The Telework Era: An Opportunity or an Emerging Societal Issue?

For For more than a year and a half now, the health crisis has pushed us to "experiment" with telework on a large scale.

According to a recent Elabe survey, face-to-face work no longer convinces the French. According to a recent Elabe survey, the French are no longer convinced by face-to-face working. 81% of employees would like to have at least one day of teleworking per week in the future.

31% want to work more than half the week remotely. As a result, all companies are now facing major issues:

• Adapting and organising hybrid work by combining face-to-face and remote work (space management, compliance with telework agreements and Covid constraints, making work organisation more reliable, etc.)

As well as 

• Manage your team and your employees (Organisation and planning of schedules, Management of telework requests, security and quality of life in the company

This question is at the heart of all thinking. However, little attention is paid to the real long-term impact of mass adoption of telework.

A balance to (re)find

Teleworking has made us aware of the importance and urgency of finding a stable and healthy work-life balance.

We now have the chance to reshuffle the deck and move towards a balance that will allow employees to be more relaxed and companies to be more efficient in the long term. To do this, organisations have information at their disposal that can help them make informed decisions, but they don't always know it. The time for guesswork is over, and the issue of telework can be addressed in a responsible and consistent manner.

In this respect, our Ezyperf telework solution will enable HR and managers to have quickly available data to better understand employees and their needs.

The relocation of the labour market?

Another likely side effect of teleworking is relocation. In the past, companies located their offices or headquarters in large cities, or on the outskirts, in order to be closer to their employees. This results in high rents and salary levels which need to be in line with the cost of living.

If in the future telework is adopted on a large scale and in the long term, companies looking for profits may decide to hire employees in other cities or even other countries where the cost of living, and therefore salaries, are lower. Thus, professionals living in metropolitan areas would be at a disadvantage compared to those living in remote areas.

All these questions do not have clear and definitive answers today, but it seems important to push the reflection on telework to its limits in order to grasp all its societal, human and geographical benefits. There is no question of banning telework, which brings valuable benefits and new opportunities to both employees and employers, but it is necessary to work together to define the new working norms, ensuring that each party benefits. This will allow companies to become more efficient, while providing employees with the best possible benefits, both human and professional.