Remote working: The new prospects
The digital transformation of the economy has been a subject of interest for a way a long time before the COVID-19 outbreak, not only for the entrepreneurial industry but for individuals as well. In our country, it took digital transactions a bit more time to get into people’s everyday lives. People became more familiar with this type of transaction during the self-isolation period,a time when paying off our financial duties through web banking became mandatory in most cases. One of the most important transformations that came along with the digitalization of economies, is remote working.
According to a research(2017) conducted by the International Labour Organization(ILO) and Eurofound , the percentage of people who often work remotly in Europe, is 3,3% out of the total of its working population, and those who work remotly but on-the-go represent a 5% of the total.In the same time, a 10% occasionaly works remotly. It becomes now clear that despite the rapid evolution of technology, most people still work traditionally.
Something that is very interesting to watch , are the variations in the scale of penentration of remote working among the European countries.Remote working is a lot more popular in the North and West of Europe and a lot less among the Central,Southern and Eastern countries.Greece is in the 18th place of the countries with 5% of its population working remotly (1,7% are working from home and 3,3% on-the-go).In Denmark, wich is the country with the largest penentration rate in this working model ,one out of five people (19,7%) works remotely on a regular basis, while the in Italy wich is the last country the percentage is 2% .
According to Telework Research Network, almost half of the working positions in the developed countries such as USA, Canada and UK could become half-day remote working positions .The profit that emploees and employers could gain, is estimated at 52 million/year in UK and Canada and 645 million per year in the USA.
As it turns out, the benefits that come with running a telecommuting model in a business are quite significant. Teleworking can bring significant, mutually beneficial benefits to businesses and employees.For businesses, the main benefits are increased productivity by up to 50%, attracting and retaining younger staff, reducing operating costs and reducing emergency costs. With the right technology,employees can stay connected to their customers and colleagues, regardless of their location, increasing communication and supporting business decisions and their development.For employees, teleworking can also improve the balance between professional and personal life and bring financial benefits, especially through reduced travel.
The implementation of this working model, also has a positive effect on the general public, allowing people living in remote areas, or people who until now had limited mobility (disabled, new mothers), to work from home, keeping high efficiency levels.At the same time, the reduced need for movement and the reduction of resource consumption for the operation of businesses and organizations, has a positive effect on the environment by reducing their ecological footprint.
In many cases, the driving force behind the teleworking application is the desire of the employees themselves, especially the younger ones, for greater flexibility in the organization of their work. Clearly, the adoption of the model requires investments in technological equipment and training, while the degree of digital maturity required is very high.The first step for any business, however, seems to be to create a fast and productive workforce, to determine what tools and remote work it can provide and how they can be used.Each company has different needs that will determine how they will use these new tools to allow the adoption of the model.
In Greece, the diversity, complexity and overall rigidity of Greek labor law, which, as SEV has repeatedly pointed out, makes it difficult to incorporate the principles of flexibility and variability that govern modern societies and complicate the work of entrepreneurs they want to modernize the business model of their business. Thus, although part-time teleworking is not prohibited by the existing institutional framework, it is difficult to combine it in practice with regular work on a daily basis, and there are conflicting interpretations as to whether the business is covered by the competent authorities.
Softwares and applications have been around for years, however, and are widely available for both smaller and larger businesses and have proven their efficiency and reliability. Although teleworking cannot be applied to all jobs, in modern developed economies there are a significant number of jobs that allow work from a distance at least in part.In short, even if the data so far does not push companies to adopt the teleworking model, we cannot ignore how this new working model can gain significant momentum in the coming years and familiarity with it can only be positive. to bring about both employees and businesses.
Sources:
https://www.channeldoubler.co.uk/el/tilergasia-remote-working/?cn-reloaded=1
