The Netherlands may have figured out something about working from home (with or without a pandemic) that the rest of the world has not yet learned.
While we all adapt to the “new normal,” with masks, sanitizers and social distancing, experts say at least some of this will stay with us forever: remote work, the benefits of which are now beginning to be understood by many of the largest companies. In including Microsoft, Google, Oracle, Facebook and others. You can read a great interview with Zuckerbergon this topic. It turns out that Silicon Valley is now seriously determined to gradually move towards remote labor. Not only for the duration of COVID, but permanently. Most likely, others will follow this trend, as usual. In the world of the future, working from home will be the rule, not the exception.
Unfortunately, Russia is still somewhere closer to the beginning of the journey. But we have someone to learn from.Many companies in the Russian Federation, of course, have adapted quite well to the new reality (mainly those who already had remote departments). But basically, globally remote control does not work. Judging by how many new outsourcing / outstaff calls we received in Rubrain over the past three months, the productivity of our own teams has dropped a lot. Of course, we tend to blame not programmers, but managers. If something does not work out globally, it is not the fault of a separate “worker bee”. But maybe our society as a whole was not ready for such a transition. And we have a lot to learn from other countries.
The difference between Russia and the Netherlands
It would seem that remote work in Russia should flourish! The country is huge, most of the population lives outside of large conglomerations. Everyone wants to have a Moscow (and especially foreign) salary. Internet penetration is about 80% , among young people - more than 90%.
But at the same time, remote work is not popular with us. Before the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, remote employees out of the total in the UK were 4.7%, Germany - 5.2%, France - 7% ( Eurostat data ). In the USA - 3.6% . In Russia, according to the estimates of the portal "Rabota.ru" - less than 3%.
Remote work in Europe
Similar information is provided by foreign sites: if there the number of vacancies for remote work is 18.22%, then in Russia - 2.23%. This is a detailed analysis.A.A. Malyshev, whose scientific work was released just at the end of 2019. He checked 5 top foreign job sites and 5 most popular job search sites in Russia. The results are rather sad, especially if we compare the correlation of the success of the economy as a whole with the percentage of people employed in freelance and remote work. The most “settled in office” countries in Europe, according to the same Eurostat table, are Greece, Romania and Bulgaria.
And the leading country in the world in remote work even before COVID was the small Netherlands. More than 14.1% of all employees here have long been accustomed to work from home. Only in recent years has Finland begun to catch up with them. The third country with a large lag is Luxembourg.
Why does such a small state, whose area is smaller than the Moscow region, need so many “remote workers”? The transport network is well-developed, you can get to work from anywhere faster than standing in traffic jams in Moscow. Salaries are very good, on average 2816 euros per month, so freelancing abroad is not necessary.
For some reason, there are more remote workers in large cities than in villages or provinces. It would seem - ride a bike a couple of blocks, and here's your home office! Why work from home? Go chat live with your colleagues, make contacts!
Why is it like that for Holland, but not for Russia and Bulgaria?
Remote work as part of culture
To begin with, working remotely is enjoyable. According to statistics , those who have adapted to it love it very much. It is more productive (13%) and improves physical and mental health. According to a recent survey in the United States after the crisis began, 59% of new remote employees would prefer to continue working remotely in the future.
Major companies including Barclays , Facebook and Twitter, each announced the beginning of the transfer of their employees to a remote location (their comments are in the links). Like, there is no need to rent offices in the most expensive place on the planet, if you can get more productivity without spending anything. Only Zuckerberg worries that maybe if everyone communicates from home, the company will have fewer new ideas. Like, there will be no chance to accidentally meet someone in the elevator, and catch fire with their idea.
But Okzhi Nauta, a professor of psychology at Leiden University, who studies the working environment and its impact on employees, says that for the competent organization of a working culture, you should look at the Netherlands:
We have high salaries and low suicide rates for a reason. Remote work is an important part of this. Values such as democracy and free will are also deeply embedded in our culture. Managers trust workers more than anywhere else in the world. For example, ING Bank has an unlimited vacation policy. Workers can take as many days off as they like as long as they think their projects won't be hurt. As employers in other countries understand that employees can be trusted, it seems to me that the combination of work from home and periodic meetings in “real life” will gradually become more and more common.
There is also a wider economic and social context that allows remote work to flourish in the Netherlands. Bart Goett, a business futurist and psychologist from Amersfoort, explains:
The physical infrastructure is very well developed. We have enough public and commercial spaces to work remotely. Public libraries have evolved into huge and comfortable modern coworking spaces. There you can always find a corner where people with laptops will sit. You can meet, make connections. We also have an incredible number of small but cozy coffee houses, part of the business model of which is the service of remote employees.
Employers in the Netherlands also use this option for their own good. They need much less space to deploy their activities. Large companies save thousands of dollars on square meters per year per employee. They need to spend less on rent, food, cleaning.
King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands also works from home
The development of spaces for remote work has helped not only remote employees and big business. There is a very large number of private entrepreneurs in the Netherlands. About 1.5 million people (out of 17.4 million of the population) are self-employed. Which sometimes use such premises to conclude transactions with clients and, in principle, conduct business. The Netherlands also turns out to be a productive place for startup teams. Virtual Offices help small start-ups to work on their idea without the need for high costs. This is considered quite normal, even if you are all in the same city.
Lara Wilkens, event organizer from Amsterdam:
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One of the thousands of coworking
spaces in the Netherlands The success of the Dutch remoteness is largely culture. If companies understand that an employee can solve a problem from home, then why not? Meanwhile, in Russia and other countries, workers continue to be forced to go to the office, often at a strictly defined time. We have just “risen” to the level of the Netherlands because of the coronavirus. The number of those who switched to remote work reached 14% , and this felt just like a crisis for society.
In the Netherlands, the opposite is true. The pandemic crisis is hardly felt. Existing remote workers made the transition easier for the rest of the population. Ivo Van Dorn, one of the members of the Auth0 development team from Amsterdam, explains:
When the pandemic hit, I suddenly found myself in the role of a telecommuting coach for my wife and neighbors. I began to answer their questions about organizing my work from home, video conferencing, and setting up a home network. Communicating with colleagues, I realized that they have the same thing.
For the Netherlands, the process of recent months has gone as smoothly as possible. The country hardly noticed any changes in the rules. The Van Dorn company gives all its employees the opportunity to work remotely and freely. As a result, he says, during the crisis, nothing has changed for him in terms of work, except that one of the conferences had to be postponed.
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The Netherlands shows an excellent level of trust in its employees and a good understanding of the digital age. Other countries should consider borrowing this model, especially for the future after COVID-19.
Nowadays many states suffer from the culture of presenteeism . Situations when an employee just sits in the workplace, including more than expected, even if it is not necessary. There is no productivity at all. According to some studies, about 60% of production losses due to workers are associated not with their absence, but just with presentism. Which causes poor health and generally less efficient work.
Reminder road sign in North Holland
In Britain, 83% of employees reportedabout encountering presenteeism. They come to work even when they know they cannot be productive because the organization requires their presence, and this is encouraged. Most likely, in our culture this has been introduced since school. It’s not so scary not to know the subject, it’s often more important not to skip classes and couples. Are you present? Get a tick, well done!
The coronavirus is our chance to reorganize. The presence of a person in his chair is now beginning to be appreciated a little less. Of course, there are companies that follow the old stereotypes. They monitor their employees through video services, monitoring every minute of their free time. But maybe we should all take an example from the Netherlands, with its developed digital infrastructure, investments in a distant future and a culture of trust in people.
Bart Goett, Dutch business futurist, explains:
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People know how to be autonomous, they want more independence, influence on their work environment. Due to the accelerated COVID training program, many countries are now thrown into the mud. They have to learn to swim while they drown. But you need to rethink the old procedures, values and traditions. When circumstances change so much, if we do not want to be left behind, we simply have to change our thinking along with them. This is perhaps the most important lesson.