Image Source: the Author Mike, just before starting a pro-bono Webinar Session about Cryptocurrencies for an African Foundation
In Italy, companies will soon see the end to their facilitation for Smart Working, this new form of working that became trendy and necessary during the pandemic era.
I thought to write an article about the comparison between Smart Working and not Smart Working even if to make sure to be really impartial, I should call it Remote and non-Remote work.
Advantages of Smart Working:
1.Increased Flexibility: Smart working allows employees to work from anywhere, giving them greater control over their work-life balance. This can lead to increased job satisfaction and higher productivity.
2.Cost-Effective: By working remotely, companies can save money on office space, utilities, and other expenses associated with maintaining a physical office. Companies can even save some time for insurances of transportations from home to work and viceversa.
3.Improved Productivity: With the ability to work from home or other remote locations, employees can avoid long commutes and interruptions in the office, resulting in increased productivity. This is not a direct reflection on concentration but it definitely is a reflection on sleeping time and relaxation that lead to a higher concentration.
4.Health and Safety: Smart working can help prevent the spread of infectious diseases by reducing the number of people in the office. Additionally, it can also reduce stress levels associated with commuting. Less commuting means also less pollution and less cars travelling. So all the Salesman that have to move around would have far less traffic like all the kids that have to go (or being brought) to school.
Image created via: https://imgflip.com/memegenerator
Disadvantages of Smart Working:
1.Lack of Face-to-Face Interaction: Smart working can lead to a lack of face-to-face interaction between employees and managers, which can result in communication breakdowns and reduced collaboration. Physical collaboration is proven to be very effective, therefore working from home is not a panacea-solution.
2.Difficulty in Monitoring: Managers may find it difficult to monitor employee performance remotely, leading to potential productivity issues. This fact can be addressed with challenges with a retribution based on specific KPIs. The same workload that was performed before is expected to happen in the same time.
3.Technical Issues: Smart working requires reliable and fast internet connectivity, which may not be available to all employees. Technical problems can also arise, which can result in lost productivity and frustration for employees.
4.Social Isolation: Working from home can be isolating, leading to feelings of loneliness and disconnection from colleagues and the company culture.
Smart Working then, is not an all-inclusive solution. There are a lot of things to be managed, like working home alone and a lower aggregation on the working place.
Anyway, Remote and Smart-Working are not the same thing.
Remote Work is doing the same Office working schedule at home.
Smart Working is doing something that required travelling and dead-hours, in a more efficient way.
Image source: https://www.terminologiaetc.it/2020/03/09/significato-smartworking/
Remote Working can become Smart Working where a real advantage happens for both the Company and the Employee. Like distributing tasks more efficiently across the Team, reducing traveling time, optimizing working flow and apply Agile/Kaizen processes at the whole processes.
I think I will write a dedicated article on that, because some concepts can really enhance our productivity.
Image created via: https://imgflip.com/memegenerator
In my opinion, a mixture of Remote Working and in-office-working should be kept, condensing meetings, evaluations, and other stuffs to be done physically.
Everybody wins and eventually, also working contracts will evolve according to KPIs rewarding really performing employees.
Have you had experience of Smart Working? What do you think of it and of such screening?
