Remote working and employee outsourcing

Polish employers are usually reluctant to go for remote working. Even the pandemic recommendations to send administrative staff home are usually not very willingly followed. We are used to a model of work that is supervised by a superior. The conviction that working online is simply not effective does not help either. But what is the reality?

Who is remote working for?

It is obvious that not every job can be done from home, but on the other hand, a lot of office work can be done remotely without any loss in quality. What’s more, task-based remote work can be even more effective because the employee is more motivated to complete the task as quickly as possible and be able to get on with their day. There are human psychological mechanisms that drive us to act or make us less motivated to work.

Thanks to technological developments, remote work is performed by many professionals. Of course, computer scientists, programmers and network administrators are in the lead. A large group of remote employees consists of freelancers, i.e. graphic designers and copywriters, but also marketers with various specialisations: advisors, strategists, social media specialists, website positioners, telemarketers or people running online advertising campaigns. We cannot forget the profession of a virtual assistant, which has recently become more popular. The list of remote positions is getting longer and longer every year.

Truth or myth

Many employers believe that if they don’t see an employee at their workstation, they have no control over the employee. This is an absolute myth. The key to remote working is the ability to plan activities wisely and to report on progress on an ongoing basis. CMS work management systems, which do not have to be paid ones at all, can help us here. A good example is Trello – a free tool with great capabilities, where we can find ready-made templates to organise work in different areas. Among many ready-made solutions we can also find one that is adapted to planning tasks to be performed every day and every week. The employee marks the level of completion of individual tasks, which means that the employer can de facto watch the progress of work and add comments. It is therefore sufficient to introduce a reasonable system for reporting on the activities performed to keep on top of things.

Remote working and service outsourcing

Outsourcing of services is slowly gaining in popularity, just like outsourcing of employees. Entrepreneurs are most often afraid of the unknown, so it is sometimes difficult to convince them to use such solutions. Of course, working remotely in a pandemic and being forced by the situation to send employees to work from home is not the same thing. Many employers (and employees) simply do not know how to plan and account for such work. Even if these are to be occasional solutions, it is worthwhile to develop emergency procedures, check the capabilities of various tools that help us organise work and perhaps appreciate this new form of cooperation.