Look back to a time prior to 2020, and you can probably remember someone you knew who worked from home. Back then, working remotely seemed like something only the lucky few got to do. Now, the pandemic has changed all that. In the span of just a year or so, remote work became commonplace.

The trend pervades every industry in which remote work is conceivable. According to the McKinsey Global Institute, more than 20 percent of the global workforce can work remotely for the majority of the time. Their estimate includes highly skilled workers in fields like finance, insurance, and information technology.

And then there’s telemedicine: In 2019, the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital recorded 2,000 telemedicine visits for the entire year. In July 2020, that number soared to 5,000 per week. Michael Fisher, the president of the hospital, thinks about one-third of all medical appointments will be conducted via telemedicine in the future.

What happened? The need for working remotely, due to the pandemic, became pressing just as technology provided the means to do so. Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and the technology sector rapidly responded over the past year.

Now, businesses face two primary challenges:

  1. What does the office environment look like, going forward?
  2. How do we transition the workforce into what appears to be a permanent change in the ways we all live and work?

The second question is easy to answer. Reskilling current employees is nearly always preferred to hiring new ones. Investing in the workforce is more affordable, inspires loyalty, and boosts brand perception among the public.

But what about the office environment? With so many workers clocking in from home, many companies will switch from sprawling real estate to more tidy spaces. Some will ditch the huge meeting rooms and simply rent space as needed. Workers themselves might seek an “office away from home”, in which they can break out of the monotony of remote work while still avoiding a lengthy, daily commute.

And that’s why Parlay Cafe finds itself perfectly positioned to harness the power of the remote work trend. The world of work is simply not going back to the way it was, and we’re perfectly positioned to offer what remote workers and employers need in this new age. Contact us to learn more about our exciting franchise opportunities and learn how you can ride the remote work trend into a brighter future.