COVID-19 had forced a majority of the organizations to opt for full-remote working environment. Working from Home (WFH) was seen as the new normal of working, and most leaders projected WFH as a permanent setting or a long-term initiative for the sake of employee safety and productivity. As the normalcy returned to pre-pandemic levels, the same organizations slowly began to call employees back to work, offering a hybrid working model. The shift from physical office to WFH and then to hybrid working introduced a new category of workers, called “Smart-workers.” The smart-workers are distinctly identified from the rest of the workforce by virtue of their style of working, meeting deadlines, and balancing their professional and personal lives.
According to a report, it has been found that smart-workers are better at managing their work-related deadlines without significantly disrupting their personal commitments. In fact, the report found smart-working professionals are 40% more adherent to deadlines and take fewer leaves in a year compared to employees who haven’t been granted the flexibility to WFH. The authors of the study, Paola Profeta and Marta Angelici of the Bocconi Department of Social and Political Sciences have concluded that the flexibility of smart-working has a positive impact on the well-being of the employees in a WFH setting.
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Clearly, the rise of technology has proved to be a massive enabler in making WFH more comfortable for smart-workers. The smart-workers use a wide range of technology platforms and apps to stay connected to their workplace colleagues for communication and collaboration. The smart-workers are generally more satisfied with their work timings, which in turn, allowed them to take time-off to invest in extra-curriculum or domestic chores, helping spouses and kids with their tasks. In general, the better working and home life conditions had a soothing effect on the quality of sleep, which reduced stress and mental agony that normally affects employees working from the office.
Here are a range of benefits that smart-workers reap from working in a flexible, technology-enabled remotely operating organization or team:
1) More satisfaction that comes from the freedom and flexibility of work hours
2) Cost-saving (child care, transportation, uniform and meals)
3) Time-saving
4) Health and extra-curricular
5) Better sleep cycles
6) Personalized work environment
7) Better project management, adhering to compliance and deadlines
8) Chance to take on more work on some days of the month
9) Better understanding of HR Technology and employee collaboration tools and platforms
The success of smart-working is heavily dependent on the connectivity platforms. However, the lines between work and personal life can quickly blur if the technology fails, wrecking all the plans that employees working remotely may have set for themselves for the day or the week. In such scenarios, there is no option but to look out for trouble-shooting options from the service provider, or apply for leave, or head back to the office to complete the work within the stipulated deadline. Smart-workers, their ability to stay focused at work, and driving good results, are all important outcomes of having a streamlined and well-structured remote working policy that benefits the organization as well as other team members who could be working from the office.
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