Five ways to tackle the future of remote work, according to BruntWork CEO Winston Ong

It’s no longer controversial to suggest that remote working is here to stay and that outsourcing local roles overseas is a dominant business strategy to save cost. 

There’s plenty of hesitation towards outsourcing and remote work among small and medium businesses but the numbers don’t lie as 36 per cent of remote workers report increased productivity and 56 per cent of business leaders expect to realise cost savings from remote work and outsourcing, according to Microsoft. 

As an employer, whether you’re looking at full-time remote locally, or overseas, it’s important that you’re setting people up for success. 

Five tips to make the most of remote work

BruntWork’s CEO, Winston Ong, shares 5 tips for maximizing the new paradigm of remote work to help companies manage the significant change in their operating practices.

1. Outsourcing: If remote work is acceptable, start hiring workers from developing countries with high rates of education and great English. In this regard, BruntWork recommends the Philippines. The majority of international research places the Philippines as the number one country for outsourcing.
2. Unify your teams: Treat your local and overseas teams as one unified team. Tips for doing this include sharing important information and company updates. If Friday drinks were a tradition pre-covid, arrange an end-of-week Zoom meeting where staff can be recognized for their achievements and management can create a sense of culture. 
3. Virtual events: Schedule virtual events for all staff, like a monthly “Town Hall” where the managers and owners can examine what worked and didn’t work from the prior month and keep the team united. There are lots of apps that allow live video and Q&A from staff to keep everyone awake!
4. Surveys: Measure how engaged people are through regular surveys. Survey Monkey is one of the easiest tools for doing this. 
5. Flexible Work Hours: If this is possible, offer the staff the ability to modify their hours outside the traditional 9.00 am – 5:30 pm. There is also the possibility of offering a 4-day working week if staff work a longer day from Monday to Thursday. The traditional paradigm of office-based work has been thrown out the window, so why not see if other useless traditions can be removed from your company at the same time. 

Business process outsourcing (BPO) services have been steadily increasing in size mainly due to the rising popularity of outsourcing among companies of all sizes. Research from May 2022 indicates that the BPO Market is predicted to achieve $382 billion in revenue with a 10 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) by 2030. It’s a massive opportunity but the tectonic plates are shifting. 

Outsourcing redefined: “Remote Work Only”

Winston Ong, CEO of BruntWork reveals some interesting statistics from his “Truth About Remote Work” survey from 2022 (>500 respondents comprising virtual assistants, telesales agents, web developers and more). Overwhelmingly workers don’t want to go back to an office, and earn more working remotely. Almost 90 per cent of workers stated that they never want to go back to an office. The commercial real estate market may never be the same.  

Conclusion

While remote work is relatively new, the future is most likely going to be a hybrid model of employees splitting their time between home and an office. And labor globalization will become an emerging trend, with SMEs in western economies now openly considering outsourcing as a way to combat the predicted threat of a global recession over the coming 1-2 years.