Working from Home (WFH), Productivity Challenges and Future

Ever since this pandemic has happened, everyone is forced to change how they spend their time and so has affected every industry and their way of working. How could IT be ignored in such a scenario when people of all segments and sectors are dependent on it?

As we speak, almost 90 percent of the workforce is currently working from home developing software and managing services across various sectors. With this sudden shift from an office environment to home, with no such pre-planned setup, real challenge everyone thought was, will things be able to manage the output quality and the deadlines, ranging from customers to customers. And you know, these questions are quite genuine and obvious as everyone is dependent on it, and given the trauma, coronavirus is causing, we cannot afford more disruption.

The demand of IT infrastructure has increased during this duration, almost all government is trying to use the IT to identify and track the affected people, manage the hospital services and the research activity to create medicals and related supplies. And so far it has disappointed none. Almost everyone is able to work, telecom is running, the government is running, all related essential services too. People staying at home during lockdown are able to make efficient use of mobile apps and websites to reach to different services for various needs.

But the thing is, how all these things are happening, how are such load managed. And if we are following the news lately, I don’t think anyone would remember any website or related services going down.

I would believe it would be now easy for us to assess and come to the conclusion that working from home is not been a productivity loss but an uncharted territory that is extensively being used by everyone as much as possible without compromising the quality of work.

Therefore, so far it has benefited the end-user by not affecting their services, but what does it mean for the workforce and the companies. Let’s go down there now,

• Less need for office space

with more people working from home, there will be less need for office space thereby reducing the infrastructure cost many folds. The reality sector is costly and so does its maintenance.

• Flexibility

People working would have greater flexibility to visit the office only when needed. The company has the flexibility to hire a person irrespective of the location.

• Less Traffic

With fewer people rushing to the office during peak hours, there would be less traffic and less pollution too

• More employees to infrastructure ratio

Small companies that are sensitive to office premises cost but want to hire people more than their seating capacity in an office can be possible here.

• Employee Satisfaction

Employees would be able to spend more time with the families which they used to spend on roads, more peace of mind, and satisfaction would definitely increase their productivity.

• Cost-Effective

with less travel and office maintenance requirements, both employer and employee would able to save more.

I know after reading the above things, there would be probable questions coming in your mind. Does it mean, work from home is really the future and we really don’t need the office in the future? Well, it would be not the case, definitely not in the near time. People need each other; a zoom meeting can help develop a product but to get the idea of developing this product. People need an environment and office is the only place for such activity.

I am therefore now sure that the next example is going to give a clearer picture and end this debate. It would like to compare the functioning of Airplane and Drone. Even planes have the auto-pilot mode but it is for that short/designated duration and not the entire journey. Work from home might be more acceptable now but not be entire until the day when people would be ready to travel in drones.

Thank you for reading!

Shrikant Sharma

About Author

I have been working in the IT industry for more than 7 years across different sectors, designing and developing various enterprise-level software systems ranging from desktop apps, kiosk, websites, IoT, and systems. Also expert in developing a system that helps in manufacturing industry/process automation by integrating custom control boards (PLR/PLC).

For a consultation or you have any suggestion or feedback, feel free to shoot your thoughts on ssharma@sofvare.com