The global prioritization of public health and the work-from-home directives initiated in 2020 have pushed Anywhere Operations to the forefront. According to Forrester, the number of remote workers at the end of 2021 will be three times higher than the pre-pandemic level. Approximately 74% of professionals expect remote work to become and remain the standard norm. Let's explore the basic framework of Anywhere Operations and its advantages for your organization.
What is Anywhere Operations?
Anywhere Operations has its origin in Gartner’s term, “everywhere enterprise.” There are three essential components required to adopt a work-from-anywhere model. They include (1) a distributed infrastructure, (2) a remote workforce, and (3) a dispersed customer base.
An effective Anywhere Operations model requires a decentralized enterprise to help companies become resilient and access extensive talent pools. Anywhere Operations is much more than telecommuting, as people are not restricted to exclusively working from home. Your personnel can operate from anywhere, at any time, and from any device as a hybrid remote workforce.
The best Anywhere Operations model is people-centric and location-independent with robust and secure remote access.
Advantages of Adopting Anywhere Operations
The benefits of Anywhere Operations can enhance your company’s performance and business processes. Here's how:
1. Reduce Your Costs
The work-from-anywhere model generates significant cost-savings across multiple areas, including facility expenses and technology costs. According to Global Workplace Analytics, a company can save up to $11,000 per year for every remote worker who telecommutes at least half of the time. You would eliminate your company’s costs around physical facilities and maintenance services with a remote workforce. Other costs eliminated or reduced with the work-from-anywhere model include office equipment expenses and travel reimbursement.
2. Improve Productivity
A remote workforce tends to be equally or more productive than employees who work in a physical office environment. People who work remotely enjoy greater autonomy, fewer workplace distractions, and more freedoms to work during their most productive hours.
A recent survey of more than 1,000 employees’ daily habits showed a rise in productivity from working remotely, another benefit derived from the anywhere operations model. Although remote workers take more frequent breaks throughout the day, these breaks help them sustain more focus on tasks at-hand and help with time management. Also, among employees monitored via an on-screen time tracker by their employers, only 39% of remote workers sought out work distractions, compared to 56% of workers in a physical office setting.
3. Eliminate Unnecessary Meetings
At Net Friends, we practice clarifying our teleconferencing goals & agendas, and maintaining a discipline of only inviting key stakeholders to show that we value one another’s time and capacities for input.
Most business leaders know that unnecessary meetings can waste company time and resources, taking employees away from their priorities. Anywhere Operations promotes intentional teleconferencing invitations and reduces unnecessary meetings. The Anywhere Operations Model can also eliminate the delays associated with trying to schedule people from across multiple departments into one physical meeting space.
4. Tap into a Diverse Talent Pool
A work-from-anywhere model eliminates all geographical limitations and helps you hire the best applicants from any region of the world. The recruitment process is more seamless with job postings, application reviews, candidate interviews, and hiring easily achievable online. Not only is this process more cost-effective, but it also helps you focus on other recruitment aspects such as aptitude assessments, multi-language proficiency, serving various time zones, and filling skill gaps. A remote workforce makes for a more diverse workplace.
5. Reduce Attrition with a Remote Workforce
The top talents are looking for competitive benefits such as a better work-life balance and greater freedom. By offering remote work as part of your business model, you make your company appealing and in-demand among the best job seekers. Some people may even be willing to take a pay cut for more workplace flexibility. Others have reported that they are motivated to work harder and stay longer with their employer.
6. Unlock Innovative Initiatives
Many companies are re-imagining the functionalities of their empty office space as the demand of commercial real estate declines. Even by decentralizing the workforce, there are still compelling reasons to keep your physical space.
In 2021, we transformed our 10,000-square-foot Durham headquarters into a demand-driven facility, featuring a technology stack lab for hands-on training, event space to host customer appreciation events, and a video recording studio to create more educational content for our customers.
In early 2022, with the help of our friends at Eagle Solar & Light, our headquarters was bolstered by grid-tied solar panels to enable reliance on renewable energy, which leads us to our next commitment.
7. Remote Work is Good for the Environment
A remote workforce not only helps you save costs, but is also environmentally sustainable. Most jobs in the U.S. can be performed working from home. Suppose all Americans with remote-compatible jobs (approximately 50% of the workforce) who wanted to work remotely (about 79% of the workforce) choose to do so. In that case, there could be a reduction in greenhouse gases by 54 million tons. If they worked remotely all of the time, greenhouse gas emissions could fall by 108 million tons. Choosing to embrace an Anywhere Operations framework into your business operations will allow your company better care for the environment.
Embracing Anywhere Operations
Implementing an infrastructure to help your team work from anywhere requires investment in critical areas such as:
- A reliable distributed infrastructure
- Cloud collaboration tools for greater productivity
- Cloud security-based access to facilitate safer remote work
- High-performance IT support & contactless interactions, such as zero-touch provisioning (ZTP)
- An improvement in the digital experience of team members and customers
Net Friends is your expert managed services provider. We will guide you in implementing the required infrastructure and tools so that your company can be at the forefront of Anywhere Operations. We provide a suite of managed IT services through our NetVisor, NetForce, and NetSafe offerings.
Contact us today and improve your company’s ability to work from anywhere and learn more about anywhere operations best practices. We are your ideal partner to assist in enhancing your adoption to Anywhere Operations.
WHAT TO READ NEXT:
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Updated: February 10, 2022
