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With half of Brits on course to work remotely next year, SME honchos can’t afford to fall behind the curve and miss out on the benefits of telecommuting. However, keeping up takes strategy
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ust as the computer replaced the typewriter, remote working is the workplace’s next evolutionary step. After all, with younger generations giving their stamp of approval, it’s clearly not just a phase. “Millennials started to overtake Baby Boomers as the dominant workforce generation in 2018 and Gen Z-ers aren’t far behind them,” explains Colin Yates, chief support officer at WorkMobile, the data capture solution. “These generations have certain expectations of what a working environment should look like and pretty soon it won’t be an office.” Indeed, according to job board Timewise, 92% of young employees work flexibly or wish to. And by next year, 50% of Britain’s workforce will arrive at their job remotely, according to the Office for National Statistics. It warrants something of a check-up for what going to work actually means and, more importantly, what employers should be offering. “No matter the industry, business leaders need to be equipping their workforces with the tools to work remotely now to avoid getting left behind in the very near future,” Yates advises. That goes twofold for SMEs. After all, due to current sky-high employment levels it takes an extra shove for job hunters to commit to small businesses, so luring wide pools of applicants is a must. And by embracing mobile employees working from devices of their own choice, top talent face few boundaries. “For smaller companies specifically, one of the greatest benefits of remote working is the ability of a tight-knit team to access the very best talent from trusted networks, not just from within a commutable distance,” says Brendon Craigie, co-founder and managing partner of Tyto PR, the public relations agency. Moreover, 87% of full-timers either already work flexibly or hope to, according to Timewise, meaning most job seekers far and wide won’t hesitate pinging over their CVs. “Adopting a location-agnostic staffing