Yesterday, I was looking at some statistics about the number of active users across the leading collaborative platforms, and the slowdown in remote work has not inverted the demand for collaborative solutions across organizations, with Microsoft Teams crossing over 300 million active users.[1]

It reminds me of the last day I went to my base office pre-pandemic and worked all day surrounded by colleagues working across various initiatives, connecting and engaging with different people inside virtual offices such as MS Teams.

A Day in the Life

Everyone in the room was on multiple calls during the day or engaged via messaging, not necessarily approaching other departments' desks, or avoiding downtime with everyone in a room like we used to do. Yes, our working area has always had someone on the phone, so it was a noisy environment. I worked for several years in a crowded outbound collections operation with everyone simultaneously on the phone and despite my tolerance level, I must admit my concentration level was different during the day working with only five colleagues in the same area. Around lunchtime, everyone had a slice of pizza at their desk in between calls with little bonding time. At home, I skipped my daily run and went straight to the laptop after eating something to recover from the commute and office shrinkage (background noise included) – on a day I should have been hyper-productive.

The Future of Remote Work

Despite varying opinions, I believe we’ve barely scratched the surface of remote work and that only more studies and the reality ahead will show us what the future (or the coming years) will finally look like.

Nevertheless, I would like to share with you the eight drivers that I believe indicate the demand for remote work we’re seeing now is only in its early stages of development and that will make business leaders decisions to change overtime:

1. Capitalization of the best talent will override location.
2. The need to stay competitive is today and tomorrow’s rule of the game.
3. Highly secure workplaces regardless of location help raise the bar (inverted dynamic).
4. The growing understanding of “Gig Economy” benefits require remote work.
5. Demand for governmental and corporate climate action.
6. Physical jobs are going remote too.
7. Companies want diverse teams, and remote work enables diversity goals.
8. The future of remote work: A growing readiness.

I will expound on each driver as part of a series titled “Exploring the Future of Remote Work: Why Companies Continue to Deploy Virtual Offices” in the weeks to come. Join me as we explore the future of work together.

Source:

[1] https://www.usesignhouse.com/blog/microsoft-teams-users