Flexible Work Environments are the Future of Work in the 2020 Gig Economy

January 8, 2020 – Please welcome Rodney Laws to 21st Century Tech blog. Rodney is the editor of eCommerce Platforms, a site that assesses the best web sites for online store building. In his first contribution to this blog, he focuses on a growing shift in the workplace to remote work, something of which I am very familiar with from past consulting work. But I’ll let Rodney describe this emerging phenomenon in the world of work for the 2020s.

The business world adapts slowly, but change does eventually filter down and in recent years one of those changes is the growing use of remote work. Now that working from a laptop in your kitchen doesn’t seem so odd, what can we expect to happen in the future? What are the next frontiers for working conditions?

With the 2020s now upon us, it’s a good time to look ahead to think about flexible working as a key part of a logical endgame to the digital revolution. Embracing it imminently wouldn’t just benefit employees — it would also benefit businesses. Here are some of the reasons why.

1. It can cut operational costs

For decades now, it’s been practically near-mandatory for most businesses to use computers for their regular processes. Initially, this called for bulky desktop machines, which is one of the reasons why office life proliferated even with the development of the Internet which made remote work viable. These days companies no longer are tied by the technology to a desk because of powerful laptops which means less of a need for physical office space.

If an office is still needed, it can be basic and small equipped for desktop experiences. But what it won’t need is expensive monitors and peripherals, just docking stations for the laptops, a shared network, and the cloud. 

2. 24/7 accessibility is key for global business expansion

When you think about long-term growth, what do you imagine? For most businesses, top-level success means expanding into different territories and across national borders. Consultation and service-based businesses can utilize the Internet. Many software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies with solo offices can work with multiple clients in myriad countries.

Global businesses need to communicate with the other side of the world and have to deal with different time zones which, in a 9-to-5 business format can become quite thorny. Allowing for completely flexible hours through the assembly of a team of employees with radically different working preferences can provide an answer. Those who like mornings, and those who prefer the night, can help a company be accessible 24 x 7. And although chatbots can be very useful, nothing beats being able to talk to a real person.

3. Workers seek more than money in a job

Throughout history, workers have concentrated on earning enough to survive and provide for families. Doing whatever is necessary to put food on the table means focusing primarily on financial compensation: getting a raise, getting a promotion, acquiring the security of having savings.

But today the priorities are changing because of rising living standards. While poverty still exists, many still struggle to get by, the number of people who live comfortable lives and make enough money has reached an unprecedented high. Keeping these people happy with promises of more money is the low bar. When comfort becomes as strong a driver as money, workers look for quality-of-life improvements in the workplace. Flexible working environments become the answer: no more commutes, and no more working when you don’t want to.

That’s why making flexible working a core part of your business planning is a sure way to attract and retain top talent. Professionals skilled enough to have comfortable incomes are won over by such perks. Finding ways to make the work meaningful is a formula that will always work. 

For all the reasons described above, the future of business success is intrinsically tied to flexible working environments. By developing this business model as core to your company, it will help it to grow. It fits almost every business type and operational model with few exceptions.

Editor’s note: For almost twenty years, with the exception of a three-year period my business career was driven from home and built on flexible work hours. I did this because I had a sick child at home and needed to be available when things weren’t going well. It was only when she was out of the woods that I could take on work that involved a kiosk, a desk, and a desktop computer system. Even then I often worked from home and used telecommunications and computing technologies to connect globally. So I’m sort of the poster child for this type of approach to a workplace. In the 2020s and the growth of the sharing economy, I cannot imagine that this paradigm will be adopted wholesale by white-collar businesses everywhere.