The COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disesase 2019) crisis has affected several Asian countries for almost a month now. Nobody has an idea when this crisis will end, as the virus still continues to infect people and death tolls continue to increase. Because of this, companies started to encourage work-from-home arrangements. Both employees and employers welcomed this arrangement and adjusting to this concept, searching for expert advice to ensure productive remote working hours. LinkedIn’s data shows a sharp spike in searches for “remote working” content on the LinkedIn Learning platform since last January.
Key Asian markets including Singapore, Hong Kong and Chinese Mainland are the ones driving this trend. While organizations prioritize the health and safety of their employees and encourage more people to work from home, there are intrinsic challenges to be addressed for remote working to be implemented at a larger scale. Social media has been bearing witness to a surge of posts, articles and challenges sharing tips and tricks to ace working from home. Employees are searching for tips that will enable them to be productive, while employers and team managers are searching for tips on how to effectively manage a remote workforce. Trending search terms on LinkedIn Learning related to remote working, such as ‘Communicating in virtual meetings’ and ‘Managing remote teams’ reiterate the same story.
Remote working, or work flexibility, used to be a distinctive perk. Today, it is increasingly an expectation in a multigenerational workforce. As more employees search for flexible work environments and more employers try to win the war for talent by offering what entices employees, this particular topic is one that we think will only grow in popularity. Trending courses such as ‘Working remotely” and ‘Leading at a distance’ offered on LinkedIn Learning teaches skills such as setting up home offices, virtual collaboration and virtual leadership to help learners ace remote work.
