“Teleworking: an opportunity for more productive companies and a better life for workers” was the Special Report we published on 2 May 2019. Since then, the world of the economy and work has changed with the rapid expansion of teleworking internationally and in Greece. The pandemic has brought a major acceleration of technological developments in the organisation of work, on a scale expected by the end of the decade or the next.
The World Health Organization declared the end of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2023, but the shift to remote and hybrid working has taken hold internationally and on a large scale, in professions with the possibility of teleworking (telework): Technological and organizational update of work (Special Report of 27 January 2022). Governments, internationally and in the EU, and companies have started to develop regulations and policies for teleworking and hybrid working.
The possibility of teleworking, demonstrated by numerous studies and confirmed by our TeleworkReady programme and survey, and by the Business Pulse survey, is now considered and is a positive development and a privilege. By reducing travel and saving time, it increases personal freedom, improves quality of life and brings new job opportunities.
But at the same time, the effective organization of working time and remote work has become a productivity and well-being issue that concerns millions of workers and companies.
The strong correlation between companies’ positive views on the exploitable benefits of teleworking (TE) on the one hand and artificial intelligence (AI) on the other shows the new opportunities and challenges for leaps forward in the modern organization of work.
The use of IT in TE can improve the efficiency, quality and flexibility of remote and hybrid work, benefiting both parties in the employment relationship in important aspects of this work organization. AI, being able to automate, learn and adapt, can contribute to the efficiency and quality of remote and hybrid work.
For example:
- IMPROVED cybersecurity. Hybrid work means that companies need to keep their data safe when they have remote access. Cybersecurity is key. IT can detect threats with instant notification and process monitoring, protecting remote workers and companies.
- MORE EFFICIENT planning and time management. From coordinating the schedules of different departments/departments or even partners in different time zones, to prioritizing tasks based on importance and deadlines, especially for TE users.
- MORE EFFECTIVE Communication. From the ability to translate in real time to overcome language barriers for better communication to analyzing moods and climate in (tele)meetings.
- SIMPLIFICATION of administrative tasks. From the automatic classification/categorization of emails, or their insertion into the database, to the handling of initial queries from internal and external ‘clients’, freeing up time and energy to engage in more creative and value-added work.
- ANALYSIS and productivity improvement. The shift towards trust can be accompanied by monitoring project progress and measuring performance, personalized support and feedback with IT application analyses. The use of the advantages and opportunities provided by ET and its combination with IT applications for modern work organization presupposes, on the one hand, that “E-Learning in Lifelong Learning” is used, on the other hand, that the regulatory framework and applications ensure “Employee privacy and employer obligations”.
*Christos Ioannou is a management consultant at SEV