Jibson, a digital marketing specialist, started working from home since March 2020. He is still required to perform his routine tasks, which would have been done if he did the physical 8am to 5pm at work.
For his company, productivity is being monitored much more than life at the office. “Time is of essence with work from home and you are expected to be robotic, managing your time efficiently, with no room for mistakes. Physically, the stress level is reduced but mentally, nothing has changed, quite demanding,” Jibson says.
But despite the challenges, Jibson still prefers working from home. His experience mirrors what working from home looks like for many others in the same situation.
Remote work, a working style that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment, is the future of work with technology as an aid. However, Africa’s biggest economy does not have the technical capacity to embrace it fully, thereby preventing it from reaping benefits that should come with it.
“Technology is very important for companies to enjoy the benefits of working from home but Nigeria does not have the advanced software and technical infrastructures to monitor and track employees’ performance,” Damilola Awe, a human resource (HR) expert, states.
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Remote working is not a new concept, and there had been some clamour for flexible work but the COVID-19 pandemic forced a lot of companies both locally and internationally to embrace it. However, in 2021, some companies swiftly turned back to adopt the traditional 9-5 work schedule, while others still maintain remote work.
Adebambo Aina, HR advisor at Afrinvest Limited, notes that it was easy for his company to continue working from home as they had the right technology to make it work. “The result showed as productivity improved.”
According to an article by Brookings Institute, companies have the legal ability to use keylogger software on business computers, deploy video surveillance cameras, and monitor worker attentiveness and track physical movements through geolocation software.
Others include compiling lists of visited websites and applications, monitor emails, social media posts, and collaboration tools, and compile productivity data on how workers are spending their time and how long it takes them to finish particular tasks.
“The positives are more than the negatives and employers are taking advantage of the positive side to see how they can manage the negatives and build on it to become positives,” Abidemi Ajai, HR manager at Nosak Farm Produce Limited, says.
Some of the advantages for employees are that it helps in saving extra expenses, reduces physical stress, exclusion of commute time, and more flexibility. For employers, it improves productivity, broader spectrum of recruitment, higher staff retention and reduced costs.
Earlier in the year, a survey by MyJobMag, a recruitment company, found that employers are getting more interested in candidates that can work remotely.
“We have also seen an increase in the number of remote job vacancies posted from the period of the COVID-19 outbreak to date,” the survey states.
Jennifer Oyelade, director of Transquisite Consulting, describes remote work as the way forward.
“Sometimes people seem to be more effective in their work space rather than in the office. So, having that balance between work from home and in the office will still keep the productivity high in an organisation,” Oyelade says.
