Remote-working Here to Stay for Ever in Latin America: HR Survey

Remote-working is set to become a permanent feature of corporate culture in Latin America and the COVID-19 pandemic is also accelerating automation, according to a study by regional HR firm Runa.

Less than 5% of companies are working in person from an office, with several companies creating roles specifically to monitor their remote-workers.

What is far more concerning is the fact that a significant number of organizations are either deploying robots to carry out certain tasks or fully automating some jobs.

“After nine months of working from home, companies and employees have shown that remote work is here to stay,” the report emphasized.

Over 54% of companies surveyed said they are working 100% remote and will continue to do so over the next 12 months, at least.

The region’s technology startups like Rappi and Platzi are leading the charge by adopting a ‘work from anywhere’ policy.

Transitioning to a remote environment has never been easy, though. Customer service executives in call centers are still struggling to adjust to the new normal.

Some HR officials have expressed fear that the pandemic could accelerate atomization, while a few others argued that artificial intelligence (AI) would augment human workers rather than steal their job.

“Our report shows that while individually experiencing the pandemic, we, as a whole, are sharing the same reality for the future of work,” Runa’s CEO Courtney McColgan.

“This future includes remote distribution, as we will never work in an office in the same way we did before the pandemic, and massive technology adoption, as software has become an integral part of how teams work in the new normal.”