The beginning of each year is a good time to reflect on the previous one. But if you’re like most people, 2020 isn’t a year that you want to spend a lot of time thinking about. The global pandemic wreaked havoc on the entire world over the past year, and although vaccines are on the way, as of the beginning of 2021 we are still battling COVID 19 and the impacts it has had on our communities. One of those has been a significant increase in the number of people working from home. So instead of dwelling on the previous year, we are choosing instead to look ahead at 2021 and beyond in an effort to predict some of the future trends in telecommuting and how they will affect various aspects of modern commerce.

Future Telecommuting Trends

• Telecommuting will become the norm: Some industries have encouraged remote work for the past several years. But we predict that in 2021 and well beyond telecommuting will become a permanent part of our business landscape. Once business owners and managers come to realize the many benefits of allowing their employees to telecommute, they will understand that the advantages of remote work far outweigh the initial challenges. And many employees who have become accustomed to working from home will find it difficult to return to a “normal” office environment.
• Companies will require much office space: It only makes sense that if more of your employees work from home, you won’t need as much office space as you’ve needed in the past. This change, we predict, will have a ripple effect across many different industries. Obviously, if you make a living selling or leasing out commercial property, it may have a negative impact on your business. But for most industries, not having to pay a mortgage or rent on office space – not to mention the cost of maintaining the property, insurance, etc. -- will add up to significant savings. Instead, we predict that there will be an increased need for reinvented office space; one in which a company maintains a downsized central headquarters with smaller satellite office spaces located in remote locations. Depending on the needs of the organization, these small satellite offices may either remain open and available to employees throughout the course of each year, or possibly rented by the organization on an as-needed basis for periodic in-person meetings, employee training, conferences, etc.
• Businesses will need to increase their cyber security measures: When some or all of your staff is working from home, ensuring that your data is stored securely and available only by those individuals who are granted access will become more of a concern than ever before. This means that IT systems and infrastructure will need to be modified and upgraded to provide the additional security needed to protect data in a telecommuting environment.
• Managers will rethink performance management: Supervising employees working onsite is relatively straightforward. But trying to manage a team of remote workers is an altogether different challenge. Rather than assessing employee performance based on the number of hours worked, managers will need to instead focus on the productivity level of each staff member. This is exactly what MySammy is designed to accomplish. Our cloud-based software measures productivity levels of remote employees, and it does so with the full knowledge of the employee. That means you won’t have to resort to “spyware” or website-blocking software – both of which are relatively ineffective and often considered as an invasion of employee privacy. Instead, MySammy provides managers with a complete and accurate assessment of your remote workers’ productivity throughout the course of each workday.

The past year has truly been a challenge for all of us. But the good news is that the future looks bright. And although our daily work life may be different than it was “pre-COVID,” business owners and managers can prepare themselves for the future by anticipating those changes and utilizing the technological tools available to succeed – and that includes MySammy. Get ready for 2021 and beyond by signing up for your free trial of MySammy today!