4 Remote Working Trends to Watch Out for in 2020

Predictions about the evolution of the corporate workplace will always be difficult to make. As a new decade approaches, we are bound to be surprised by various unanticipated developments that will inevitably occur. One of the major phenomenon’s that has taken place over the past decade has been the meteoric rise in the number of remote workers. Remote working has become the norm for many professionals and industries. As with many structural changes in business, this development has created new opportunities and new challenges.

Here is a look at the remote working trends to watch out for in 2020.

Better collaboration and workflow transparency

The increasing prevalence of flexible work arrangements has been met by an augmentation in the availability of online tools for the home office. Whilst we are transitioning away from an environment where it is common to have face-to-face meetings with colleagues every day, levels of communication are not declining. Companies understand that there is still a necessity for collaboration and transparency between people inside and outside of the office.

In the past, companies have attempted to facilitate this by relying on a cobbled-together mix of technologies like video conferencing and screen and file sharing. These technologies are effective in some departments and help to provide a high level of access to workers outside of the office, but also create some recurring issues. Multiple technologies require a high level of training, a large time commitment, and comprise dangerous security threats. In 2020, it is expected that companies will avoid these complications by migrating to all-in-one collaboration and workflow tools that will allow employees to gain clarity and transparency on their projects.

By implementing these tools, companies will save time and money in both initial capital-output and in time saved using them. Manual tasks like data entry can now be handled by workflow automation software, which often integrates tasks from separate applications in order to mechanicalize the most tedious and inefficient tasks whilst simultaneously eliminating human error.

Cyberattacks on the rise

Gone are the days where being a remote worker simply means the IT department gives you a company laptop and sends you on your way. In a survey conducted earlier this year, 90% of IT workers said that their company’s remote employees are not secure, whilst over 70% reported that teleworkers comprise a bigger risk than on-site workers. The concerns of these IT teams can be explained by a combination of factors.

First, a lack of comprehensive IT security training means that remote employees are often ignorant or oblivious to following security protocols away from the office. Second, many do not have the technical tools they need to keep their company’s sensitive data safe.

Next year, efforts to deal with these issues will be complicated by the emerging threat that hackers are expected to provide in targeting cloud misconfigurations. There is often a false sense of security around cloud infrastructure and, having recognised this, hackers are beginning to capitalise on human errors in the configuration process.

Considering that many of the collaboration and workflow tools discussed in the section above are cloud-based, companies employing remote workers will be particularly susceptible to this risk.

Vulnerabilities to cyberattacks caused by remote working are compounded by the growth of public and unsecured wi-fi networks. In 2020, the global number of public wi-fi networks is expected to reach 432 million. A number of security providers have pre-empted the security risks that this may comprise, and have strengthened their effort to ensure clients are benefitting from VPN connections, multi-factor authentication, and secure password management capabilities.

The rise of the social remote worker

The advantages of working remotely are widely advertised. Flexible schedules, increased productivity, and improved health are just some of the reported benefits. Whilst it is easy to discuss the positive aspects, remote working can also have an effect that contradicts intentions. For instance, rather than benefiting from a more open-ended social life, remote workers can miss out on many of the positive social aspects that an office environment provides.

Studies show that remote workers have a tendency to feel more removed, isolated, and even lonelier than their in-office counterparts. As businesses begin to realise the frequency of these cases, it can be expected that we will see a more protracted effort to cater to disillusioned out-of-office employees.

The utility of coworking spaces is seen by many businesses as a productive solution to this issue. The number of coworking spaces worldwide is expected to hit 2.6 million in 2020, and by enabling employees to use these spaces, businesses can provide a productive yet sociable environment that is equipped with all of the amenities that may be required.

The arrow will continue to point up

The biggest trend in remote work in 2020 will simply be that there will be more of it. Businesses are pandemically reforming their work policies to allow employees to work outside the office. Statistics show that remote workers are 16% more productive than their in-office cohorts and 24% happier. Simultaneously, remote employees save between $2,000 and $7,000 per year and companies save an average of $11,000 per remote employee. The win-win scenario for businesses and their employees makes it difficult to foresee the trend slowing down or reversing anytime soon.

By Neel Lukka, who is the Managing Director of CurrentWare Inc, a global provider of employee productivity and data loss prevention software headquartered in Toronto, Canada.

https://www.currentware.com/

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