Welcome to a conversation about remote work and the benefits of remote work. A lot of us are hearing about work from home jobs. Uh Right now and a lot of us are experiencing, we work from home jobs right now.Um However, there's a much, much bigger conversation that can and should be happening about remote work and that's exactly what we'll be discussing today. Um I am a international thought leader on the topic of remote work. So if you have any questions, I love interaction. I love um I love helping people get the information out of the session that they want. Not just what I think you should hear but what you want. So fill up the chat box. Uh Make this very interactive, say hi to each other, send me questions. Um Let's really make this a great presentation. So I do have um about 20 minutes allotted maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Um And then we can do a few questions if that works for you all. Um So let's go ahead and get started and start discussing what the um benefits of remote work are. Now before I, I jump into that, I need to give the disclaimer that I cannot see you. I am working on a single screen today and um so please talk to each other in the chat box, fill it up with questions. And then when I minimize my screen from presentation mode, that's when I'll be able to see your questions.

So if I'm not answering or addressing your questions immediately, that's what's going on. But please keep talking to each other post your questions. Let's make this fun and engaging. Um All right. So sharing my screen and getting this party started, shall we? Um OK. So uh quick introduction of who I am and why I'm talking about this presentation. Um I am the CEO of distribute consulting, which at this point is the world's only consulting firm that specializes exclusively in remote work. Um We do change management of businesses um that take a, a company from a physical infrastructure to a virtual. Um We do infrastructure strategy. So we design tools and, and workflows and processes and handbooks and policies that enable that to happen. And we also help with sales and marketing of uh of products that want to sell to a remote work market. And now they need to sell to a work from home audience and we help position them as remote work thought leaders. So that's who who we are. We are as about as deep into the topic of remote work as you can get. Um And uh we love it. We love our space here. However, it was a much, much smaller space for ago and now it's a very big space. So we are absolutely honored and privileged to be able to be helping, um fortune 500 companies and national and international governments on the topic of work from home and its impact on economics, which is exactly why I wanted to share this presentation today because it really shows the bigger picture of what's happening.

Um, all of us are very excited about the fact that we get to, you know, wear our sweatpants to work and we don't have to, um, commute to an office and that's all wonderful. Um However, that is a myth about remote work. Um, but that is the true benefit of virtual jobs is a myth. Um, along with a lot of other myths. Um, there's a lot of misunderstanding about virtual jobs. A lot of people think that they're, it's just for the tech industry or that it's not a real job, right? How many of us have thought that in the past three months of like, oh, well, when I get back to my real job at the real office, right? Um, or that going remote is all or nothing that you have to choose and that your business has to choose that, you know, it needs to be this, this ultimate permanent decision for the rest of your life. Like, are you gonna work from home or you gonna work from the office and it's like all, it's so polarized. Um And then also that flexibility only benefits the workers like AAA business leader often thinks this like, well, it's nice that you don't have to commute or you get to sleep in a little bit longer, but it's not a sound business decision. Now, those are all myths.

And so we're going to talk about um how to bust those myths right now. Um First, an understanding of what remote work looks like in our world right now. Um So as pre COVID, uh so four months ago, about 3.2% of the United States workforce work remotely. Now, I realize um that this is a, uh this is a global international audience. And so I would, I don't want to be insensitive by the fact that I'm using United States sta statistics. And so I use that as a representation that about 2 to 3% of the global workforce had access to remote work regularly prior to COVID. Now, um that, that statistic has skyrocketed to about 60% of all jobs worldwide are now involving remote work in one way or another. Now, that may not mean that we're working from home all day every day, but we are now more mobile as a result of Coronavirus. Maybe we're allowed to work from home one day a week or we are allowed to take certain tests home with us. Um to help follow shelter in place guidelines. But for uh from a jump from 2 to 3% all the way to 60% is massive, but it can also go up. Um the the ultimate long term statistic is that 83% of all jobs could involve remote work. So what would happen if that were to actually come to fruition? What would the socio-economic impact of remote work be, if we implemented that at scale, it would be just be so big.

And obviously all of us would probably be getting a lot more sleep and the less a lot less time in the car. Um But that's individual benefits. And like I said, that was one of the myths that the benefits of remote work are just for individuals now. Um So what I want to do is really expand our minds and help us realize the socio-economic impact the global impact that remote work can have if we were to adopt it at this massive massive scale. Long term. The first is very corporate. Um This is where businesses understand and realize that uh remote work can and is helping their business, business operations, not just people but actual business operations. How is it doing that well? Um because of the lack of interruptions in the work environment, because of the results based tracking um that virtual infrastructures are built on. Um The business is actually able to move faster. Their profitability is higher and their productivity and output are also higher.

Um We're also retaining employees at a higher rate than traditional uh businesses. So business literally is just better in a remote work environment if the model is optimized. And so what this means for our economy, if all of the businesses in our local region are all adopting remote work at the same time, that means we are able to diversify industries very, very quickly and easily. Um We're able to be prepared for both economic and natural disaster emergencies and we're able to create and build businesses faster and stronger. It means that our entire regional economies are safer and stronger. So, um when business just moves at that pace, uh that means that in general, overall, our economies, not just our businesses, but our economies, both community and national um business just moves faster into communities out of recessions and through innovative processes at an unprecedented speed.

That's really exciting to just think about and let that stew. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. So let's talk about number two, which is a topic that is on all of our minds right now, which is diversity and inclusion. How can remote work support diversity and inclusion? Well, if you think about it, a distributed workforce is open, right? Like we aren't limited to the talent that is just within proximity to the office, we're able to recruit people from anywhere. And that means um it can be people that are live outside of our region and have different perspectives. It can be people from other cultures, other races. Um It can also mean that people, regardless of where they are have equal opportunity to produce the same results. So you don't need to live in Silicon Valley, in San Francisco or in, in uh New York City or in Dubai or in London in order to get a great job, um you can be anyone living anywhere and have access to a safe sustainable well paying job with great growth opportunities. This is actually bringing workforce equality, true equality to accessibility. This is becoming a reality for more and more of our workforces that I can live anywhere. I can be anybody and still get access to a great job. This is incredible and it, it also allows our businesses to retain that talent, not just to recruit that talent, but to retain it. So you could keep your job for longer and not just be limited to freelancing.

So, uh the benefit, the second socio-economic benefit of remote work is that we are literally shattering ceilings, equal work earns, equal opportunity, period. Um because we all know that a single mother in Nambia is just as capable of hard work and great results as a single white male in San Francisco USA. Um And that's what we're trying to bring attention to in the remote work world. Is that global equality and opportunity. All right, benefit number three is that it diffuses the war on talent. Now, this is a very interesting conversation because six months ago when I was giving this presentation, we were talking about how hot the market was and, um, how everybody like how you could find the best talent and you could be very competitive as an employer in this job market because the, the unemployment rate was so low.

Hm. Obviously, things have changed a lot in the past three months. Um And so now the job market is completely reversed and people all around the world have lost their jobs and are looking for new opportunities. And so this also means that we have access to bigger talent, we can retain the workforce. So this is a great government project that we worked on right at the onslaught of uh of the Coronavirus pandemic. As we said, look, the travel and, and tourism industries and hospitality industries are shrinking are absolutely crumbling. But look at this, look over here, we've got the education industry that's booming, the tech industry that's booming. Let's help these people find jobs in these industries immediately and resolve the unemployment rate that quickly and that easily. They don't need to move their family to a different area in order to find a job, they don't need um to necessarily upscale that much. We can just help alleviate and resolve the unemployment rate immediately. It was astounding to watch and we helped millions of people around the world. Keep employment. It may not have been their, their same job, but at least to resolve the pain points of being furloughed or laid off.

Um This also helps those individuals increase their um their net income ratio, which is their personal earnings. So, um on average remote workers save about $7000 per year in personal expenses related to their career. So things like their attire, meals out, um fuel for their car, their car in general, all of those expenses can be saved with a remote job. So there's immense savings to be had. Um a couple of years ago, I calculated my own savings as a remote worker for the past almost 15 years of working from home. And my personal savings were over $400,000. It's amazing to think about how much that it can impact our personal life and our financial health. So this means that we have people that are um not only have uh equal access to better employment, but it's better in their life as well. They can make do with more and they can have higher earning potential. All right, benefit number four is we are minimizing commutes. Um Obviously, this is a great thing for our schedule that we don't have to commute to the office every day. But again, we're not thinking about ourselves right now. We're thinking big picture. So what does this do for our socioeconomics for our communities when all of a sudden everybody isn't commuting. Absolutely. You guessed it, environmental sustainability. We are reducing the carbon footprint of corporations dramatically. And considering that 70% of carbon emissions are coming from corporations.

This is a really great place to target um instead of individual carbon footprints which by the way, also improve if we can reduce the energy usage and the uh lessen the transportation infrastructure, wear and tear, um reduce the physical waste of corporations. This is a really big win in the fight for green. Um So this is a great conversation to be thinking about how, um, we're using less, less energy, less waste, less materials, less supplies. Um, because we are not commuting to a centralized workplace. I've heard some really inspiring stories just in the past few weeks, uh about Coronavirus and how they are, uh how people live right next to a, uh, a mountain range that they've never been able to see because of the, the air quality. But now all of a sudden all of the cars are off the road and they've said, wait a second, I can see the mountain next to my home. Um As, as II, I think that's just bittersweet that how wonderful. Um, that, that's now a possibility but how tragic that, that we've let our lives get to this point. So in o overall lighter footprints for companies, individuals and communities is a really big win. And last but not least I do not want to underestimate the impact of remote work on an individual. Yes, it's great that we can wear sweatpants. Yes, it's great that we can work from the beach. Um, those are our big wins.

But again, think bigger, stretch your mind to really expand outside of that. And think about how this can affect you on a much bigger level and think about how a lower level of stress, uh, can impact your cardiovascular health. Think about how preparing healthier meals and cooking meals at home every day, instead of picking up fast food on the way home from the office is going to affect your, um, your diet and exercise. Um, think about time with your loved ones and how that's gonna help your emotional and relationship health. Um, we just have the opportunity to reset our lives in an unprecedented way and so that we can feel healthier, mentally, emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, all of those ways we can feel better about ourselves and, and make more time for self care. So overall, we're just a safer workforce and we're getting off the roads. We're spending more time with loved ones, more time on ourselves. So emotionally, socially, physically and mentally, we can be safer, happier and healthier. Now, I don't, with my last couple of minutes, I don't want to paint the picture that this is all sunshine and rainbows and that, you know, we're now all remote overnight. That's not the case. There's a lot of barriers to success that we still need to overcome.

Number one is supply and demand. We need more employers to be willing to say and, and to commit to jobs being and staying virtual for um for post COVID circumstances. Um We also need to diversify the industries in which virtual jobs are available and employers need to convert their jobs accurately. Just changing workspaces and allowing somebody to take their laptop home is not true. Leadership or construction of a virtual work environment.

And so we need to make sure that that is happening correctly and sustainably so that virtual workers can keep their jobs for longer and not feel in fear of being called back to the office. Um And if a community is willing to host this conversation and to say yes, we think that virtual jobs can help all of the people in our area for all of the reasons that we just discussed, there is a process that they can contact me about. And here at our consulting firm, we help governments and nonprofit organizations and community representatives, university, whomever um we help them build an ecosystem with this process. Um That is involves equipping the workforce, training them on how to qualify for remote jobs and helping the employers that are local to convert virtual jobs so that they can hire virtual, I'm sorry, local remote workers overall, it's important to know that remote work is part of the new normal.

There is no, going back to a world, the business world in which remote work is a luxury or, um, it's considered maybe not viable. It's now viable. It's now global. It is part of our new normal and it's up to us on how we're going to embrace it and leverage it to solve some of the world's greatest problems. If you have any questions or concerns, you're more and welcome to reach out to me. Uh Personally, I would love to hear from you. I would love to talk to you about the topic of remote work. Um And you and your company. So uh with that, let's go ahead and, and take some questions. We are right at time. And so um I'll just, if you want to jump out and go network, go for it, I will be here for the next few minutes um discussing this, this topic and answering um your questions. So starting from the point and going backwards. Um We do. Um Antonia said uh we forgot to mention about the internet and electricity costs. Um Yes, those are uh costs that are higher for an employer. However, they're much, much lower to produce in a residential or co-working environment than they are for an office. So, um yes, those electricity um and internet costs are up, but they're much lower overall. So thank you for bringing that to the attention. Um Chrysanthemi in, in your country, which is Greece remote work is presented as a great opportunity.

But there have been many incidents of companies taking advantage of remote workers, expanding the work hours without paying for extra hours. Absolutely. This is a really great question. So the ultimate question here is how can a remote worker make sure that her work rights are solid and won't be oppressed? Great question. Number one, there's a lot of laws that need to catch up in, in um in terms of how work is now going to be operated. So ultimately, the government will take care of you. Um In the short term, the employer should take care of you. But as we all know right now is a time of survival. And so it the change needs to start with us individually. So the greatest thing that you can do is to write a remote work policy and for yourself, that outlines exactly what the expectations for performance are and are not. And that will help you legally protect the boundaries between your work and life and prevent that burnout and that it comes from overwork. Great question. Um Let's see. Ok, Antonio, you've got another question that I, I am going backwards.

Um You've been talking about how remote work is a positive experience and there, there's equal opportunity for everyone. What is it like an equal opportunity for someone poor living with four people in a small house? How can they focus in all of the distractions in their life?

Um That is a very, very great question. I mean, you're saying that remote work working is just beneficial for businesses to cut cost. It is beneficial for businesses, but it is also important that it is very, very beneficial for remote workers as well. Now, the sensitive topic here is that in remote work, self management is key. This is how we manage our own productivity, this is how we manage our own results. Um And part of that is that we are now empowered and responsible to make the best working conditions for ourselves. So you're absolutely right in a small apartment with a family, a noisy background that is a situation to work remotely. However, that doesn't mean that it's impossible.

So uh a few possible solutions would be number one. You can talk to your employer and say I need to like video calls are not an option for me. Um And my working hours need to be longer because I know that I'm going to be distracted a lot throughout the day. I need to be able to take breaks. I need to be able to um you know, to talk to my, my little ones or work early in the morning and late in the evening. Um but it's up to us to say that and to create those circumstances, another one would be to go to a co-working space. A lot of employers are very willing to um compensate for those costs because they understand that sometimes working from home is not realistic or ideal. Um So co-working space can be a great option. And I also want to say that sometimes working from the office is the best solution. Um Remote work is not necessarily about everybody working from home. It's about employees being empowered to choose the location that is best for them.

And so if that's the office, fantastic. Go to the office. If that's a ho a home office, work from there. If that's a co-working space or clients uh um office or your car or whatever, like that's the point is that you get to choose um the the future of work is about employee empowerment. And so that's really important. Um OK, let's see. I'm, I'm scrolling uh up. Uh Alina says that she's a uh such a believer and supporter of remote working uh as it supports her lifestyle. I'm really glad to hear that Alina. Um It supports my lifestyle as well. That's why I became an advocate so many years ago. So I'm really glad to hear that it's working for you. It has been a hard transition for a lot of people. And I think it's important to note that what has been happening throughout the world for the past um for the past three months is not remote working. This is not traditional, this is not usual at all. This is trying to maintain business continuity through a global pandemic period. So um if it's not working for you, if you're, if you're watching this presentation and you're like, remote work is terrible. I'm stressed and I'm trying to manage distance learning with my kids. Like, don't worry, these are not normal circumstances and under normal circumstances, whenever we get to the new normal, it might really work for you. So that's up to you. Um, ok, let's see.

Uh, Nemo was really impressed by the $400,000 savings. Yes, I was, I was really surprised too. I thought I was going to have saved maybe, you know, $50,000 over um over about a decade, but it was over $400,000. Um Really big savings for me personally is that I am able to live without a car, so no fuel, no car payment. Um and then also no child care um because my jobs have always accommodated that I never had childcare restrictions. Um And then yeah, real estate savings. I didn't have to move to the areas where my employers were so massive savings. Um This is so great, uh really great comments. I'm I'm skimming through um open talent market that remote work creates as uh Janine was talking about that. That is really exciting to think about that. We can live anywhere and still have access to great jobs. And um Luana is asking about that. It's hard for her to find um opportunities for beginners in remote work. Absolutely. I'm not gonna sugar coat this. It is very hard to get a remote job. And so that's exactly why it's so important that all of us really encourage all of the employers that we have access to uh to convert their jobs and to commit to being a remote friendly employer permit. Um However, luan not, I don't want to glaze over your questions. So to answer specifically, freelancing is a really great option to get started in.

So platforms like top tel and upwork can be good options for you to just get some experience and uh get connected with employers that are hiring at least temporary remote workers. Um It's also a good option to convert the job that you already have. Um All right. Oh, you guys are talking about uh Facebook's announcement. Yes. Uh Silicon Valley is very, very slowly but very surely converting to remote work, which is going to have a massive, massive impact on economic development throughout the world. And if we are thinking about the fact that not everybody needs to move to large urban centers in order to have access to work with the world's largest brands, they can live in the middle of nowhere and still have a, a national and internationally reputable job. That's pretty amazing. Um All right. Well, this is really great questions. Like I said, if I didn't get to your question, please let me know and um I'm happy to answer them directly. Any questions that you have about um about hybrid teams, about uh writing a remote work policy. Um Oh, Ashley, this is a really great one. Ashley Gerson just said that she's always hiring there at Cox Enterprises. Um cox communications, rapid scale auto trader. If you're looking for a remote job, go check that out. Also, Ashley hit me up. We can get you connected with um, some really great remote talent pools. We always love to have more employers as part of this conversation.

Speaking of which if you are an employer, we'd love to have you joined the remote work association. This is a collection. Um Oh, of power to fly. Yes, Ling Ling just mentioned that one and that is a really great resource. Um And uh also flex jobs, we work remotely remote.com. Those are all um really great a remote work hub. That one is uh in the Middle East. So, yeah, really great resources. Um Google is your best friend right now. If you're looking for all of the information all at once. Um But please stay in touch with me, join the remote work association if you are an employer um or just stay in touch in general. I do write for Forbes regularly on the topic of remote work. So that's a good way to if you want to follow me on linkedin or Twitter, that's a good way to understand what's coming up next in the world of remote work. If this is a topic that you're interested in following. Thank you all for being here. It was a pleasure meeting you and, uh, best of luck, go enjoy the rest of the event.