An opportunity to change the way we work?

In four short weeks, most traditional office jobs have been adapted so they can be done from home. Suddenly meetings that had to be completed face-to-face are occurring virtually, essential travel turns out not to be actually essential, and people are reducing the number of meetings they’re having as issues are dealt with in a quick phone call or email. I get the sense that there’s an openness to alternative ways of working at the moment, and we all need to grab hold.

I’ve had multiple conversations with my husband over the years trying to convince him to work from home one day a week. For him that’d make a real difference, because on that day there’d be no commute and he’d get an extra hour and a half in the day. One day a week things wouldn’t be so pressured. But the timing has never been quite right – the project he’s working on needs him to be in the office, he has meetings booked every day that week, or it’s just not the done thing. I had this same conversation with him this week, and things have shifted. This is an environment in which we’re thinking differently.

People are currently working for outputs, not hours. They’re fitting in work when they can around families and other commitments. They’re prioritising their work and completing tasks quickly  because they don’t know when the next available moments for work will come. Thinking and processing is happening while folding washing and preparing the endless meals that seem to be required. The priority of keeping track of hours has dropped away as the focus has shifted to getting the work done.

This step away from the need to work set hours and be physically present in an office space is a huge opportunity for working mothers and the businesses who hire them.

Working remotely saves time

The obstacle created by needing to go to a specific location to work is huge. First, there’s the commute. Door-to-door, I don’t think many commutes would be less than 45 minutes. That’s an hour and a half of travel time each day – time that could be spent in better ways. Then there’s the time required to make yourself presentable for a professional environment. I’d put this at an additional 30 minutes. I think by not having to work from a specific location, you get an additional two hours in your day.

Working remotely saves money

This is true for both the business and the worker. That wardrobe of professional clothes costs money and as I sadly discovered from my accountant, clothes aren’t tax deductible (they’re not, in fact, classed as costumes). Commuting costs money, and so does the food and drink you end up buying in your breaks. Savings can also be made by the business – less office space, electricity, stationery and consumables required.

Working remotely is more productive

How many times have you found yourself sitting in a meeting thinking “this could have been an email”? Working remotely encourages people to keep meetings for when they’re really necessary. Working remotely also shifts the focus to outputs rather than hours. Workers’ productivity starts to get measured by what they’re achieving, and not how many hours they’ve spent sitting at the desk. This encourages more productive behaviour because the sooner you get your work done, the sooner you move other things.

Working remotely gives you access to a bigger talent pool

If you’re a business that’s open to different ways of working, you’re opening your business to a bigger pool of talent. Working mothers have an amazing – and often underutilised – set of skills. The number of permanent part-time roles in the workforce is low, and these roles are rarely attached to the exciting and challenging aspects of a business. Very talented and accomplished women find returning to work difficult, because they’re often looking for options that aren’t full-time. By offering roles that allowed for remote work and remunerate on outputs rather than hours, you become very appealing to this untapped talent.

As we move through the Covid 19 response levels and the constraints on our physical movements start to reduce, let’s think about how much of our work lives we want to return to the way they were, and which of the changes we’ve made that we want to keep. There’s an openness to alternative ways of working at the moment, so now’s the time to be having the conversations.