There's no arguing that COVID has changed the global business landscape. The onset of commercialized internet service in the mid-90s started the telecommuting movement. It didn't really gain a huge head of steam, as it served as more of a luxury than a necessity. A majority of companies weren't ready to adopt such an outlandish philosophy. But when COVID-19 forced companies all over the world to send their employees home to work virtually, remote work had a big moment.
The global pandemic became the mother of invention and innovation. Remote working became the new norm and ZOOM the crux to the outside world. As cities, counties and States implemented longer-than-expected quarantine restrictions, many corporations were forced to make the choice of either trying to sub-lease their vacant spaces or sell off their empty buildings. Unfortunately, too many were forced into shuttering their entire businesses as the could not afford to carry their mortgage debt.
Companies that survived learned to adapt, strategize and quickly restructure. They rethought their business. They downsized their brick and mortar footprints. They accepted remote work as the rule, not the exception. As a result, overhead costs started to decrease and workers became more self-sufficient and productive. Dare we say, with more independence and freedom to dictate their own priorities, remote workers became happier.
Running a quick errand to the store when needed, ordering groceries online, meeting with a contractor or helping a child with their homework, take a few minutes, but result in having a great positive impact on our personal lives and well-being. We've even grown accustom to seeing a cat walk across a fellow team members screen. We chuckle and then move on. Remote work has its benefits.
Working in a coworking space can be an excellent option for a predominantly remote or freelance working individual. They often provide people with a chance to network with other individuals who are in the same type of career field as them. That capability to socialize and interact with others on a daily basis can lead to motivation and creativity, as well as lasting connections that can benefit both you and others as your careers progress. Another positive to coworking spaces is the flexibility that comes with it. Many coworking spaces offer month-to-month leases, as opposed to traditional offices spaces that require multi-year commitments. This makes it easy for someone to hop from one coworking space to another if they feel they have grown tired of the environment they are in or feel distracted and thus can’t get any work done.
If your business requires you to meet with clients on a regular basis, then working from home might not be ideal. You will constantly need to find different venues or locations where you can have professional meetings. In a coworking space, there are often conference and meeting rooms readily available to host meetings and clients, thus providing an image of professionalism. Another con to a home office is the isolated feelings one can feel every day. It is important to remember that while working from home might be nice at the start, it can turn lonely quickly if the majority of your work consists of staring at a computer screen all day.
source: Coworking Resources
First, a definition:
A remote work stipend, or remote work allowance, is a sum of money given to employees for them to use to access perks while working remotely.
A remote work stipend can be used in one or both ways:
Further details on what they are:
Four Examples of Remote Work Stipends
Below are four examples highlighting the unique approaches:
They provide one stipend for their remote people:
$60/month tax-free monthly stipend to their remote people
They provide three stipends for their team:
Learn more about how Compt helped Webflow make perk allowances possible at their company.
They offer the following perk allowances for their team members:
To learn more about these in-depth and the thinking behind them, check out their post on employee benefits at Basecamp.
source: Compt.io
Remote working is here to stay. Companies and workers (as well as students) have learned to adapt to this new world. Video conferencing tools such as Zoom, Skype and Google Meet have provided us with reliable tools to communicate and collaborate. Successful and promising companies will remain lean, even as the economy recovers.
Companies are converting their balance sheet mortgage debt into a variable expense.
Corporations are trading in their loan payments, fixed square footage and utility overhead for flexible coworking space with remote worker stipends. This new economy is here to stay. And remote worker stipends is a winning way.