The Irish government has announced a new national strategy to encourage businesses to keep remote work after the pandemic.
Tech companies around the world switched to remote work last year when the pandemic forced them to close their offices. Companies that had denied staff the right to work from home for decades on the assumption that it would reduce productivity were suddenly thrust into it, and the results have been surprisingly positive.
Most companies saw productivity actually increase when they moved to working from home, and many saved on office costs and travel. Recent surveys have shown increasing demand from employers and staff for offices to re-open, but the most popular option is now a hybrid business model with part time in the office and part working remotely.
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The Irish government has now taken the positive step of creating an official national strategy for remote work, encouraging companies to retain remote work even after the pandemic ends. The strategy's objective is to "Ensure Remote Work is a Permanent Feature in the Irish Workplace" and it focuses on three key pillars of action:
Irish Minister for Enterprise Leo Varadkar TD wrote in the document: "I believe that when the pandemic is over, many of us will return to the office, but things will never be the same again. Video-conferencing will be more common and travelling for work much less so. While some people will work full-time from the office or from home, most of us will be blended workers, working sometimes from the office and other times from home, a hub or on the go."
Source: Gov.ie, via Silicon Republic
