Allan's corporate training, leadership research and empowering books on personal development impact thousands of lives across Africa.

Search This Blog

Featured Post

Research; why we do what we do

  Why we do what we do, why we think the way we think and much more.... In his book, Roots , Alex Haley, descendant of human beings shipped ...

Monday, March 30, 2020

9 - Reasons why you need to learn to Work from Home - Quickly!


9 Reasons why you need to learn to work from home – quickly!

1. The agrarian age is not coming back!
No, the agrarian age has not come back, but we are now moving past the age of technology. In the agrarian age (before the industrial age) people worked on farms. Production was measured in terms of manual output. When people moved to offices and factories, production added the cost of equipment, administration, management and technical skills. Today technology has shrunk the tools of production from factories to phones! By sending people to work from home we are asking them to partially meet the cost of production equipment and fully meet the cost of (self) administration, management and skills acquisition. In other words, it costs less to employ an “independent worker” than an office bound employee.

2. The nature of “work” itself has been moved out of the office
The nature of work itself, has moved out of a central office location into “space”. You can log in to work from anywhere on the globe. You do not need to report into a physical office to be available for work. While hospitals have been the place where people find doctors, the costs incurred by ten patients travelling to see one doctor may be ten times the cost of one doctor visiting the ten patients. Work can be done in the “customer space” rather than office space. One question though? What will we do with all this office space?

3. Office systems are already available online
Needless to say, a substantial amount of software and communication tools already exist to enable a full time move away from the office with hardly any loss of quality. All it will take will be a little calibration of hardware and human behavior adjustment.

4. Outsourcing is a proven cost reduction approach to business
Employers have known for a very long time that outsourcing is the way to go, they just did not have an opportunity to convince the world of it. Employers do not want to carry the burden of administration and would rather buy this package from an independent worker. Outsourcing dramatically turns cost centres into profit centres! By outsourcing work to independent workers, employers are able to cut costs and control profits per business transaction.

5. Reclaim the cost and time loss of travel
There being no need for transport to and from work presents workers with an opportunity to lower their personal employment expenses. Of course, the measurement of productivity and reward will change. The people who will benefit directly from this shift are the high producers!

6. The career development ladder ends with self-employment
Career development has forever taken a corner. The institutional career development ladder has been exchanged with the personal development plan. By decentralizing production and farming out work, organizations have eliminated administrative bureaucracy. They have adopted productivity monitoring software in its place effectively taking several rungs out of corporate career ladders. The upshot of this is that self-employment (the same as enterprise) becomes a viable option.

7. Welcome to the new normal
New things only become “normal” when they are adopted by a critical mass (approx. 30%) of any given population. We have a situation at present that has forced exposed literally 100% of the world’s population to a new standard of behavior. This is the new normal! In other words, “working from home” is now an acceptable and in some cases will be an expected way of life.

8. Massive environmental benefits will follow
One major benefit that will accrue to the environment is the de-cluttering of cities. The massive movement of people moving through in waves in the morning and evening will be a thing of the past. The massive air pollution from private vehicles will decrease the smog.

9. Every sector of the economy is on the redrawing board.
For those who do not believe that working from home is a sustainable option, let me remind you that the motorbike economy can deliver anything to your door from anywhere in the world. The concept of “social distancing” is changing the very nature of home, school, education, holidays, voting as well as church and religion.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for sharing in this conversation