Telecommuting or remote working is currently a hot topic of discussion on public forums and social media amid the coronavirus outbreak.
A deep dive into business and employment-oriented social media LinkedIn’s data shows a sharp spike in searches for “remote working” content on its LinkedIn Learning platform. As of Feb. 17, number of searches related to this topic has increased 2.6 times since March 2008.
LinkedIn said employees across Asia, from Japan to Singapore, are working from home amid the COVID-19 crisis, thereby driving this trend.
As companies start to encourage work-from-home arrangements, both employees and employers are adjusting to this relatively novel concept and searching for expert advice to ensure productive remote working hours.
“While organizations prioritize the health and safety of their employees and encourage more people to work from home, there are intrinsic challenges to be addressed for remote working to be implemented at a larger scale. Social media has been bearing witness to a surge of posts, articles, and challenges sharing tips and tricks to ace working from home,” said LinkedIn.
According to the social networking platform, employees are searching for tips that will enable them to be productive, while employers and team managers are searching for tips on how to effectively manage a remote workforce.
Trending search terms on LinkedIn Learning related to remote working, such as “Communicating in virtual meetings” and “Managing remote teams” reiterate the same story.
“Remote working, or work flexibility, used to be a distinctive perk. Today, it is increasingly an expectation in a multigenerational workforce. As more employees search for flexible work environments and more employers try to win the war for talent by offering what entices employees, this particular topic is one that we think will only grow in popularity.”
LinkedIn Learning’s courses such as “Working remotely” and “Leading at a distance” are also gaining interest among members. The following courses teach skills such as setting up home offices, virtual collaboration, and virtual leadership to help learners ace remote work.
To make remote working work, especially amid the threat of contracting a disease, LinkedIn emphasized that it has to be a collective effort. While team members act on time management and productivity tips, team leaders have to understand how to manage virtual teams and ensure that team members are engaged.