Three Technology Trends Impacting the Future of Agile Remote Teams

Agile remote teams are an integral part of today’s employment scenario. This is no longer a subject of debate, for it has come to be recognized as a sign of the times across industries.  What’s of interest is the shape it is taking in today’s increasingly digitized work environment.  Let’s look at three emerging trends that indicate the shape of things to come.

   

Reimagining the Very Nature of Work

We are living in what is known as the on-demand economy where advances in technology have allowed individuals and organizations to connect and liaise in ways that were unimaginable not all that time ago. According to the U.S. Census, the number of companies with zero employees has gone up from 18.7 million in 2003 to 23 million in 2013, including employees earning a living as independent  contractors[1].

Similarly, other independent research found that the number of workers in what was termed "alternate arrangements" increased by 6% between 2005 and 2015. It is quite evident that in the coming years, individuals will increasingly come forward to offer services as independent contractors to an ever-growing customer base.

What we know as the gig economy will grow to encompass the personal services economy. This encompasses things like food delivery and personal transportation. This type of employment could be more in the shape of secondary or temporary jobs, in light of the fact that increasing automation may make it possible for these service providers to hire fewer people.

2.      Collaboration is the Key to Getting Tasks and Goals Accomplished

Collaboration as a means to solve business problems and enhance productivity is here to stay. This makes it necessary for organizations to strategically leverage knowledge, across their resources. They can do this, by way of seamless and organically evolved collaborative tools that substantially enhance the remote employees’ ability to work together at superior levels of efficiency.

A key factor in this is the evolution of communications tools that empower people to create their own unique content, rather than rely on standard templates. At the same time, they need the kind of tools that enable them to connect across the organizations and leverage their intellectual prowess, as also receive insights from their colleagues. A case in point is the many VR and AR tools used by field services personnel to communicate with their operations team.

3.      Workplace Flexibility Driving Productivity

There is evidence provided by research that workplace flexibility is directly proportionate to productivity. However, for this to be practically viable on a consistent basis, something needs to be taken care of. The most significantly important thing that an organization can do for their remote employees is, cross-train them.

This will help them acquire a myriad of skills that will not only lead to the optimal utilization of their services within the organization but also enhance their productivity elsewhere. A pilot flexibility project carried out by a banking/financial services company found that there were marked improvements in various performance indicators. These included planning(37%), cross training(26%), more efficient workflow processes(21%) and more productive meetings(9%).

Similar findings were reported from a major U.S. Retail Store that offered flexibility to hourly workers and by Marriott which reported that workplace flexibility led to a substantial drop in low-value work.[2]

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[1] https://www.nap.edu/read/24649/chapter/6#81

[2] http://workplaceflexibility.bc.edu/need/need_employers_performance