COVID-19 lockdowns and government restrictions have pushed tens of millions worldwide to work from home, accelerating a remote working experiment that had been struggling to catch on for more than a decade. In the process, it’s broken cultural and technological barriers to working beyond the office, structurally changing how many of us work, perhaps forever.
The benefits from moving from an office-as-factory model to remote working are clear: no longer being required to co-locate with peers, more flexible hours, and reduced commuting times leads to increases in business agility, independent work, productivity, and better work-life balance.
Remote working potentially allows companies to reduce their infrastructure overheads and increase access to the best talent from anywhere in the world. It’s allowed a Darwinian business model to come into play—those with better talent and decreased costs will win out over their competition.
A recent KPMG study[1] shows 21% of CEOs are now planning to downsize physical office space (or have already done so) because of the pandemic and changing working habits. Another 51% will consider shared office spaces or flexspaces for increased flexibility, and 42% want to hire predominately remote talent.
