Will companies continue to work from home? Is it possible for the manufacturing sector to work remotely? What is the scope of remote working in the coming years? All these questions are what makes these times uncertain in the business sphere. Companies will have to prepare themselves if this is going to be a permanent change. Technology facilitated the smooth transition from office to home. But for a longer period, digitalization helps.  

However, this does not answer the question, Is work from home here to stay? 

Here, in this blog, I will tell you an instance where something that began tentatively stayed here forever. 

How Women’s Percentage in Regular Jobs Raised in the US? 

Well, during the world wars, men had no choice but to participate in the war out of patriotism and to demonstrate their brevity. Those times, women had to take care of the family by finding ways to earn money and so they started working in various positions in factories, offices, and farms. People thought things will go back to normalcy once men return from war. But it didn’t. Working women became the new normal.  

“There has been a sudden influx of women into such unusual occupations as bank clerks, ticket sellers, elevator operator, chauffeur, street car conductor, railroad trackwalker, section hand, locomotive wiper and oiler, locomotive dispatcher, block operator, draw bridge attendant, and employment in machine shops, steel mills, powder and ammunition factories, airplane works, boot blacking and farming.” 

-“Protecting the working mothers” Seattle Union Record.  April 24, 1918 

When a solution to a different problem solves many other troubles faced by humankind, then the solution would become a permanent way of living. Similarly, work from home was chosen as a temporary lifestyle to prevent corona spread and also to sustain businesses. However, work from home came with a lot of other benefits.  

Why Work from Home is Advantageous? 

1. Less Commute time. 
2. More focus on important tasks 
3. More family time. 
4. Personal growth 
5. More time for upskilling 
6. Increased productivity and performance 
7. Flexible working hours 

Men and women are able to look after their families well, and an increased engagement rate is ensured by the company through communication and collaboration tools. Even organizations do not have geographical limitations in recruiting the best talents. People can work for companies from anywhere in the world.

The main reasons why people choose work from home is because 91% believe that WFH helps to maintain work-life balance, 79% think that they are highly productive and focus more on work, 78% experience less stress, and 78% want to avoid commuting.  

The Downsides of Work from Home 

After a considerable amount of time, there are reports that have found that the productivity and performance of employees have decreased because of a lack of personal face-to-face interactions. In every industry, the human touch is also one of the factors of motivation. Virtual tools cannot fulfill this innate feeling of a human being. The peers dropping by the desks, having small talks, taking out the frustrations while having a cup of coffee were something we used to do that we didn’t know those activities helped us to maintain mental well-being and excellent team collaboration. 

Also, in most companies, as managers do not have the proper leadership training and also, they haven’t experienced this way of working in the past, they tend to micromanage the employees, which further breaks the morale and engagement rate of the employees. More than often, a business runs successfully based on the mutual trust and loyalty between the customers and the brand, the employers and employees. 

Overworking affects the employees’ motivation, disengages them, and destroys the line between personal and professional lives. The employee well-being is greatly affected by overworking as employees do not know when to stop or they are burdened with too much work just because they do not travel home to office and office to home. 

The company’s culture will not sustain over a complete work from home model. Culture is very significant to keep the company move forward as a whole entity. Only if the employees live out the core values of the company and believe in the business objectives, the organization can climb the ladder to success. 

What is the Solution? Work from Home is Here to Stay or Not? 

Global organizations like Microsoft, Spotify, etc., changed their HR policies by making Hybrid model as one of their working style, which an individual can choose for themselves on manager’s approval. Each team has a different set of requisites, and the working model would be chosen based on that. 

The hybrid model has many votes as working from home because it means both collaboration in-person and also working from the comfort of home. In a survey, around 55% of people prefer a hybrid work model, where they wanted to go to the office just for three days a week, and 68% of executives wanted the employees to at least be 3 days a week in the office. Only 30% of executives are concerned about work culture in the hybrid work model. 

But the truth is, both the employee well-being and the company culture can be better maintained in a hybrid work environment than in a pure work from home or in-office model. The employees will be more engaged and loyal to the company as the management cares for them and takes their priorities into consideration. 

In a Nutshell… 

Work from home is here to stay only till the end of the pandemic. After that, the companies will be considering (which they’re already doing) and implementing a hybrid work model to keep the millennials engaged and provide a better work environment. However, one thing is for sure, employers and employees have learned that being at the office on all working days is not the only way to be productive.  

With the help of more automation and cloud tools, organizations will move toward a digitalized future that is more focused on enhancing the employee experience and also managing employee performance effectively.