Will remote work become the new standard anytime soon?

It has been two months now since the whole world started remote-working. Although this evolution has not been without its difficulties, it has nevertheless resulted in an extremely positive outcome. All over the planet, companies are announcing that they plan to introduce “remote-work” in the more or less long term. To do so, however, it is imperative that they implement the right tools, in order to be able to manage their activities without friction. EMM solutions such as those offered by Appaloosa are obviously a part of this.

Which resources, tools or methods should be implemented to ensure the success of telework?

In a previous article, we talked about the democratization of remote work, which, thanks to technological advances, has been adopted around the world, in exceptional situations such as the health crisis we are experiencing. However, beyond this period, which we hope will remain unique, it would seem that remote work is more and more in line with the wishes of employees, whether in France or in the United States. A recent survey by the media company CNBC, for example, reveals that 43% of American full-time employees have become so used to working from home that they would like to see it continue!

Benefits for employees

In any case, many employees see more advantages than disadvantages in teleworking: an average of 27 minutes saved per trip, which is almost an hour per day – 47% of which they now spend with their families. At Limeade, a company dedicated to improving the “employee experience”, i.e. the quality of life at work (whose mantra is “a corporate culture that’s good for employees is also good for business“), they are already getting organized for the coming period: instead of managing the widespread return of employees to the company’s premises, they are planning the day of the week which, per team concerned, would allow all employees to see each other face-to-face, leaving them the rest of the week to organize themselves and work from home.

Limeade is no exception: other companies are also working together in this way. In Silicon Valley, almost all of the tech giants have said “yes” to remote work, at least for the next few months: until October at Amazon and Microsoft, until the end of the year at Facebook and until the beginning of 2021 at Google… at least. This is obviously in line with all opinion surveys on the subject, such as a  study by Glassdoor, which explains that 67% of employees surveyed would be in favour of continuing to work from home indefinitely.

A challenge for employers

If remote working is so popular with employees, it is most of all because it allows them to save precious time and comfort. No more long journeys by car or public transport: you can now get to the office in just a few minutes, the time it takes to move from the living room to the bedroom, where you have installed your workstation (or vice versa). This time saved can be spent with the family, the children, but it can also be reinvested in work: we see that many employees work just as much when they are working from home as when they are at the office, sometimes even more. And this is the good news for employers, for whom this change of organization is obviously accompanied by some doubts: not having their employees and collaborators nearby could make them believe that they are not delivering as much as usual. If tools such as Zoom or Teams make it possible, in any case, to monitor the daily activity of teams and control productivity, it is certain that the work of managers will be considerably disrupted by these new organizational methods. 

A new organization of work

The implementation of generalized remote-working is far from being obvious for everyone. While start-ups and other tech companies see it as an opportunity to further improve their processes, for many more traditional companies, it will be necessary to reinvent themselves. This starts with the adoption, if it hasn’t already been done, of simple and efficient EMM (Enterprise Mobile Management) tools, such as the MAM (Mobile Application Management) tool proposed by Appaloosa. An efficient MAM solution makes it possible to link the different imperatives of the employer (data security, simple and effective management for the IT department…) with those of the employee (possibility to use his own device, simple and frictionless user experience…). Of course, everything will depend on the company’s activity and that of the employee in question: depending on the needs, it will be necessary to determine whether a MAM fleet management solution will work, or whether it will be necessary to opt instead for an MDM solution, probably more intrusive, but more consistent with certain activities. 

Exceptional circumstances, exceptional tools

In a crisis such as the one we are currently experiencing, which is forcing us to reorganize drastically and in depth, the ability to adapt and deploy new solutions is crucial. Sometimes this has to be done at the expense of old organizational habits and ways of working. There are several examples of companies that have been forced to deploy mobile management solutions in just a few days: under these conditions, it is often not possible to take the time, we must act, and quickly. When we know that in the future, work environments will become more and more virtual, that teams will no longer be physically present as they have been over the last decades, it is imperative, as a manager or employer, to have the tools to collaborate in the best possible conditions.

Conclusion

Whether to communicate sensitive information or data, optimize the organization, monitor the activity of employees, but also implement tools that will allow them to organize themselves and simply work in better conditions (and much more…), a mobile fleet management solution like the MAM solution proposed by Appaloosa is essential to your organization, whether you are an SME, medium-size business or a big corporation.