Article Written By Giorgio Bonuccelli, senior marketing director, Parallels

40% of employees in EU are now working from home

The COVID-19 outbreak forced European Union (EU) citizens into home confinement. As life must go on, many of them have begun working remotely; taking advantage of the Internet to work while staying at home. Today, nearly 40% of EU employees are already working remotely.

Not everyone is quick to embrace this new practice though. While Member States like Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg are currently leading in the adoption of remote working, Romania, Greece, and Croatia are trailing behind. Still, widespread adoption of remote work (or any variation of it) is looking more and more inevitable.

Although many experts say that working remotely will undoubtedly be an integral part of the "new normal" due to the pandemic, the reality is that remote work adoption was already on the rise before this crisis began. The coronavirus outbreak simply served as a catalyst that accelerated that adoption.

What can businesses do to simplify their employees' transition to remote working?

Employees are expected to do their job, regardless of where they are, as long as they have the right tools to do it. In this age of broadband Internet, mobile connectivity, and cloud infrastructures, the basic tools are certainly already there. All that's needed is the right mindset from both employers and employees.

Instead of monitoring input, i.e. how many hours employees spend in the office, employers are better served if they monitor output, i.e. how much work is being delivered. If tasks are completed, even with zero hours spent in the office, employers should see the value in that.

Employees, on the other hand, should also realize how lucky they already are with a remote working setup- no more long, stressful commutes. Instead, they gain lots of flexibility in how, when, and where they accomplish tasks.

Advantages of remote working

If you think about it, remote working makes perfect sense and has several advantages:

• Increased employee happiness and satisfaction as a result of greater flexibility and the opportunity to achieve a healthier work-life balance
• Higher productivity as a result of almost zero travel/commute time
• Reduced employee stress levels caused by daily traffic jams

• Lower overhead costs as a result of reduced office space, furniture, and power requirements
• Higher talent retention as a result of improved employee satisfaction

The use of business applications when remote working

The presence of fast Internet, mobile networks, and cloud computing, while important, are basic enablers of remote working. One of the major challenges employees still face as they start to work from home is in gaining access to the same software tools they're accustomed to in the office.

Sure, there are lots of SaaS applications that may have almost the same functions as the applications they're accustomed to. However, these SaaS solutions always require a substantial adjustment period and learning curve. It would be much easier for employees if they could use the same business applications they've been working with.

How Parallels RAS enables remote working

To satisfy this business-critical need, organizations can turn to Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS). Parallels RAS is an all-in-one virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that delivers applications and virtual desktops to any device, anytime, anywhere.

With Parallels RAS, employees working remotely will have no problem gaining access to familiar Windows applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others within the MS Office Suite. That's not all. Parallels RAS also enables access to line-of-business (LOB) and custom applications.

Parallels RAS-delivered applications can be accessed from any operating system and device, whether they are running on Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Chromebook OS, and others. All this flexibility and ease-of-use will allow employees to dive right into work without having to learn new business applications, thereby eliminating learning curves and adjustment periods.

Learn more about Parallels RAS. Or, if you want, you can even download a FREE 30-day trial!

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