Tele-working or work from home has become the new normal or rather a forced and unprecedented experiment due to the widespread pandemic.

Now, as the dust has started settling more or less, the real questions have arisen and they triggered all kinds of surveys and predictive analysis by the experts. Most are centered on the ambiguous idea of whether this Tele-working is of employee’s and employer’s interest or not, in the post-pandemic world. The next major concern is the effect of teleworking on the productivity of the business as a whole.

According to the survey conducted by the business news channel ‘The Manifest’, about 30 percent of the workforce say that they are comfortable working from home than in the office location. Nearly 40 percent say that they are more productive in the office than in-home due to various distractions. The rest of them say that they are equally productive. But, as per the ongoing survey, these numbers have changed substantially, leaning towards the fact that the employees are getting adapted to the new culture gradually and were able to maintain the same productivity they used to yield from their work before. Hence, the outcome has promised results that more and more employees will be opting for work from home even after the pandemic by adopting methods like a dedicated workspace, increased usage of tools that help them organize their work, frequent meetings with their peers, etc.

This forced experiment has alleviated the management’s fears of lowered productivity of the workforce and they themselves are opting for their personal welfare. People are benefitted as they are saving money and time as they don’t have to commute to the office now. The business itself is benefitted as they don’t have to maintain the infrastructure. The facts are further confirmed by the ‘Global Work-from-Home Experience Survey’.

The impact of this new norm on productivity is still not clear. There is a short team leap in productivity during the pandemic but the experts are not sure whether this sudden boom is due to the increased market in specific sectors or really due to Tele-working. Understanding the long term impact of Tele-working has become rather tricky. According to the future research conducted by ‘Global forum on productivity, the concept of Tele-working can be continued if there is a change in policies of firms to further promote this. The employees who want to continue Tele-working can do so with an exception that he or she cannot do it thought out the week or month. This move has been taken into consideration after carefully analyzing the employee benefits in saving time and effort by avoiding commute and employer’s benefits due to reduced infrastructure with a better self-welfare for both the parties. Although the fear that reduced face to face work culture may have a negative impact on creativity in research and development, the business is still willing to hit and trail

So, the pandemic has made the business implement a method that was not previously supported due to the ambiguity expressed by management on the workforce performance during Tele-working. At present, it seems like a win-win situation to everyone, the business, and the workforce in the majority of the markets.