Jeremy Ostrem, general manager at Scott Technology Group, says he believes a happy employee takes care of a customer very well—and that’s why they try to take good care of their employees. “It's our goal to do that as a culture," Ostrem says. “We try to establish the practices that will get everyone together and still connect, even though we are working remotely right now. For example, we had a company breakfast this morning where we invited the whole company to do breakfast.” Not everybody at Scott is working remotely. Ostrem works from the office and he says a few others do as well. They also have technicians who work in other people’s offices. “They still have to come here to get parts and go out,” Ostrem says. Ostrem says they had a meeting right before the COVID lockdown took place because they saw the writing on the wall. “We determined that [working remotely] is going to come up, so we're going have to know how to keep operations running.” They started implementing practices that would help with remote work and, once in place, they noticed that it was actually a beneficial way of operating. “We lowered our square footage of our offices,” Ostrem says. “People are happy working at home.” Ostrem was hearing from his employees that working from home meant fewer distractions. “You don't have that person walking to the water cooler, then stopping in your office and talking to you, you know, for 20 minutes about the baseball game,” he says. “People are generally more comfortable at home,” he says. “There's no commute and that's huge too. They don't worry about travel. I'd say travel might be the biggest positive.” Ostrem says they try to make sure employees still feel connected and part of the team and one way they do this is
Trends toward remote work The pandemic may have forever changed the way we approach work. The changes are employee-driven, as they look for companies that promote a positive work culture with a healthy work-life balance that includes the flexibility to work remotely. According to Forbes Advisor, 20% of workers are now working remotely—and by 2025, a whopping 32.6 million Americans will be working remotely. • 71% of remote workers prefer the work-life balance it affords them • Most remote workers are between the ages of 24 to 35. • 98% of workers would prefer to work remotely. • 16% of U.S. companies are now fully remote. • 69% of remote workers experience burnout from digital communication tools. • 53% of remote workers feel disconnected from their coworkers. • 37% of remote workers’ employers are monitoring their online activity. • 73% of executives are concerned about possible security risks. Source: forbes.com/advisor/business/remote-work-statistics
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