Covid-19 Lockdown Sparks Remote Working Revolution

Working from home is hardly a new trend.

But the coronavirus outbreak is steering that trend toward a permanentOpens a new window lifestyle as people stay home this month, by order or by choice, to avoid infection. Now vendors of software that connects employees with their companies see major business opportunities.

As the virus-spread disease Covid-19 has infected people in more than 100 countries, including the world’s most influential economies, companies are being encouraged to let their staff people work from home whenever possible as a control against infection.

Closures of schools up to the university level make working from home all the more palpable.

Software such as Microsoft Teams, Slack and the video conferencing app Zoom are quickly adapting to the trend they describe as “distributed working.” Zoom, Slack and others have seen their share prices soarOpens a new window on the prospect of greater adoption in response to the virus, despite cliff-falls in major stock exchanges.

Off-site working will be all but required in spots when governments impose mass quarantines like those in Italy and China. Draconian lockdowns in much of the Chinese virus epicenter Hubei province throttled the disease’s spread.

However, it’s too early to tell what will happen to the virus after restrictions on travel, public meetings and gatherings are loosened.

Tech Firms Prep for Future

Tech companies have been quick to capitalize on the short-term trend. Microsoft is offering a six-month free trial of its premium Teams service. In China, Microsoft reportsOpens a new window a 500% increase in Teams meetings, calls and conferences since January 31 and a 200% increase in Teams use on mobile devices.

Microsoft China director Lily Zheng noted widespread “distributed organization” in a blogOpens a new window post based on her experience working remote in Shanghai. “It’s as if every school, hospital and business in China is now a distributed organization – if only temporarily,” she says. Staying productive during an enforced period of working from home “can be a challenge,” she adds, but the stay let her learn a lot about Teams.

Does It Work?

Some fear a sudden shift to home working could dent productivity as staff adapt to the new ways of getting things done. There’s the ideaOpens a new window that remote working is inferior to teamwork in an office.

Apple’s Steve Jobs opposed remote working, arguing that top results come from staff members bumping into each other and sharing creativity. Some research suggests that cohesion among staffers suffers from remote working.

But if remote working proves to be as efficient as working in an office, it could give the way of doing business a major boost.

Twitter is one company that’s asking employees to work at home and it says there’s no turning back. “We’ll never probably be the same,” Twitter’s head of human resources, Jennifer Christie, told BuzzfeedOpens a new window . “People who were reticent to work remotely will find that they really thrive that way. Managers who didn’t think that they could manage teams that were remote will have a different perspective.”

Pre-Coronavirus Trend

Off-site working has picked up over several years, as seen in the use of software connecting employees with their companies. Microsoft Teams has grown rapidly. For remote meetings involving dozens or hundreds of people, companies often use Zoom because of its video and sound quality.

Zoom Chief Executive Eric Yuan said in a March 5 earnings callOpens a new window : “Given this coronavirus, almost everybody really understood they needed a tool like this.”

The company says usage has risen during the outbreak, though it declined to give figures. “This will dramatically change the landscape,” Yuan added. “I truly believe in the future, everyone will use video for remote worker collaboration.”

A surveyOpens a new window by Owl Labs found that 56% of companies allow remote working and 16% are fully remote. Some 52% of employees globally work remotely at least once a week, it found, and 68% work remotely at least once a month.

Software is letting the trend take shape, even allowing employees to fit their schedules around family commitments. The coming months of worldwide infection control efforts will test the efficiency of distributed working. Successful test results could transform work practices long after Covid-19 is contained.