In the middle of the pandemic, it was possible to declare the end of the offices for make way for the ‘home office’.
Along the way, while the restrictions were lessened, it was also determined that the future was in hybrid or alternating work and that the pulse of the face-to-face had won.
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However, little by little and with the health crisis over, those forecasts were not fulfilled and what the world of work has decided is Give preponderance to work spaces most of the time.
This is confirmed by a report GeoVictoria, company specialized in facilitating the management and control of employee assistance in more than 40 countries.
It analyzed more than 200 Colombian companies, to identify the business sectors with the greatest variation in the rate of face-to-face work during 2022.
concluded that large retail, mining, and agricultural companies registered an average growth of up to 100% of face-to-face work.
Another of the sectors that registered a high rate of face-to-face work is entertainment and tourism, reaching an average annual rate of 98%.
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For this field, face-to-face work is essential and the figures reflect the projection that the employment rate in the hotel and tourism sector in 2022 would increase by 4.9% compared to 20213, says GeoVictoria.
The following sectors and industries They also register high rates in face-to-face work, according to what the report shows: Manufacturing (99.5%), Health (99.8%), and Construction (99.4%). For the company that carried out the study, these results reflect the expectations and scope that the National Association of Businessmen of Colombia, Andi, made at the time, according to which in the last year 96.8% of the companies began to work independently. face-to-face In addition, the employers affirmed that 36.8% of the companies kept part of the personnel under the work-at-home modality.
Daniela Alba, who is the country manager of GeoVictoria Colombia, He recalled that the manufacturing and construction industries are key to the national economy, representing 20.3%4 and 5.1% of GDP.
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Regarding formal employment, only construction represents 7.2%5. “A higher rate in the modality of face-to-face work in sectors whose nature of their work requires an almost mandatory presence, shows not only an opening in the recovery of jobs, but also a possible trend towards the generation of new jobs.”.
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Regarding what has happened with the practice of working at home or ‘home office’ andthe contraction is evident in the study of the specialized company.
However, the firm comments on the results at the level productivity and efficiency that showed this model, led companies to embrace a hybrid work scheme (remote/’home office’ and face-to-face).
According to the GeoVictoria report, some industries had interesting home office APRs. Customer service (10.5%) and small retail (3.6%) stand out.
From this sample, if the quarterly percentage evolution is observed, customer service companies started the year with a 100% face-to-face work modality, and they adopted hybrid work from the second quarter of the year with a percentage peak that reached 20% ‘home office’ and 80% face-to-face.
(See: Employment, productivity and business development: challenges for 2023).
Daniela Alba believes that “There is a possibility that the face-to-face work trend will continue to consolidate during 2023, but this does not mean that more and more companies are embracing hybrid work as an added value in the labor aspect”.
For the expert, the possibility that these two models coexist depends on the companies continuing to manage internal health control in order to avoid outbreaks of covid-19, reinforcing vaccination schemes, and with clear regulations regarding the benefits and worker’s obligations.
When analyzing the effects of ‘home office’ on productivity, Daniela Alba says that the factors that most influence the improvement of this clear variable for the growth of organizations are the type of work, the level of motivation and discipline of the worker, the availability of tools and adequate resources to do it, among others.
“In general, there are studies that suggest that labor productivity can increase in the ‘home office’ modality for some workers and in some circumstances, for example, because time is saved on trips, time lost in face-to-face meetings is reduced, and take better advantage of the moments of greater concentration of the worker”.
(See: Unemployment in Colombia: the panorama of 2022 and what is coming for 2023).
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