Rising Gas Prices Refuel Work From Home Initiatives — The New Shift to Remote Work

After a two-year work-at-home setup, the world was seemingly excited to get back to offices. Nearly all COVID-19 restrictions were lifted, and businesses were planning to get employees back to offices.

However, the recent spike in gas prices created an uptick in supporting people to work from their homes rather than offices.

The skyrocketing fuel cost impacts employees — not so much yet — but it’ll trickle because people have a temporary increase in mileage reimbursement rate to commute to work.

While politicians and economists are determining whether the new shift will have a long-lasting effect, businesses are preparing to improve their work-from-home environment. The preparations prove that the pandemic isn’t the only reason that caused people to work from home.

The New Opponent to In-Office Work as Pandemic’s Effects Wanes

Covid-19 necessitated one of the world’s largest shifts in how businesses operate. In a short period, organizations went from central office locations to working from home.

The world was concerned about the well-being and health of employees, forcing a massive shift to remote working. However, as the effects of COVID-19 wane, skyrocketing gas prices appear to be the new opponent to the in-office work environment.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has soared gas prices to new heights, making many employees prefer the hybrid or the work-from-home setup. People face new high costs of living that make them disinterested in physical workspaces that require them to commute.

The Solution that Many Businesses Gravitate Toward

Many businesses have embraced a remote workforce since the pandemic.

In the past, 100% dependence on a remote workforce would raise concerns from clients. The world believed that a whole team in physical offices would improve a company’s response time. However, businesses have proven this isn’t the case in today’s world.

If gas prices remain as high for longer than several months, the business world will have no option but to shift back to remote working as the primary workforce to keep costs down.

While every business is unique and prioritizes employees differently, a remote work environment or a hybrid setup appeals to many executives.

Employees Will Prefer a No-Commute Work Setup

Employees who have been working at home would continue to do so if given the option. According to a recent Morning Consult poll, nearly 50% of remote-working employees would rather quit than commute amid skyrocketing gas prices.

Most employees will prefer working from home even more to combat high gas prices.

In the tight labor market — with millions of open jobs — employers that demand a return to offices might face the problem of talent shortage. Companies that insist on in-office setups might lose many workers who reevaluate their commuting costs and want to lower their budget.

To attract and retain talent, your company may want to develop IT infrastructures that present a better remote working environment to employees.

Offer Your Employees An Excellent Remote Work Environment to Help Them Deal With Gas Price Surge

If a worker can execute their work remotely, you should let them do so if it’ll ease consumer demand for gasoline, which in turn will lower the fuel cost for people who can’t work from home.

Your business should allow flexibility if your team has well-rooted concerns about the gas price surge. You should structure a remote working infrastructure to solve the commuting problems. Your company will require better technology infrastructure,:

1. Cloud Computing Technology

If your business hasn’t invested in cloud computing, you might have fallen behind the competition. You can make the remote-working environment only with cloud computing. Without it, your employees can’t work from home.

Cloud computing connects your business, employees, customers, and essential data over the internet so that anyone can have access regardless of their location.

While operating on the cloud will help your employees with the commuting problems stemming from high gas costs, your business will also relieve the burden of running a physical IT infrastructure.

Cloud solutions will ensure secure remote working and a seamless experience for your employees and eliminate their need to commute to the office. All they’ll need is to sign in to your network using the credentials that let them connect with your organization without the need to move physically.

2. Integrated Communication and Collaboration Tool

While your company is getting acclimated to remote working in an effort to combat the challenge of high gas prices, it’s more important than ever to have well-integrated, functional software to help coworkers connect and share information without the need to hold a physical meeting.

To achieve this, you require workplace integration technology that enables your team to communicate effortlessly in a secure window. Microsoft Teams can help you facilitate communication in your company through:

Holding video conferences
Audio calls
Chat features
Collaboration amongst co-workers

Communication and collaboration technology ensure that even though you’ll offer solutions to your employee, your business doesn’t get compromised along the way.

3. Project Management Technology

When your employees are dispersed across various locations, you’ll need business tools to ensure work gets done. You have several project management tools at your disposal, such as:

Azure
Asana
Monday.com

Your business can develop specific project management tools suitable for any type of remote work for your business.

4. Network Security Maintenance

Shifting to work-at-home initiatives to counter the rising gas prices means you’ll need to deploy resilient network security. Getting hacked can be catastrophic when nearly all your employees work remotely.

Your network security will be the highest priority for a remote working setting, which entails:

If the rise in gas prices will limit your business’s ability to run in-office operations, you must minimize the chances of cyberattacks crippling your business.

MainStreet IT Solutions Will Establish Your Business’ Work From Home Initiatives to Combat Challenges of the Rising Gas Prices

No question — the rising fuel price makes the work-from-home environment more appealing. The price spike hobbles plans of businesses to get employees back to offices after two years of the pandemic.

The rising fuel prices are likely to push the commuting cost even higher, affecting workers who are already struggling with the economic fallout from the pandemic.

The best shot for your business is to embrace remote working as much as possible. MainStreet IT Solutions will help you establish work-from-home initiatives. Contact us today to get started.

Rising Gas Prices Refuel Work From Home Initiatives