Who loves TED talks? We do, and today we are going to talk about them.
Making the decision to jump into remote work can be difficult and stressful. Whether you want to work several days a week from home, becoming a full-time freelancer, or embark on an adventurous life as a digital nomad – a complete lifestyle change can bring about anxiety and doubt.
Luckily those moving transitioning into work from home jobs have shown the remote work field is only going to grow as members from Generation Z enter the workplace.
Sounds like a promising venture, right?
While some may still have doubts about whether or not taking a work from home job is the right decision for them, there are numerous first-hand reviews from freelancers.
Even the famous TED Talk events have hosted speakers who have highlighted the benefits of remote work, and how working outside of a traditional brick and mortar environment is the future of many business verticals.
This blog will feature various TED Talk speakers and their advice and thoughts on remote work.
TED Talks about Freelance Flexibility And Performance
Dame Stephanie Shirley
In 2015, Dame Stephanie Shirley spoke about flexibility in relation to work at home jobs and opportunities. Work Flexibility delivers a summary of her speech.
When it comes to flexibility, Shirley knows her stuff. In 1962, she founded Freelance Programmers. She established this software company to get around the gender discrimination of the day, building a business of and for women.
In fact, in the early days of her business, she would change her name from Stephanie to Steve on business development letters so people would think she was a “he” and not a “she,” which allowed her to get her foot in the door.
Shirley recruited qualified women and structured the company as a home-working organization. She helped bring women back into the workforce after career breaks and pioneered many flexible work methods, job sharing, and profit sharing.
Nicholas Bloom
During his 2017 TEDx Stanford speech, Nicholas Bloom, a professor of economics at the University gave an encouraging talk concerning remote work which Work Flexibility also summarized.
He conducted a test with CTrip.com, China’s largest travel agency. The company was interested in moving some workers to a remote model to save money on office space in expensive Shanghai, so they tested productivity differences between a telecommuting group and office workers.
When the test was over, it showed that the productivity of people who were working at home was 13% higher than that of their colleagues in the office.
The remote workers didn’t have to worry about a commute that would lead to a late start or early end to the workday, and they didn’t have to deal with office distractions.
The company also found that “quit rates” dropped by 50% for the telecommuters. Even if you just do it one day a week, Bloom said, you really should give remote work a try. There’s not much to lose and a lot to gain.
“Out of the 150 million Americans who work, that means roughly 3.6 million Americans work from home,” Bloom said regarding the current state of remote work during his TED Talk.
Such large numbers, and a continuing pattern of workers seeking out similar opportunities are forcing companies to alter the way in which they approach how they go about the organization of their business practices.
TED talks about Remote Workers Bringing Better Production
Jeff Sutherland
Jeff Sutherland during his “The Art of Doing Twice as Much in Half the Time” TED Talk gave examples of leadership in different settings such as car factories, grammar school, and within the military.
Sutherland’s advice applies perfectly to freelancers who are able to complete tasks quicker; without sacrificing work quality.
These work at home jobs and opportunities allow workers to reclaim dozens of weekly hours to work on their own personal goals or enjoy more leisure time.
TED talks about The Future Of Work
“At TEDxKoeln, [Heiko] Fischer builds a strong case for turning Human Resources on its head by enabling employees to become resourceful humans instead. People want to do a good job. Given the proper environment, they will do so,” began Prialto’s summary of “The Future Of Work” summary.
“This proper environment consists of timeless management practices combined with cutting-edge collaboration tools to optimize work environments for both people and products.”
Fischer’s comments directly correlate to the effective nature of conference management tools.
Note: There are tools which enhance the remote conferencing experience by removing background noise on all ends during the call. Krisp is such a noise cancellation solution which does this effortlessly and can be used with any conferencing app or headphones. It can ensure conferences go without needless noise in the background.
As the global stage dives further into the digital age, remote work opportunities will become more commonplace as workers realize they can accomplish the same tasks from the comfort of their own home, a cafe, park bench, or wherever else they want to make their remote office.
Work at home jobs may not currently have mainstream acceptance across the board, but when companies realize making a transition into such a work format leads to better results; changes will begin to occur at an exponential rate.
Wrapping up
We hope this entry discussing what TED Talk speakers have said about remote work will convince you to follow your dreams and become a remote worker.
If you are a business owner, we hope you continue researching and decide to be on the cutting edge of business practices and begin integrating work at home jobs for your current and future employees.
Everyone has nothing to lose and everything to gain.
