With the variety of online communication and collaboration tools now available to the workforce, opportunities to work from the comfort of your home or make a living as you travel to faraway destinations are growing. The internet has drastically altered the way that teams work together through instant communication, organized project management and so much more.
Recent workplace trends seem to point in the direction of more remote working with less worry that employees will leave their projects unfinished—in fact, employee productivity seems to be enabled by the possibilities that remote working presents, hinting at a bright future for remote professional lifestyles.
Instant Communication and Collaboration
Easier access to projects and documents has made it so employees don’t have to worry about being in the same room as their counterparts in order to work and share information. Online communication tools such as skype and zoom provide companies with simple means of conducting conference calls with team members and clients around the globe.
Many companies also make effective use of team communication tools, such as Slack, that serve as a hub for all team conversations, so whether you’re out of town that week or working as a remote contractor, it’s easier than ever to stay in the loop regarding your company’s ongoing projects. Without the ability to communicate quickly through screen sharing and conferencing, this new world of remote work probably wouldn’t be possible, but more and more companies are communicating with team members and clients using such tools with high degrees of success.
“We have both remote employees and sales employees on the road, Slack is an easy way to stay in communication on both team and company-wide levels. ACT allows our sales teams to keep track of all clientele accounts; so, if one is out of the office, another member of the team will know exactly where to pick up.” -Katie Gorman, Marketing Director of Eventsured.
Professionals can also count on consistent communication with clients, whether these clients are in the same area code or a different country. Online communication allows for quick and instant updates so that teams can manage multiple projects for many clients without missing important messages from their points of contact.
Cloud sharing services have made it easier than ever to share significant documents, and this powerful technology is not going anywhere. Now projects can be taken from ideation to completion with multiple professionals working together but from separate locations.
Marketing Your Services From Afar
The internet has become possibly the most powerful tool in marketing your products or services to the benefit of any professional hoping to set up some type of remote lifestyle. All you need is a website to showcase your skills and portfolio, and there’s already a better chance of making your dream of traveling the world as you work a reality.
Candidates don’t necessarily have to make it to in-person interviews to earn a new job or the chance to contribute to a project—almost everything can be done online, from networking to applying, to securing a new project and completing it.
Even if you don’t have the time or resources to create your own website there are plenty of sites where you can market your services from any location. It’s as easy to post the details of a new project as it is finding the right talent to help you bring your venture to life. If you’re a business owner looking to hire a skilled copywriter, graphic designer, web developer or all of the above, freelancing websites provide a great avenue to recruit new talent, and remote professionals have been empowered to find work through these same websites.
It used to be a lot more difficult to track down leads for new work from afar, but with websites like Upwork, regular remote work can be discovered according to very detailed specifications such as timeframes, desired payment, and industry. If you need to make a quick hire to complete an ongoing project similar websites can help you get the job done, so get on Fiverr or Upwork and take your current projects across the finish line.
Increased Worker Productivity
The rise of remote working seems to be coupled with a rise in worker productivity. Anyone who thought the majority of employees working from home would slack off harming their work projects should be pleasantly surprised to learn that in most cases, employee productivity is boosted through more remote working opportunities. That’s why more and more companies are offering remote working days, or flexible scheduling, as a part of their company policies. Work-life balance is important to newer generations of professionals, and remote working is one of the ways companies can appeal to that balance.
Connect Solutions recently produced a survey detailing the real outcomes of remote working and worker productivity for part-time and full-time professionals, and the data showed that the majority of these workers completed more work when working outside the office. Some of the motivations for increased productivity seem to include a decreased amount of stress when working from home or a more comfortable location than the office, and employees seem keen to keep their remote working options by showing they can get the job done in less time.
It’s also important for employers to consider that they might increase their employee retention rates by providing more remote working opportunities and even save money on employee salaries, since many workers would be interested in taking a pay cut for more remote working options.
Embrace the Trend
With so many ways of collaborating on projects and communicating with remote team members, there are likely to be more remote working options in the future. Employers who embrace the trend of remote working rather than resisting will be in a better position to hire, retain employees and boost worker productivity all at once.
By keeping an open mind regarding remote working opportunities, both employers and employees might have a better chance of creating the lifestyle they desire with a balance between their professional and personal lives.
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