Remote work: the future of companies and employees

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The challenges arising from the crisis caused by COVID-19 have almost forced us to make remote work one of the only possible working methods. This crisis is accelerating the adaptation to a work system that will possibly represent 70% of the work of the future.

March 2020 forced the entire industry, especially the technology industry, to adopt remote work as the main and often the only working method. Although forced, we now have the opportunity to validate all its pros and cons.

According to the latest studies from several employment platforms, including flexjobs, remote work has been growing over the last 12 years, representing a growth of 159%, and also indicating that in the United States, 3.4% of the active population already works from home.

The growing trend of remote work
As the technology sector is characterized by the constant search for new kazakhstan whatsapp number database innovations and working methods, remote work is one of the pillars of how work will be viewed in the future. At this point, 3 fundamental areas should be considered:

SQUADS vs Teams
We increasingly need people with multiple skills. The same job for life is over. In a company, there are more and more project-oriented projects that require a person from each area, regardless of the workplace. This squad executes the project and at the end new squads are formed with different resources for new projects. Let's imagine implementing software developed by a Portuguese company in a market like Poland with local developers and testers . Their inputs to the project can translate into commercial success.

The demand for certain key skills will lead companies to hire from all over the world. The mix of cultures fosters creativity and discussions about the product.

ASYNC vs SYNC
The working model is increasingly no longer from 9am to 6pm. In remote work, we cannot expect all employees to be online at the same time. Instead, we should prioritize asynchronous communications. This is a huge challenge, but it will make joint meetings, which will obviously be fewer, more concise and much more effective.

Aside from time zone differences, this work model allows people to work longer hours during the time they are most productive, whether in the morning, afternoon or evening.

PRODUCT QUALITY VS AMOUNT OF User Stories
The key idea of ​​this working method is trust. Trust in people and their work. We cannot measure the number of hours worked and the number of US delivered, what we should measure is the quality of the work delivered. Does the product launched on the market have all the conditions to be successful? Does it meet the needs of the target users? Has it reduced the amount of work for the support teams?

In this way, we will increase the feeling of ownership of the product, making each member of the team a Product Owner and a Tech Lead , increasing their quality.

Pain points of remote work
And what are the main pain points of remote work?

Communication
Although remote work requires more communication between people, we lose the non-verbal component and the presence of a physical board. This means we need to be more organized and creative in the way we communicate. Meetings should be better prepared using outlines and notes, and we should also prioritize chat/email tools . In addition, it is necessary to create rules between each team to distribute the work among all team members.

On Boarding
The process of integrating new people into the company and its teams becomes more difficult. It takes much longer to pass on the company's values. At the team level, teaching them how to develop in their own framework , for example, becomes a very long and complex task.

In conclusion,

People are not all the same and not everyone likes or can adapt to remote work. For this reason, 100% remote work is a utopia. However, a 70% remote model with 30% in the office may be closer than we think.