For many years, the primary driver of work-from-home programmes was the desire of employers to attract and retain talent. More recently, it's been all about saving money, as organisations try to cut spending on real estate.
Most employers have more space than they need, and occupancy studies show how inefficiently office space is used. In many organisations, employees are not at their desks for 50% to 60% of their working hours. That's clearly a huge waste of money.
Lately, working from home has been driven by necessity. Arriving at the office every morning at a set hour and spending time and sharing space, day in and day out, with bosses and colleagues, is a working style once seen as immutable. But Covid-19 has completely upended that notion.
The trend is particularly evident in Japan, where the pandemic has called into question traditional Japanese-style ways of working, for both big and small businesses.
The giant beverage group Kirin Holdings, for example, plans to stop paying allowances for commuter passes for about 4,000 employees at four group companies. Instead, it's offering a remote work allowance of ¥3,000 (US$29) a month as it shifts to a teleworking-based system for all those who don't need to be on company premises, with the obvious exception of those in plants and logistics facilities.
Kirin, which has struggled to inspire employees' creativity in recent years, has also seen improvements on that front, thanks to the changes the pandemic forced it to make. "Remote work has increased employee morale because they can work at their own discretion," a human resources spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Improving productivity is also critical for Japan, which is at a crossroads as its population declines. The working-age population, aged 15 to 64, now estimated at 74 million, is expected to continue declining, by 2.36 million from 2020 to 2025 and by 8.98 million in the 2030s.
Statistics show that Japan ranks lowest among developed countries for productivity. To remain competitive, Japanese companies must be productive and capable of innovating even with a small number of employees. Some are going through a trial-and-error process to find the right formula, which includes teleworking.
For the rest of us in Asia, increased awareness of the potential benefits of work from home is worth looking into. One reason climate change experts have a hard time getting people to change their habits is that the impact is hard to see.
But since the early days of the global response to Covid, the dramatic reduction in traffic congestion and pollution has been obvious to everyone. There is no easier, cheaper and quicker way to reduce your carbon footprint than by reducing the number of commuters.
In fact, the demand for flexibility in where and how people work has been building for decades. Gallup data from 2016 shows that 43% of the US workforce works at home at least some of the time. Before the pandemic, surveys showed 80% of employees want to work from home at least some of the time. Over a third would take a pay cut in exchange for the option.
One of the biggest drawbacks of remote work is trust. This exposes the conflict between managing by results and old-school "managing by walking around". In this global, mobile world, if people are forced to work at home for an extended period, managers will have to learn that it's results that matter.
What I have learned from my own experience is that managers who have worked at home themselves are more likely to endorse it for others. With a focus on maintaining productivity, they and their staff get used to communicating with virtual tools, and worries about not being able to collaborate tend to fade.
As they can see for themselves how much happier and engaged they are without the stress of commuting, they are ready to learn what works and what doesn't in order to find the best work-from-home solution.
Even after the pandemic passes, many people will probably work one or two days a week at home. Professional women will find it easier to keep their careers on track when they have children to take care of, and talented people in developing countries will have greater opportunities to work for companies in the advanced economies.
But it will take strong policy actions to make sure these beneficial things happen. We need to close gaps and get ourselves better prepared for what could happen in the future.