On Wednesday, 28 March 2013, Softline IT told journalists from Novyi Kanal about the features of the work of the future. The company's experts told the media that the main trend of recent years is moving employees to remote work. In a year or two, the notion of "office plankton" will be considered outdated.
Today, remote work is possible not only for people in purely humanities-oriented and creative professions such as journalists, translators, musicians and photographers, but also for technical specialists: programmers and SEO specialists, system administrators and 3D artists. Moreover, secretaries (for example, clerical staff), accountants, financiers and marketers are now also being moved to remote work. "Today's technical capabilities allow a person to work where it is convenient for them and when it is convenient for them," says Softline IT CEO Serhii Balashuk.
However, the expert notes that companies should not give up the office entirely. He recommends organizing the work process according to the "flexible workplace" model: an employee is not assigned a specific room, office or even desk; they come with their own device and sit at any free desk (and/or any free computer). Another option is for an employee to come to work only on certain days (for example, on Mondays and Fridays to attend the planning meeting and/or submit a report) and work from home the rest of the time.
For a long time, this was considered a Western technology that had nothing to do with Ukrainian realities. However, according to oDesk, the list of seven countries with the largest number of freelancers and remote workers includes two former Soviet republics, Russia and Ukraine. Moreover, these countries rank third in the popularity of their remote workers on the international labor market, after India and the USA.
History of remote work
The first researcher of the remote work phenomenon, who did a great deal to popularize it, was the American Jack Nilles. In 1972, he came up with and introduced a special term, "telecommuting". In his research, including studies backed by practice, the scientist proved that the efficiency of specialists working from home can be even significantly higher than that of office workers. An obvious benefit for the economy is saving the time spent commuting every day. Nilles explained that popularizing telecommuting could also solve the problem of traffic jams and save a considerable amount of gasoline.
With the advent of the Internet, it has become easier not only to organize the work process but also for those who do not yet have "remote work" to find it. At present, for example, more than 1 million workers are registered on the most popular freelancing site, oDesk. Their number doubles every year!