We continue to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe. While many of us are at different stages in the journey and trying to navigate the road to recovery efficiently, companies are trying to figure out the future of the working world. 

One thing that's clear: remote working has to be flexible and virtual for both employees and employers. 

Remote working has already become an integral part of the new working world. For employees, finding a balance between their professional and personal aspirations is non-negotiable. As for employers, they benefit from a bigger talent pool, controlled costs, carbon savings, global expansion, and a lot more. 

Yet there are still some questions that remain unanswered:

What should be the extent of this flexibility? 

How do businesses ensure productivity is unhampered? 

What should the new policies and protocols include?

Why Remote Work is the Future

As we are moving out of the pandemic, some changes are here to stay, like remote working! For both employees and employers, remote working seems much more favorable than onsite working. This is mainly because of its positive effect on productivity, reduced costs, and positive environmental impact. 

There are mixed opinions on the subject – some businesses do not wish to continue their remote work policy after the pandemic, while others want to continue working remotely and flexibly. 

The shift to remote working was not at all planned, but over time, remote working practices evolved. Remote workers adapted to new tools and technologies to collaborate, learned new ways to communicate, and balanced working in personal spaces. 

However, building a functional remote working infrastructure across your company is a significant undertaking. Therefore, companies must invest more in understanding the robust corporate culture to establish a well-structured work-from-home approach.

Remote Working Trends and Policies 

The big question on productivity 

Under normal circumstances, most workers would commute to their offices. Not only was this time-consuming, but factors like transportation costs, safety, and weather would also play a role.  

Now, having the freedom to work from home gave employees more time. Also, having a gradual start to the day and not having to deal with the morning rush kept their moods brighter. Businesses noticed there was no adverse effect on productivity; instead, they experienced an improvement in deliverables. A win-win for all! 
 

Freedom and responsibilities 

A growing number of employees have developed a preference for remote working. This preference included not only working from home but from other locations as well, giving them increased freedom. In a recent survey, Flexjobs found that 65 percent of respondents wanted to become full-time remote employees post-pandemic, while 31 percent preferred hybrid arrangements.

Studies suggest that employees working from home are 47% more productive. Hence the employees proved remote and hybrid working did not affect their productivity and that their commitment to work and deliverables remained strong. Now, we are seeing a boost in remote working jobs and infrastructure expansion to facilitate opportunities for making remote working accessible to a broader pool of employees who see value in relocating and working remotely from one or more different locations. 

 

New Work-from-home Policies & Practices 

Business leaders need to set clear and defined business goals in order to establish effective remote and hybrid working conditions for their employees. 

Companies must also reflect on their remote work practices, HR policies, and hiring practices. Short-term remote working will not help attract or retain employees. Instead, companies need to plan for the long term and reset their business plans, corporate culture, and strategies accordingly.

What are your thoughts on remote working? If you are looking for smart solutions to assist you and your employees, Exela can make a difference. With solutions such as DrySign, which can help speed-up the approvals and sign-off process, Digital Mailroom, which allows quick access to physical mail from anywhere, and more.

Contact us, and one of our experts can guide you through our remote working solutions.   

Over two years ago, in order to slow the spread of COVID-19 and adhere to public health and safety guidelines, many businesses had to hastily transition to remote and online work. Digital and automation technology was growing prior to the pandemic, but the sudden shift to remote working arrangements supercharged it. Since then, adoption of digital and automation technology has only progressed, with one McKinsey study showing a leap equivalent to several years of development.

Electronic signatures may not have started with the pandemic, but their use was certainly supercharged by it. While the necessities of the pandemic have led many to incorporate digital and electronic signature options, many businesses and individuals still rely on physical signatures.

Why use electronic signatures?

Electronic signature platforms give you better visibility and transparency to online interactions and develops trust between customers, business partners, and vendors. These tools can also help significantly speed up processes, as documents are submitted, signed, and returned nearly instantaneously across even vast distances. You can use your electronic devices to access files quickly, read through, and authenticate them instantly, eliminating any need to print, mail, and scan documents. 

If you’re still on the fence about using e-signatures for your important business documents and approvals processes, let’s go through some of the most common concerns regarding e-signatures so you can start taking advantage of all the benefits they offer.

Compliance

One of the main concerns preventing people from adopting electronic signatures is compliance. There are regional and international electronic signature laws in place, as well as rules and regulations regarding presenting documents, disclosures, and other information. It’s important for organizations to remain in compliance with all of them. Luckily, competent electronic signature service providers take all of this into consideration, and stay up to date with the necessary credentials and certifications to ensure that your signatures are compliant.

The laws and regulations regarding e-signatures vary across countries and industries. For example, electronic signatures have been given the same legal status as handwritten signatures under the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) and the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (ESIGN) in the United States. In the U.K., e-signatures are legally binding under U.K. eIDAS regulations, shorthand for 'electronic identification and trust services’. In India, the IT Act 2000 grants electronic signatures a legal status whereas in the Philippines, e-signatures are allowed under the Electronic Commerce Act of 2000.

E-signatures service providers should make it clear which laws and regulations they adhere to in each locality where they operate.

Fear of forgery or fraud

New technologies always invariably come with new risks and dangers, which is a major reason some people wait to fully adopt them. Security concerning signatures is of particular importance.

The truth is, most e-signature solutions are secure, as they are backed by digital signature technology that encrypts and protects your online paperwork through a slew of systems like audit trails, PKI technology, etc. This ensures that document processes are 100% encrypted and sealed against tampering or forgery. They are based on asymmetric cryptography, generated through a public key algorithm with two unique keys - a private key that is unique to a signatory, and a public key, which is available to everyone and used for decrypting the online signature. When users want to sign a document, their private, unique, non-transferable key is used, ensuring the veracity of the signature to others.

When selecting an e-signature solution for your business, it’s always a good idea to check that the compliance and certifications of the software are up to date and meet your standards.

Risk of unauthorized signing

Today, many electronic signature platforms come equipped with multiple layers of security to prevent compromising sensitive information. For instance, you can adopt an extra anti-fraud element such as multi-factor authentication protocols.

E-signature platforms not only allow users to sign a document, but also enable detection of changes made to the document’s contents, ensuring legitimacy. This equips you to make decisions faster, have more control, and better visibility into your document and approvals processes, allowing you to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies. You should spend some time comparing various e-signature platforms out there to make sure you find a suitable match for your requirements.

Exela’s DrySign is a legally compliant and secure digital signature platform that helps you digitize the internal and external sign-off process while offering a wide array of features that make for a smooth online signing experience. It works on all internet-connected devices and operating systems, allows for multiple signatories to review a document simultaneously, improves workflow efficiency, is environmentally friendly, and reduces costs related to printing, shipping, and storing documents.

See what DrySign can do for you – start a free trial today!