culture
According to the most recent statistics, about half of Americans now work from home, more than double the number since 2018. The data is not so colossal in Spain.
However, it should be noted that the number of teleworkers has skyrocketed by more than 74% in the last year. This has allowed three million Spaniards to work remotely. One million of them have been incorporated during the previous twelve months.
The productivity and telecommuting pairing also varies across sectors, with knowledge-intensive services leading the way while manufacturing services remain highly workplace dependent.
Occupational skill intensity is also a factor in coronavirus telecommuting opportunities. High-skilled workers are the group that most works from home.
Also of note, higher-earning employees were more likely to work remotely during the pandemic.
Overall, for the last few years, working remotely has been the fastest-growing work mode.
The coronavirus outbreak further accelerated this trend of coronavirus telecommuting cultures: One in five CFOs and other management figures plan to keep at least a fifth of their staff working from home to cut expenses. Business leaders are beginning to understand the close relationship between productivity and remote work.
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