Can telework be a viable long-term solution?

An overview of the pros and cons of working from home

Corina Cristea, 24.07.2020, 14:00

Introduced in
Romania two years ago, telework has gained a lot of traction in recent months,
being one of the solutions identified to ensure social distancing norms imposed
by the pandemic. 15,000 people had a telework clause already stipulated into
their employment agreements when a state of emergency was declared in Romania
on March 16. Over the next two months, their number tripled. In other words,
telework became more and more the solution, both for employees and employers.
Telework does not suit any field of activity, however. Actually, it’s turned
out to be a challenge for many Romanians. A study conducted by Colliers
International in Romania and nearby countries reveals that 40% of respondents
are experiencing difficulties working from home. Spontaneous encounters with
colleagues have been flagged as one the things employees seem to miss the most.
67% of participants say there is no clear boundary between personal and professional
life. Despite these shortcomings, more than half of Romanians who took part in
the survey claim their productivity has not fallen short. 23% actually say they
have been more effective working from home. Company managers too seem to have
taken notice of this boost in efficiency, which is why they are considering making telework a regular part of
their companies’ activity.

Yet how viable exactly is telework? It’s a very
interesting topic, Romanian Social-Democrat MEP Carmen Avram says. She told us more
about the benefits of telework:

I believe
telework will become commonplace across the EU. It’s been proven, and I
personally find this to be a paradox, that employees’ efficiency has gone up
during this period. More studies are still needed, but the evidence shows that
people work better whenever it’s possible for them to work from home. Let’s
look at the European Union. The entire budget for the next seven years will
focus on economic recovery, in turn based on the Green Deal. What is this Green
Deal about? It seeks to reduce carbon gas emissions and pollution overall. I
think getting working people out of their homes and out in the streets in
numbers similar to those prior to the coronavirus crisis will be one of the
criteria taken under advisement. If we want, for example, to curb emissions, we
would have a lot to gain from keeping our employees working from home, whenever
this is possible. This would lower emissions and make employees deliver better
and faster in sectors where this is possible, employees who stick to deadlines
and complete their assignments. So, in terms of the Green Deal, this will be
one of the options on the table. It’s equally profitable for employers too.

Apart from
working from home, telework also relies heavily on technology, meaning it is
being carried out through electronic means of communication. It requires
state-of-the-art hardware, so as to improve productivity. At the same time,
people require certain skills, having to rethink their interaction and take up
new roles. We’ve spoken to human resources expert Sorin Faur:

This isn’t
about technology, it’s about mindset, perspective. Speaking of management, its
role in remote communication is critical. There are additional tasks to manage,
which were previously implicit, because we were together, sitting close to each
other, often sharing the same office, a common area. We could see each other
and read our non-verbal language, we were aware of our peers. Conversely, a
team of say 15 people who each works from their home will have zero contact. It
is here that the manager’s role changes fundamentally. He becomes a
communication hub.

Sociologist
Mircea Kivu believes there are pros and cons to telework, and we need to be on
our guard with respect to the latter:

People are
social beings. They crave interaction. The need to interact not just on Skype
or on their smartphones. They need to be close to other people to be a team.
There are benefits to teamwork that have been underpinned by HR studies over
the course of decades. Unfortunately, by shifting most of the workload to
people’s homes, many of these benefits are lost. There’ve been experiments,
even prior to this pandemic, when large enterprises thought of getting at least
part of their employees to work from home. While this was physically possible,
and the business kept operational, they noticed that after a while the workers
felt the need to work together. So I think we need to consider how to defend
ourselves against the downsides of this system. And I’m thinking those managers
who keep their employees at home for weeks should maybe organize team-buildings
or other activities every once in a while.

The future is
uncertain. What we do know, however, is that Bucharest is the best-suited city
in the world to work from home, according to the Remote Working Index compiled
by Broadband Deals in the UK. 50 of the world’s largest cities have been under
scrutiny for this survey, factoring in aspects such as average Internet speed,
availability of food delivery, the number of remote working jobs available, the
price of a laptop and the cost of living.
Huston, Las Vegas and Atlanta in the United States and Budapest in
Hungary follow Bucharest in the ranking of cities deemed optimal for remote
working.

(Translated by
V. Palcu)