More people are working remotely, and the 2017 Gallup “State of the American Workplace” report and survey revealed as much. According to the survey, 43 percent of employed Americans spent some time working remotely. In a world where collaboration and teamwork is now the modus operandi of many organizations, this might present some challenges.
However, working remotely doesn’t mean the demise of team work and collaboration. The number of solutions specifically designed to bring teams together remotely are getting better and more secure.
Businesses want to leverage remote/flex work because it is efficient, cost effective and increases the level of engagement and productivity by employees. Another survey from HipChat, join.me and Trello was conducted to examine remote and on premises work behavior.
The survey was carried out with the participation of 1,000 professional knowledge workers in the US. A little more than 4 in 5 or 83 percent said working remotely had little to no impact on their work, while 80 percent reported they are just as productive or more when working from home.
Working in Remote Teams is Common
So, any questions a company might have about the effect and productivity of working from home are quickly answered. Regarding teamwork, 100 percent of them said they worked in teams part of the time, while half of those said they worked with teams all of the time.
The next obvious challenge is bringing both worlds together seamlessly, so no matter when and where teams are working, they can do so effortlessly. This of course will require a range of tools.
Jim Somers, VP of Marketing for Collaboration at LogMeIn, explained in a release announcing the survey:
“Communication is critical to high-functioning teams. With the myriad tools at our disposal today, companies must deliberately seek ways to ensure that employees use the right tools to make collaborating with coworkers, clients and partners from any location simple, yet effective.”
The remote/flex work movement is not a fad that is going away anytime soon. A 2016 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) benefits survey revealed 60 percent of companies provide telecommuting opportunities. A more startling number in the survey was, 51 percent of employees said they would change jobs for one that offered them flextime.
The good news is the tools that are now available, such as LogMeIn for using remote access products or HipChat, join.me and Trello for communications and collaboration, make the challenges of geography a thing of the past by bringing teams together.
Here is an infographic with some of the other data points in the HipChat, join.me and Trello survey:
Images: join.me
This article, “Work from Home Doesn’t Mean Work Alone (INFOGRAPHIC)” was first published on Small Business Trends