Introduction
Remote working is one of the methods that is becoming increasingly popular in many enterprises worldwide. After being heavily impacted by the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses are terrified of losing human workers in another unfathomable pandemic like the COVID-19 pandemic. Firms and organizations suffered massive losses in 2020 and 2021 due to fewer people being authorized to report to work due to government mandates on employers to limit the number of employees to combat COVID-19. As a result, many firms are incorporating telecommuting into their operations to supplement the conventional process in which all employees must report to a central office. Many organizations have learned the hard way despite studies indicating that remote working exists in a few corporations and enterprises. They are now in the process of adopting telecommuting in their system to replace in-office working partially. Remote working, particularly during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, proved to be a crucial method of operation since the company could continue to function despite the pandemic hit.
Purpose of this Paper
It is projected that organizations that were able to implement telecommuting on their system will continue to do so after the COVID-19 recession. This is because enterprises that had previously adopted remote working in their systems benefited more than those that depended only on in-office labour. Many firms have discovered that alternate working arrangements, such as remote working, are necessary and save them money. Based on the lessons learned in the COVID-19 years of 2020 and 2021, enterprises have recognized the benefits of remote working and are investing to diversify their mode of operation. As a result, the primary goal of this article is to examine and identify the possible benefits of remote working for businesses that adopt it. The report also aims to identify and address management difficulties associated with remote working. Finally, the paper will discuss how Spotify.com, a firm most known for telecommuting, deals with remote working challenges.
Expected Benefits of a Formal Telecommuting Program to a Company
Remote working has shown to be advantageous to both the company and its employees. According to Mohammadi et al. (7), telecommuting fosters a cooperative relationship between employers and employees, which is critical to overall effectiveness. Recent research on the subject has found that telecommuting benefits a business. Mohammadi et al. (10) discovered that remote working practices assist employers and enterprises retain skilled employees. Firms and companies are picky about their most valuable personnel. Many firms have reported losing individual employees going through life transitions because they cannot report to the company’s premises to respond to their obligations. As a result, organizations that have adopted telecommuting have minimized such risk because their employees may perform their duties online. Another advantage of accepting telecommuting is reducing the strain on a company’s critical facilities. According to Omoyajowo et al. (270), remote working in an organization saves money. This is because firms would not be pressured to create massive offices and parking lots.
Remote employment is considered less expensive in terms of wage compensation than typical office work. Furthermore, numerous studies concur that telecommuters do not significantly strain firm employee advantages such as free internet. As a result, organizations that have accepted remote working typically operate at a reduced cost since they do not pay gasoline or housing allowances for their employees. Telecommuting has also been related to greater overall productivity. According to Omoyajowo et al. (271), many employers over the decades have struggled with production success challenges due to insufficient resources such as land, which restricts the number of physical offices. As a result, telecommuting has enabled such organizational managers to supervise vast groups of workers, which would not have been feasible if everyone had to report to the organization’s regular offices for work. Finally, it should be highlighted that telecommuting allows businesses to get the most out of their employees. As Mintz-Binder and Allen (154) pointed out, it might be difficult for in-office workers to finish large jobs within the typical working period of eight hours. As a result, remote working allows company personnel to take irregular schedules that would not be conceivable with in-office working.
Issues for the Manager of a Telecommuting Worker
While remote working provides several advantages for a firm, its implementation presents numerous problems that must be overlooked. Mintz-Binder and Allen (156) recognize managerial concerns about remote working. Following the developments during the COVID-19 worldwide pandemic, the pace of telecommuting has already been determined. This indicates that remote working is here to stay, and managers will have to work extra hard to overcome the predicted challenges of remote human force management to keep the organization on track. According to Ma et al. (13), managing remote workers is difficult due to the numerous obstacles associated with supervisory concerns. Face-to-face supervision in conventional forms of working allows supervisors to encourage employees to complete their tasks efficiently. On the other side, it becomes uncertain for managers as to whether a remote worker is delivering as promised. Furthermore, managers face difficulties creating clear expectations for their subordinates with remote working. This is a problem since in-office work allows managers and workers to communicate with one another. However, with telecommuting, the link between managers and employees is only strengthened via online conversations.
Other managerial issues that arise due to deploying remote work to replace in-office labour include a lack of communication and team cohesiveness and coping with social isolation. According to Budnitz et al., the current office environment consists of both onsite and remote workers. As a result, managers frequently find themselves leaning on one side while disregarding the other. This harms a business since success requires a collaborative effort from all personnel. Recent studies have also identified a lack of communication as a critical issue in managing remote workers. This is because there is a loss of the widespread spontaneous face-to-face encounters in the traditional office.
Detailed Real Life Experience of a Company
This section will discuss Spotify.com’s real-life remote working experience. Spotify.com is a worldwide technology and media streaming firm. The corporation is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, with a market capitalization of around $48.4 billion (Denis 86). The organization has implemented a hybrid working paradigm, allowing employees to participate in remote and in-office working programs. Spotify’s implementation of remote working gives people worldwide the possibility to work for the firm. As a result, Spotify’s most significant issue is managing its massive workforce, which is spread around the globe. For example, Spotify may not hold face-to-face meetings with all of its staff. This is true since the corporation’s remote working program allows skilled people worldwide to serve the organization. As a result, face-to-face meetings are out of the question for Spotify. Concerning the organization’s incapacity to attend actual meetings with all of its stakeholders, the corporation is utilizing new technology to reach out to its foreign workforce. These include video-enabled chats using technologies like Zoom, Google Meet, ClickMeeting, Room, and other well-known programs that provide live interactions.
As far as the Spotify firm is concerned, worker competency verification is another obstacle impeding the successful implementation of remote working. According to Denis (87), the firm cannot conduct physical interviews, making it difficult to verify the supplied credentials. This might also be detrimental to the organization, as competencies are essential when interacting with customers, the major stakeholders in any business. Negative consumer and customer comments on Spotify undermine its brand reputation, which is harmful to its health and functioning in the long term. The corporation faces a barrier in resolving this issue since it cannot finance or schedule a physical interview for all its remote personnel.
Conclusion
An organization’s remote working techniques contain benefits and cons that impact a company’s efficiency. According to ongoing discussions on formal employee telecommuting, an organization’s remote working strategy affects employees and employers. Research has highlighted some benefits of remote working in an organization, including employee retention, lower operating costs, less burden on limited company resources, and, eventually, higher total production. However, remote employment raises many administrative challenges, such as ineffective oversight and ambiguous expectations. Furthermore, the lack of communication and cohesion between managers and distant workers has been impaired. To summarize, telecommuting has both advantages and disadvantages in implementation and allows companies to register high productivity through extensive engagement of its workers.
Works Cited
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Denis, Diane. “The Case for Maximizing Long‐Run Shareholder Value”. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, vol 31, no. 3, 2019, pp. 81-89. Wiley.
Ma, Guoxin et al. “Telecommuting Adaptation in Malaysia: Demographics, Beliefs and Practices”. Asian Social Science and Humanities Research Journal (ASHREJ), vol 1, no. 1, 2019, pp. 11-18. UCYP Press, University College of Yayasan Pahang. Web.
Mintz-Binder, Ronda, and Patricia Allen. “Exploring The Perspectives of Telecommuting Nursing Faculty”. Journal of Nursing Education, vol 58, no. 3, 2019, pp. 152-159. SLACK, Inc.
Mohammadi, Motahare (Yalda) et al. “Examining The Persistence of Telecommuting After The COVID-19 Pandemic”. Transportation Letters, 2022, pp. 1-14. Informa UK Limited.
Omoyajowo, Koleayo et al. “Drivers of Telecommuting Policy in Nigerian Organizations”. International Journal of Business, Technology and Organizational Behavior (IJBTOB), vol 1, no. 4, 2021, pp. 263-275. Garuda Prestasi Nusantara Consulting.