If ever you’ve wanted to join the legions of digital nomads who combine travelling to the places on their bucket list and working remotely, now is the time to start making some plans.
2020 has demonstrated to businesses across the world that working remotely from home is not only viable but profitable. Businesses that have historically been office based have had to embrace remoting-in platforms and the use of new technologies to keep their staff connected and working cohesively towards targets. This has revealed to many business owners that the overheads associated with office space are becoming redundant and that if employees can be trusted to maintain their work ethic and professionalism while working from home they should be.
REMOTE TO DIGITAL NOMAD
The step from working from home to working remotely while being international is not a big one. The change is happening and more people will find themselves having the option of continuing to work from their laptops instead of returning to the confines and working hours of their office environments.
With very few exceptions, businesses are target driven. The number of hours that a person works is less important than their ability to meet and exceed their specified targets. This approach is essential for developing any person from simply an employee number to a professional with a career. Working remotely emphasises this fact meaning that everyone in a team is able to work towards a common goal.
Finally, the bulk of businesses are having to decide what is more important to them: having someone simply doing a job and clock watching or someone who is completely focussed on accomplishing targets. Even if it’s just so that they can enjoy more hours away from work and the freedom that working remotely can offer.
2020 has put the managers, team leaders and owners into the position of assessing the value and potential of this change. It has also created the environment where those businesses who may never have considered it have had to take a serious look at it and sort out the problems that were standing in the way.
WHAT THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY NEEDS
Few other industries have been hit as hard as the travel and hospitality industries during 2020. According to the World Travel Organisation, tourism has fallen by over 70% and the industry is now at the same levels it was in 1990, which is pre-internet, pre-instagram, pre-ticktock.
Being free to work from anywhere in the world makes the digital nomad (digimad) lifestyle an important one. Not having a permanent living address, living in a different country for a couple of months and then moving on, making use of hotels, Airbnbs, travel opportunities as well as getting involved in the lifestyles and cultures of different places is exactly what the travel needs.
FOCUS. FULFILLMENT. TRUST.
Empowering team members, not only with the ability to make their own decisions but also by trusting them to do their job well is important. It means you value your team and trust them to do their work.
Combined with this the opportunity for team members to explore the world, to have the option of travelling, choosing their own hours, seeing the world and ticking off a few places from their bucket lists while not eating into their holiday time is definitely going to produce more loyal and satisfied colleagues.
I know from first hand experience that there are business owners who don’t want to allow their staff too much freedom in the fear that they will leave for greener pastures. But the fact is that staff leave when they’re not appreciated, not valued and start to believe that they’re just another number. A business’ primary function is to produce the best possible environment for their staff. If businesses create a perfect place for their staff to stay, one filled with opportunities and rewards, they will be more likely to remain and be loyal.
CREATIVE BREAKTHROUGHS
The freedom of working remote, the responsibility of managing your own workload can provide some incredible creative breakthroughs on all levels. It is something that I believe should be encouraged strongly for the upcoming years as we continue to build confidence once again. Confidence, not only in international travel but also in the value of trusting team members to be able to do their jobs from wherever they want to be.
So, if you’ve been thinking about where you’d like to be working from next, or how you’d like to become a digital nomad. Now is the time to start asking some serious questions and making plans. There is very little to lose from taking the chance and investigating the possibilities. It all starts with deciding on what you want your life to be defined by.
At least that’s the opinion of this humble digimad.
