The COVID-19 pandemic has abruptly changed the way people work, forcing businesses to close their doors and providing workers with an unprecedented opportunity to perform their jobs at home. The shift is only the beginning of what will be a sea change in the way business is conducted.
According to the recently released 2021 Accenture Technology Vision report, the pandemic resulted in an estimated 1.1 billion global workers performing their jobs remotely, compared to just 350 million in 2019. Working from home comprised a whopping two-thirds of all economic activity as a result of the pandemic.
The transformation is only the beginning of the future of work, which is expected to become even more flexible as a result. The report finds that 87 percent of executives queried believe that a remote workforce changes the market for difficult-to-find talent, matching skilled workers with challenging jobs and offering a host of benefits for businesses and workers alike.
The report posits that the bring your own device (BYOD) trend is steadily transforming into bring your own environment (BYOE), with workers determining the setting and technology tools they will contribute to their position. Not only does this include their physical location, but also worker-owned technology like computers, home networks, security cameras and gaming consoles.
The BYOE future of work will extend well beyond employees' homes, with workers choosing the environment most suitable for them. This could include a home office, their kitchen table, a workspace outside the home, or even a hybrid mix of home and external offices.
Consequently, employers will be forced to rethink the way they conduct business and where it makes sense to have workers onsite versus at a remote location of their choosing. The result will be streamlined operations and the potential for major cost savings for employers.
"In a BYOE model, leaders can rethink the purpose of working at each location, and when it makes sense to be at certain sites or with certain people," states the report. "Three years from now, successful organizations will be the ones who resisted the urge to race everyone back to the office in favor of rethinking their workforce model for the evolving world."
Edited by
Luke Bellos
