As CEO of a global agency that cares as much about the world we live in as the clients we serve, I have found this past year challenging and incredible in equal measure.
For years, I have made regular long-haul trips, meeting global clients, pitching to prospects, and spending valuable face-time with staff at Crowd’s city hubs around the world.
Frequent world travel was an ‘essential’ part of my working life. Not travelling to see the important people in my world seemed unimaginable. I’ve travelled roughly every two weeks for two decades.
Then Covid struck and my life as a digital nomad was cut short. In February 2020 nobody could have foreseen that almost a year on people would be seriously considering the end of the office, the end of face-to-face meetings – and the beginning of a completely new way of organizing the people that make your business.
My own experience of international travel tells me this is no bad thing. Provided it is prepared for and managed properly.
Given the right environment and good connectivity, I am as efficient while working on a business trip as I am when I am in the office. Sometimes more so. The pre-pandemic issue with Work from Home was that employers were worried that remote working would lead to reduced levels of output. How wrong we were.
WFH leads to WFA
Conducted in the Summer of 2020, a survey of 1,123 remote workers from broad walks of life by The New York Times and Morning Consult found that:
- 86% were satisfied working from home
- 47% were “very satisfied”
- 1 in 5 said they wanted to go back to the office full-time
- Stress was lower overall
- Both women and men said they were doing more chores at home
It seems safe to say that WFH works. But for me, the most telling statistic in this report actually related to the new WFA paradigm. One in three people contacted for the survey said they would “move to a new city or state if remote work continued indefinitely.”
For further insights, see our full Amplify Travel & Tourism eBook here. To speak to Jamie, contact him via LinkedIn here.
