The global health crisis over the past two years has brought about a lot of change for business, and with the impact still being felt in some industries it will be spoken about for quite some time yet too. For individuals, this change has brought on the opportunity for remote working as employees explore the flexibility and better work life balance that has been found from the change and something that continues to evolve with opportunities in a four-day work weeks, those travelling with work as more information becomes available at digitalnomads.world with those who have made the change successfully, and changes yet not seen.
Something that has been a growing consideration for some too, particularly with the rise of online only businesses, has been that of location independence – and it comes from a number of different factors too. One has been with cost, the slowing requirement to have a big physical presence with an office and a space for staff and visitors is slowly fading as remote work becomes more possible, and whilst location independence is more well suited for smaller businesses, it is certainly possible for larger business too.
Another factor has been with the growing acceptance for this approach too – this does tie into remote working once more but as remote calls through Zoom and Teams, remote meetings and contact over email rather than in person becomes more prevalent then it is also a continued change that’s likely to be seen as comfort and flexibility becomes more important than physical presence.
With all of the pros behind location independent business, there are of course still some drawbacks that need to be considered and a reason why some big business may be unlikely to ever explore the change – this is notably in the different preferences of some workers that prefer a physical working space, or business partners that require face-to-face meetings and in office presence to succeed, and whilst it isn’t required for big business to make the change for location independence to work as it has already, but it could slow the progress for some if certain industry leaders are willing to follow the pattern, and may not allow for location independence to become normalised much in the same way remote working has been.
It’s leading to an exciting period of change however as working opportunities change, flexibility becomes more prevalent, and there’s a wider focus on a better work life balance with a priority being placed on employee happiness and better utilisation of free time to increase productivity and work satisfaction – it’s still too early to tell how successful early adjustments have been but given the trend of similar changes being as successful as they have been, it’s a great opportunity.