cover feature
Right now, someone is riding a commuter train and buying
groceries on a smartphone. Someone else is streaming a
podcast while sitting in a park, and yet another person is
checking work emails while sitting on a plane.
In the past few decades, technology has taught us we can
do anything, from anywhere. It’s not surprising, then, that
growing numbers of people are looking to apply that anything-from-
anywhere sensibility to their jobs, as well, with flexible and
remote working options.
The 2017 State of Telecommuting in the U.S. Employee
Workforce Survey (by Global Workplace Analytics and FlexJobs)
found 80 to 90 per cent of the U.S. workforce says they would
like to telework at least part of the time. In theory, they could: the
survey also found 50 per cent of the workforce holds a job that’s
compatible with at least partial telework.
If individuals have embraced the idea of mobile and remote work
quickly, organizations have taken a little longer, given that its inte-gration
can raise as many questions as it answers. Change, though,
seems inevitable. A Forbes magazine article from this past summer,
for example, named cloud technology (and its ability, among oth-er
things, to facilitate on-the-go work) as the biggest disruptor to
today’s businesses, and in an article titled “Top Human Resource
Trends of the Decade,” TheBalance.com points out, “No genera-tion
has even ever been this connected.”
The list of companies finding ways to take advantage of mobil-ity
and offer flexible and remote working options is growing, but
it’s still a short one. Even with 40 per cent growth over the past
five years, just seven per cent of all employers offer flexible work
options. It might be because they’re not prepared for change: A re-cent
study by Grand & Toy indicated that only 5 per cent of small
and medium-sized businesses are well on their way to adapting to
the changing demands within Canadian workplaces.
“IF YOU’RE TRYING TO BECOME
MULTI-CHANNEL WITH
YOUR CUSTOMERS AND YOU
BECOME MULTI-CHANNEL
WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES,
IMAGINE HOW MUCH
BETTER EMPLOYEES WILL
GET AT COMMUNICATING
WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS.”
– STEPHEN HARRINGTON
HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA ❚ NOVEMBER 2017 ❚ 17
/TheBalance.com
/HRPROFESSIONALNOW.CA
