The final push in the massive adoption of the home office was, paradoxically, given by the advance of the coronavirus pandemic, which seems to have done more for the "4.0" reconversion of companies than thousands of conferences, talks and expert recommendations.
The isolation measures decreed in a large part of the world led to an infinite number of firms to move definitively to remote work schemes and, by the way, to lose their fear of this scheme and of virtual collaboration spaces, which became the norm of the new labor ecosystem.
The impact on workers was the massive implementation of this practice was immediate: according to a study carried out by Adecco Argentina, 42% of employees dedicate more hours to work from home than in the office, while 40% comply exactly the same hours as if you were at your workplace.
On the other hand, only two out of ten admit to relaxing and working less time from home. In turn, six out of 10 say they perform more relaxed at home. For 28% it is the same and for 11% it is more stressful.
For companies, however, the transition to a 100% "out of office" format has had different levels of complexity. There are cases such as Mercado Libre, which already provided a weekly telework day to 64% of its employees and, when quarantined, decreed the home office "24/7" with a view to extending it until the end of the year.
Others, such as Toyota or Quilmes, which as industries need to keep their plants operating, had a different approach, limiting tasks to distances only to administrative sectors.
Be that as it may, what is clear is that nobody thinks about a home office with an expiration date anymore. For this reason, CEOs begin to make accounts: which items are saved and which are not with all the employees working from home.
Today, entering an office building can be an experience similar to visiting the old ghost towns of the Hollywood "western", but with clean rugs instead of hay balls and eddies floating in desert places. For now, nothing indicates that this will change in the short term.
With the curtains down and the lights off, the companies cross out and add other items to their "daily books": at times when each peso is worth, the pandemic forces the accounts to be polished.
Damián Vázquez, Partner at PwC Argentina, tells iProUP that the company registered a "massive adoption" of the home office among its clients. In this regard, he stresses that it was not a smooth journey: at first many experienced difficulties in that transition, although in general terms they were corrected over time.
Strictly speaking, according to data collected by the "big four", 85% of these clients already have remote working procedures, while 40% have all their employees operating under this modality. "Companies related to services and technology had this type of practices implemented. Industrial companies did not do so, so migration cost a little more there," reveals Vazquez.
It also draws a dividing line between large companies and SMEs: for the former, the challenge was to move to telework on a massive scale; for the latter, in addition to cultural change, their technology had to be adapted to carry out daily tasks.
The truth is that the new modality impacts the expense structure. The executive confirms that there are several monthly costs that fell dramatically: "There are the indirect ones, associated with the occupation of the physical places," says Vázquez.
In this line, he explains: "The companies already had rented spaces, so this expense is maintained for now. In the future, the 'cost of occupancy' will surely decrease, which is significant for companies in areas related to back office (administration and finance) ".
Along with this, other items that began to be "out" of the monthly expense are the cafeteria, lunches, cleaning and other "amenities", while those linked to rates and maintenance will suffer cuts (in many cases, it is already doing so) fruit less use of facilities.
Sebastián Dominguez, CEO of SDC Asesores Tributarios, tells iProUP that when it comes to "electricity, water, snacks and expenses, less is being paid or is being suspended. In the case of benefits such as dispensers or coffee, providers were already giving up to two months grace on payments and now they extended it due to the pandemic. "
In addition, he adds: "In some cases, the expenses decreased, as a result of fewer security employees, and a lower cost of electricity in common areas."
Both specialists agree that the greatest impact on the companies' coffers will be with the return to the "new normal". In this sense, everything indicates that progress will be made in hybrid schemes, not 100% face-to-face, which surely leads to the search for smaller work spaces.
"What employees value is not having to travel. Many are even working more than before," says Domínguez, adding: "There are small companies, with 5 or 6 people, that are already closing offices to perform fully. remote. In the future, for meetings with clients, rent a room in a coworking space and that's it. No more than that. "
From Adecco they pronounce in the same tune: "During the next six or nine months we will witness the consequences of these changes in the labor market, causing us to reconsider the office rental contracts and the square meters necessary to gather the staff" . Thus, the biggest savings are yet to come.
Although some items are falling out of the monthly balance, it is difficult to calculate the exact savings, since it depends on each company.
"The administration costs of a company represent between 3% and 6% of the total. You start from that base to calculate any reduction. Those of services are going to have more reduction than an industrial one, where people have to keep going to the plant and operating, "says Vázquez.
"Also, in technology firms the savings are not so significant because they had already been working with virtual schemes: many have almost no offices, they work mostly remotely, so for them it did not change significantly," added the PwC executive.
Specialists warn that, although there were savings, unforeseen expenses were also added, although, in the long run, these can be seen as an investment. "Many employees did not have a PC, so it was necessary to go out and buy urgently," explains Domínguez, citing two witness cases of companies not accustomed to the home office.
"One of the largest hypermarkets in the country did not have notebooks for its administration and finance team. It had to buy machines for everyone and then contract a VPN service because they could not work remotely," the executive quotes.
On the other hand, he warns about the case of a laboratory with more than 160 employees, "that more than five people could not connect via VPN at the same time and had to invest to reconvert all their virtual infrastructure."
Although these companies had to allocate money to technological "iron" to operate, Domínguez believes that "it makes them more productive and may result in lower future expenses, even though in this context it is not the best time to disburse."
Vázquez reveals that, for large firms, "having a lot of people working remotely implies another response capacity and access to information. Therefore, logically, you will have to invest in communication, backup and backup in computer security issues. The more people you get more risk of hacking, with which the computer costs are going to increase in the future ".
Regarding technological equipment in the house, he clarifies that "there are companies that already had all employees with laptops and did not have too much cost. Others had to make an investment and in many cases decided to pay for the Internet connection, increase bandwidth to avoid connection problems. "
The same happened with investments in furniture, since several bought ergonomic chairs. "Most of those who decided to finance some expense are more related to these two cases: the Internet remotely and with the issue of buying furniture," says the adviser.
Looking ahead, a new scenario is presented for companies: by working more days a week from their homes, that expense of electricity, water and Internet that can save the offices is transferred to their homes. Therefore, some have already "subsidized" the dependents' bills.
"When we go to the new normal, there will surely be a standard on how to deal with these payments, today it is not yet," explains Vázquez. And he adds: "The companies that are deciding to finance something do it with the Internet, not so much with the light. For now, the most significant expense for remote work is the Internet and bandwidth."
Domínguez adds the use of the private telephone for work tasks. "The employee who communicates with customers is using his cell phone. That is also an expense that the company will surely have to recognize."
Thus, a possible scheme can be glimpsed where, in addition to prepaid or per diem, the payment of part of the services as a benefit for employees begins to be added in 2021. Another change that the pandemic brought to stay.