As work-from-home, or remote work, remains prevalent, what benefits and drawbacks have marketing and advertising firms already experienced? For those who have yet to make the journey, what can they expect during and after the transition?
Reduced Expenses
- Overhead of office (rent, heating, food, coffee) lowered
- Reduced spend on utilities, equipment, administration.
- Creative companies can pass savings to employees through additional avenues (wage increase, social events whether virtual or in-person).
Increased Productivity
- Stanford University reports that working from home increases productivity by 13%.
- Float reports hours of ‘deep work’ increases from 4% to 12% when working from home.
- When working in-office, employees experience less than 2 hours of ‘deep work’ 13% more often.
- Work-life balance can lead to less stress, more creativity, and account for more productivity.
Better Use of Technology
- Remote work drives technological adaptation, a plus for both employee and employer.
- Tying in with reduced expenses, remote work leads to money saved on traveling, meeting, and conference expenses.
- Zoom, amongst other conferencing tools, and instant messenger apps replace in-person meetings, both internal and external.
No Geographical Limits
- With no geographical requirement for hiring talent, companies are free to pursue the most qualified and cost-effective due to remote work.
- A notable consideration here is onboarding; as overall cost, including time to complete, of onboarding will increase (tying in with drawbacks, mentioned below).
- As technological adaptation increases, on-boarding difficulties will decrease – streamlining the hiring process.
Noteworthy statistic: CNBC reports 37% of millennials are willing to be paid less in exchange for control over work from home / in-office hours.
With the benefits presented for both employee and employer, what drawbacks need to be considered?
Creative Collaboration
- There is an unmeasurable potential that creative collaboration suffers when advertising and marketing firms aren’t working in close physical proximity.
- This will vary on a multitude of factors, including technological prowess.
Expense
- Transitioning to remote work requires valuable company resources (monetary, time, personnel, etc.)
- McKinsey & Company reported three major outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic.
- A huge win for companies that had already scaled digital technologies.
- Those that were still scaling faced a reality check.
- 2020 was a wake-up call for those that hadn’t yet started on their fourth revolution
- McKinsey & Company reported three major outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Social Interactions and Belonging
- A lack of positive, in-person hours with office social interactions can lead to a lowered sense of belonging within the firm.
- Creating and growing internal relationships is less likely to occur as often when work is remote.
Interested in a deeper dive of how trends, such a remote work, brought on by COVID-19 have affected the marketing and business sectors? Download our free eBook, A Timeline on COVID-19: Changes Within Marketing & Business, HERE.
