Another confirmation coming from the research carried out by Unify: “Everything will become virtual”
Now it’s up to “The Way We Work“, a study commissioned by Unify, another company that deals with providing services in the business world. Numbers and data are different this time, and different is the study, but the result confirms a trend we’ve been talking about for several weeks. In summary: our work, what we do in our professional life today, will disappear within five years.
On a sample of 9,000 workers worldwide, about one-third said it will face a completely different work environment. 35% of ‘knowledge workers’, i.e. those who work more with the thought that with the physical, has this conviction; while 65% expect that the tasks will be not the same anymore. The reasons? Working environment changes more and more rapid, and the arrival of a global digital transformation.
One of the topics covered by the study concerns the place of work as even the office, intended as physical and real space, is changing. There is hardly any mention (almost) of ‘place to go’ and seems to be gaining more and more predominant the idea of a ‘virtual office’. Respondents said they spend a fifth of their time (20%) outside office, traditionally intended, and more than one out of four (27%) would like to see this percentage growing and hopes to spend out of the classic office from 26% to 50% of the time. 42% believe that virtual teams may be more effective than active groups in the same place; furthermore, 36% affirm that creative thinking is one of the major benefits coming from working together with others outside of traditional work environment.
“Employees show willingness to be masters of how, when and where to work,” commented Riccardo Ardemagni, CEO Unify Italy. “It is up to companies to make this trend a reality, becoming the engine for further changes”. It’s should be reminded another significant fact: freelancers today are increasingly growing. More than half of respondents (53%) states that, if it received an offer, it may consider the shift to a freelance working model or on-demand rather than the traditional job.
Virtual offices, business addresses and registered offices, daily offices seem to be the new business keys for the next millennium!