It might be an unfortunate time to talk about smart working and home offices, as the global emergency we all know is forcing more and more companies to adopt this solution to protect their employees and to stay afloat. But as a firm believer that every cloud has a silver lining, one of the few positive sides of this situation is that it’s helping us realize how that meeting could have really been an e-mail.
But first: what is smart working?
Smart Working
Smart working, sometimes also known as agile working, is not simply working from home (or remote working), as many people mistakenly think. Smart working is rather about flexibility and technologies in terms of location, timing, schedules and organitazion (McEvoy, 2019).
However, to perform in the best possible way, a laptop and a decent wifi connection are not the only two things you’ll need. If you are an employee, and your company offers the possibilty to smartwork (is this verb a thing, huh?), you’ll also need resources, support, and more than anything technologies that will help you to work as good (but hopefully better) as you would do from your grey, boring desk. Smart working also requires a different approach to leadership and communication: as in any (work) relationship trust is essential, but it becomes even more important when control (work-wise speaking), in a way, is out of the picture. Although communication could seem at first less strict, it needs to be agile, essential and precise.
The perks of Smart Working
The benefits for companies and for employees are several, and we’re not only talking about avoiding that colleague you can’t stand or working from the comfort of your couch while sipping Oolong tea out of your favourite mug.
For the employees:
- Autonomy and freedom: smart working allows people to manage their time better and according to their needs.
- Commuting time: working from home or from wherever employees think is best, enables them to spare a lot of time in cars or in public transportations; time that could be devoted to families, hobbies, self-care or health.
- Expenses: the money spent when eating lunch outside or/and for travelcards is just an example of the costs that can be avoided when working flexibly.
- Motivation and life quality: when people can manage their time and their life the way they want, they’re happier, the motivation increases and usually performance and results improves.
For the companies:
- Costs: not only employees can benefit money-wise from smart working, also companies, especially in terms of infrastructure costs.
- Productivity and performance: happy employees, happy company. When workers are happy and fulfilled, they work better. This is reflected in the overall performance and productivity of the company they work for.
Even though the advantages are many, smart working isn’t a always fairytale. For this reasons, whether you’re an employee or you’re thinking to implement smart working in your own company, you should also consider the following drawbacks:
- Isolation: people working on their own or having less contacts with their teams and colleagues, could feel isolated. Always make sure that you, your employees and teammates are doing well.
- Distractions: for those who are used to be “supervised” in an office, working in autonomy could be more challenging than we think. Distractions are everywhere, especially at home: social media, phones, Netflix, the fridge. Try to maintain your concentration level high and make use of apps and tools to manage your time and keep yourself productive.
- Communication: if communication is not managed properly, there could be misunderstandings and problems that could cause delays and errors.
- Technology: proper technologies are essential when it comes to smart working. If the resources are not appropriate, agile working won’t be that agile, probably resulting in more complications and difficulties than it would have been at the office.
Well, this is the first post about smart working. Are you a smart worker? Would you like to be one? If not, why? Share your thoughts with me in the comments section below!
Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
I love your article! It’s the perfect timing to talk about smart working now, as the world is forced to move towards a more flexible working environment to literally keep employees safe. I’m curious to learn more about the apps helping to avoid distractions, which ones can you recommend?
Hi Oliver, I’m glad you like it! My next post (coming veeeery soon) will be all about the best tools and apps to keep yourself productive and focused. Stay tuned!!
Smart working is definitely my ideal way of working, really great article Veronica!
Hi Maddalena, thank you for your comment! I’m glad to hear that you have a good relationship with smart working.
Dear Veronica
Thank you for your great article. What you say is true and it is affecting many workers and firms around the world right now.
I believe that the for the employee is important to set up their office in the right way to stay productive. To improve the quality of home office I would suggest for example:
– Bring home or buy at least one monitor (if you don’t already have one at home), since many employees have to use the company laptop. Working on more and wider monitor will help a lot.
– Make sure you have good headphones, as phone calls and skype conferences will be used even more.
– Turn on some music in the background and take advantages of your kitchen for tea and coffee.
Best regards
Davide
Hey Davide, thank you so much for your feedback!
Having the right resources and technologies definitely makes the difference. I might write a post about the do’s and dont’s of home offices/smart working, what do you think?
Great article!! I would love to be a smart worker, because I think it gets your creative juice flowing even more.
Unfortunately today there are still many “old school” companies who still didn’t adapt to the digital age… I hope that the current crisis made them realize that it is vital to implement smart working into everyday working practices.
Hello Stella! Thank you for your comment.
That’s true, nowadays not every company recognizes the potential and the benefits of smart working. This tough time we’re experiencing now will surely make companies and employers recognize that different approaches to “standard” working are now reality. Stay tuned for more posts!