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A trend was already announced in companies before 2020.
Technology and digital networking had developed so quickly and so far that many knowledge workers began to ask: Do we really have to sit in one office together to get our work done?
Prithwiraj (Raj) Choudhury Right arrow
is Associate Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School.
His research focuses on the work of the future - and in particular on how mobile work concepts affect their geography.
The answer to this question was provided by the lockdowns during the corona pandemic.
We have learned that very many of us do not actually have to be with colleagues on site in order to carry out our tasks.
The past few months have proven that individuals, teams, even entire companies can perform well even when they are geographically separated.
So we are now faced with new questions: Are companies that enable predominantly or even completely mobile working the future of knowledge work?
Can this type of collaboration be a permanent solution?
Mobile working undoubtedly offers companies and their employees significant advantages.
Businesses can reduce or even eliminate their real estate costs, recruit the best talent anywhere in the world, while avoiding immigration problems in certain countries.
Studies also suggest that workers may even be more productive.
The employees benefit from geographical flexibility (they can live wherever they want), they no longer have to commute - and report a better work-life balance.
However, there are still concerns about the impact of mobile work.
Some worry that communication will suffer.
Other possible problem areas are knowledge exchange, maintaining contacts, collegiality and mentoring.
There are also concerns about performance evaluation and remuneration, as well as data security and regulation.
I wanted to better understand how leaders can take advantage of mobile working while overcoming the challenges that come with it and avoiding negative impacts.
To do this, I examined several companies that have opted for models in which all or almost all employees work mobile.
These include: the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) with several thousand mobile workers;
the Tulsa Remote recruiting initiative;
the global IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which has announced that it will be 75 percent mobile by 2025;
Gitlab, the world's largest all-mobile company with 1,300 employees;
Zapier, a workflow automation company whose 300+ employees in the United States and 23 other countries are all office-independent;
and Mobsquad, a Canadian start-up that hires and "leases" mobile workers to American companies.
The Corona crisis has resulted in a growing number of executives being open to having their employees work partially or even completely mobile.
In addition to TCS, companies like Twitter, Facebook, Shopify, Siemens and the Indian state bank SBI have announced that they intend to introduce mobile work as a permanent solution - even after a vaccine against Covid-19 becomes available.
If your company is currently considering introducing mobile working as a permanent work model, this article can help you make a decision.
Flexible collaboration
In recent years, many companies have allowed more and more employees to work from home.
The companies that I have examined have opted for greater geographical flexibility: They allow some, if not all, employees to work completely independently of a fixed office location.
It doesn't matter whether the employee is new or long-term.
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