Now that working remotely has become the new norm, and more people enjoy flexible routines that provide a better work-life balance, employees will likely seek organizations that provide the option to work remotely.
According to a recent LinkedIn survey, 60% of US workers prefer a combination of office-based work and working from home post-COVID. Just 11% want to go back to the office permanently, while 29% prefer to work exclusively from home.
One important distinction in the great remote work debate is the difference between #WFH (work from home) and #WFA (work from anywhere). The latter includes working from home, but also occasional work from your HQ, satellite offices or wherever else you may be. This is the future of work.
Mobile professionals who choose to work on their own terms – from both the office and home – require next generation, mobile-first communications solutions that enable them to communicate efficiently from anywhere they have an internet or wireless connection. These modern workers require mobile and desktop applications that enable unified communications with co-workers, customers and partners.
Upwork reported the decrease in daily commutes has saved $90 billion. Individuals who commute by car have saved more than $2,000 since mid-March. Eliminating the daily commute in the U.S. has saved more than 89 million hours each week, which is equivalent to 44.5 million full workdays since the start of the pandemic.
According to McKinsey research, 80 percent of people questioned report that they enjoy working from home. Forty-one percent say that they are more productive than they had been before and 28 percent that they are as productive.
And that’s not just employees feeling more productive. According to survey data compiled from 100 million data points across 30,000 users, a California-based company has tracked a 47% increase in worker productivity. Based on the data, telephone calls are up 230%, CRM activity is up 176%, email is up 57% and chat is up 9%.
Perhaps the greatest benefit for businesses both large and small is the infinitely larger talent pool that WFA provides. Companies are no longer restricted to hiring local candidates for highly specialized roles. They now have the ability to hire the best and brightest talent from almost anywhere in the world.
The ability to stay connected, place and receive high quality voice calls, send text messages, and collaborate with co-workers from a mobile or desktop app enables remote workers and distributed teams to work from anywhere. For your team’s remote communications needs, check out Cloudli’s mobile app business phone plans – starting at just $19 per month.