The Smart Working Revolution
Vanessa Tierney, Abodoo
Emily Stack, VTQ
The Smart Working Revolution is in motion with the help of Abodoo, a company founded by couple Vanessa Tierney and Ben Wainwright. Based in Wexford, Ireland, the idea for Abodoo came to Tierney when she was recovering in the UK from a virus. Tierney wanted to find a way for remote working to be more accessible to people who wanted to work but may not be able to make it to an office every day.
So, what is smart working? Smart working is having flexibility in the workplace. That could be working from home or a hub work space or a combination of the two. The key word is flexibility.
By 2020, 60% of all employees will be smart working
By 2020, 60% of all employees will be smart working. Tierney comments, “There are two markets driving this. One is employers seeing how much they are spending on office real estate when there is not a need for one desk per person. Two is happiness. If employees are happy, they are more likely to stick around.”
Abodoo is a career matching platform that uses key data instead of key words. It looks at the whole picture, using algorithms to match employers with employees. The process is completely anonymous until an employer offers a position and the employee accepts it.
Face to face interviews and commuting then become obsolete, smoothing away any stress from the recruitment process for both parties involved. The website also offers a number of features including online training courses and extra job matches in various industries from web development, fintech to legal services, among many others. “It is really difficult to find talent online and be able to recruit the people you are looking for. Abodoo is designed to fill this gap and make it affordable for people to go through the recruitment process,” says people to go through the recruitment process,” says Tierney.
Smart working allows for people to not give up parts of their lives. With housing prices on the rise, some people may not be able to afford to live in the same town as their employer. With smart working, someone could be an hour outside of work and still go to the office once or twice a week but work remotely the rest of the time. By doing this, people are able to spend more time with their families, friends and other activities. Things they would not be able to do if they had to commute two-three hours every day. With more flexibility, more options would be available for employers.
Tierney comments, “The message of smart working is that the employer is trusting their employees. Trust is the most important element to making smart working successful.”
With trust as the foundation, the right framework also needs to be put in place and there needs to be effective communication. In a world of growing technology, video chat, email and highly secure communication, companies can use smart work to effectively align with the needs of their employees.
“Humans still need some level of interaction. That could mean scheduling weekly team meetings or that everyone gets together once or twice a year,” says Tierney.
The employers see the benefits as well. Their employees are happier and more likely to stay with the company, there is mutual trust and they are saving money. With smart working, employers have to look at actual staff performance rather than the hours spent in the office.
“People will work 10% harder in these conditions, which makes the revenue go up and saves the employer 10–20% per year,” says Tierney. The future of the workplace is dependent on millennials. The future of the workplace is dependent on millennials. Tierney comments, “By 2025, 75% of all employees will be millennial, and nearly 70% of them want agile workplaces.” People are still adopting smart working, but it is becoming more popular. In Ireland, there are 216,000 employees smart working, and in the UK, there are 4.6 million people smart working. So, what does the future of Abodoo look like? The platform had not even been live in Ireland and the UK for a year when Abodoo recently announced their partnership with Vodafone to enable more companies to practice smart working and help support the regeneration of rural Ireland, but they’re not stopping there.
Their plans for 2019 include securing VC funding in order to expand into the United States, with Australia and New Zealand being their next port of call. Also, on their roadmap is a plan to start offering online training programs to employees re-entering the workforce and looking to refresh or upskill.
The Smart Working Revolution is just getting started
Abodoo is without a doubt leading the smart working revolution and practising what they preach, with employees smart working across Ireland, the UK — there is even a person located on an island off the coast of India.
Tierney comments, “There is so much opportunity and support for companies in Ireland and I am very proud to be Irish. We are grateful for the Irish supporting us and the support we have received around the world.”
The Smart Working Revolution is just getting started, and an exciting future awaits for the workplace and Abodoo.
This article first appeared in VTQ Magazine.
Read more: https://vtqglobal.com/