The Changing Nature of Work: 30 signals to consider for a sustainable future

SIGNAL 15. Remote work and the virtual office

Unprecedented levels of digital connectivity are expected to change the ways in which organizations operate all over the world. Business has been an early adopter in this area, especially tech companies that have been hiring remote workers for a number of years. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, some of the biggest players have made a commitment to switch to 100 percent remote work going forward.

Other sectors have also started to take advantage of the ubiquitous Internet access to create new models of collaboration between employees and partners. With this level of flexibility, however, comes 29 .The Changing Nature of Work new expectations; employees want access to remote working possibilities with attractive pay packages, and employers want to increase productivity by hiring remote workers from overseas, often at a lower cost.

In the coming years, with or without environmental conditions like the COVID-19 pandemic that force us to work from home, various types of remote work models will be established. They will often be driven by employers’ cost-saving concerns; similarly, demand from employees for remote work is likely to increase. The favourable conditions such as flexible hours and lack of a commute that come with remote work will attract many employees to jobs that offer these conditions. Here, the challenge of coordinating work in different time zones will need to be addressed.

Although the positives cannot be ignored, not all groups will benefit equally from remote opportunities. There are differences between people in full-time employment and freelancers. The latter group faces challenges due to not having a steady salary and/or benefits such as healthcare. And when remote work is made available to a much larger group of people including full-time employees who can now work flexibly, freelancers’ relevance and/or attractiveness might diminish. However, a significant part of remote workers will continue to be freelancers.

Check out the next signal, #16: New measures of success

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The Changing Nature of Work: 30 signals to consider for a sustainable future

Work helps sustain livelihoods and largely determines the quality of life. Its changing nature is at the frontier of development. This report is the result of a broad horizon scanning by six UNDP Accelerator Labs across Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.  They reveal 30 signals that shape the “where, who, how, and why” of the changing nature of work. From the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce to new work models and entrepreneurial ecosystems, the authors explore opportunities and threats, as well as solutions from local contexts that can be scaled up into positive answers to the challenges people around the world are facing.  Download the full report here.