With changes in work culture, mindsets of CEOs about remote work have also changed. Companies have transformed their work into the virtual platform for quite some time now, all thanks to the Corona virus pandemic. For most of the companies it has been an overnight situation where employees were in the office the other day and the next day, they were operating from their comfy abodes. This change has been applauded by many for it has been a turning point in the work-culture and workforce of companies, taken in the interest of the workers’ safety and health.
“We have remote workers all over the world. It has its challenges, but in today’s world of connectivity, it makes sense. It is a great way to scale. We have made it work by building infrastructure to support remote access.”
Maurice R. Ferré, CEO, chairman, INSIGHTEC
Various CEOs have commended this practice of the “new way” and have accustomed themselves to the system and have found the shift interesting.
In this blog, we are going to cover:
So, without much further ado, let’s begin.
Most of the CEOs weren’t expecting the success of this changing environment but they have remained baffled and surprised since its inception.
This is what they have to say.
Meetings and presentations are the undeniable realities of the corporate working environment. With the adaptation of this mode, meetings have become more flexible and extendable. There is a high attendance rate and members have become more active than they were earlier. These virtual meetings feel more collaborative. Employee involvement has increased and this has also increased productivity.
Customer connection has become more prominent and accessible these days due to the advent of digital media. People have valued this way of less human interaction and higher satisfaction. Companies have been able to see gradual increases in their marketing and sales throughout the “work-from-home” phenomenon.
According to CEOs, the situation has also helped in the narrowing of the extrovert-introvert gap. Every person has been able to propound his/her thoughts better than before, which in turn has increased productivity.
With the advent of online hiring platforms, remote recruitment has increased. Assessment vendors such as Glider.ai have provided the recruiters with tools that have revolutionized the field of recruiting. Online hiring has reduced the need for on-campus and other physical forms of hiring. These have paved new ways for companies to hire the top talent in all genres.
CEOs have claimed that they have been experiencing better results through virtual hiring and assessments.
This is a rather cliché thing to say but remote working has made the office rooms empty and hollow. There has been a decrease in the hassle and tassel of the office, which in turn has induced positivity and a sense of happiness in the minds of employees.
Due to the pandemic, the world may witness an economic depression shortly. Thus, businesses are attempting to reduce their costs in every way possible. With the success of the work from home scenario, many CEOs are considering making these changes permanent.
Working remotely has significantly reduced most of their costs. With less office space, equipment, business travel, and lunches to pay for, organizations are better equipped to handle any economic crisis.
Companies have switched on to “work-from-home” mode for a long duration of time and this phenomenon has broken many stereotypical views of CEOs about remote work. There were even companies that had adopted this method even before the pandemic. According to Julie Sweet, CEO of Accenture-
“I give a lot of advice to CEOs about this because there are some who’ve got really excited about, ‘Let’s get rid of all our real estate!’. Back in the ’90s, we [at Accenture] pioneered remote working and we called it ‘hoteling’, and, particularly in the US, we took out a lot of real estate because we said, ‘Our people are at our client sites and/or they could be home’. And what we found, in fact, over the last five years when I was running North America, we started gradually to expand the [real estate] footprint again because there is a benefit of bringing people together as well.”
There is no denying that “work-from-home” has become the new norm of the corporate world and CEOs from all around the world have already adapted to the method or they are adapting. The situation has changed the views of CEOs about remote work and it is believed that this will have a long run.
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