The workplace will never be the same. Of course, working from home existed pre-COVID-19. However, it was never a necessity and it was never indefinite — until now. In the past four months, businesses have been forced to swiftly transition to completely virtual workplaces. Given that no one knows how long the pandemic will last, companies have started thinking about how to operate their businesses online long-term. The result has been that the way people work from home is changing.
Ashish Deb is a senior IT project/program management consultant from Toronto, Ontario who has witnessed this shift firsthand. Deb has over 15 years of experience in the Canadian and international IT industry, with a specific focus on IT consulting and project and program delivery. He has noticed several patterns that have emerged, such as video chatting and longer work days and on the management side, businesses that previously didn’t employ cloud storage quickly trying to make the switch. Mr. Deb provides further insight into the top three ways that working from home has changed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Cloud Management
Ashish Deb claims that working from home amidst the COVID-19 pandemic has made it more clear, now more than ever, that businesses need to use cloud-based storage management. In the past, when the norm was for employees to work in the office, having files saved on different computers or devices may have been the most convenient option. Even for occasional teleworkers who worked remotely a few days a month, it would have been possible for them to transfer the files they needed onto a USB device temporarily. However, now that entire workplaces have switched to working from home indefinitely, cloud-based storage is really the only way forward.
Ashish Deb urges all businesses currently operating virtually to consider making the switch to cloud management. Cloud management will provide every one of your employees with access to work files and data no matter where they are or what device they’re on. Transitioning to the cloud will instantly optimize workflow processes, making the daily operations of the business much more efficient. There are a variety of reliable web-based cloud management services available, including Google Drive, OneDrive, DropBox, and Box. Each company can do some research and figure out which is right for them, but ultimately, no matter which one you choose, switching to the cloud will make the saving, sharing, and organizing of files much easier for both the employer and the employees.
Video Meetings
With offices being shut down, in-person meetings were no longer safe or possible. However, meetings are integral to the smooth functioning of almost every business. That is why, in the past four months alone, there has been such a rise in popularity in video meetings. Ashish Deb claims that while phone calls may have been common for telecommuters pre-COVID, many businesses prefer to see their employees face to face on video calls now that working from home is likely to continue for several more months. Video conferencing applications have skyrocketed in terms of the number of users. Take Zoom for example, which announced that it had 300 million daily meeting participants at the end of April 2020 (up by 200 million from the month prior). Similarly, other communication tools like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Slack all experienced major surges in their user numbers.
Further, Ashish Deb claims that another way working from home during COVID-19 has changed is that the number of meetings employees have is increasing. As businesses figure out how to effectively operate online, many employees have noticed an increase in the number of meetings they are being invited to. In fact, studies have found that the number of scheduled meetings was up by 7% between February and March alone. Plus, people are reporting an increase in one on one video meetings, as well as an increase in social meetings, such as virtual happy hours or lunches.
Ashish Deb on Longer Work Days
One less positive outcome of working from home during the coronavirus pandemic has been longer work days for many professionals. Surveys are already reporting that the typical work day is getting longer. Due to the technology and software that make it possible to work so efficiently from home, employees are finding that they are logging onto their work computers earlier and answering questions and emails later into the night than ever before.
However, Deb is quick to note that it’s possible this is the case because people are taking more or longer breaks during the day. Working from home does make it easier for employees, especially parents, to run errands or care for their children, during the work day. That said, it is undeniable that remote workers are spending more time on their work devices than ever before. A report from RescueTime found that the average total time on desktops and PCs increased by 16% after mid-March. The result? Around the world, from China to Italy, the average work day has grown by either one hour or one and a half hours since February and has stayed at that rate since. Thus, Ashish Deb asserts that part of working from home now means to expect longer hours.
