Working remotely opens opportunities for regions

This year fast-forwarded two connected revolutions in the Australian workplace.

Woolworths boss Brad Banducci says the retailer now has 12 million digital visits a week and 19 million physical transactions and that order will reverse soon. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

This year fast-forwarded two connected revolutions in the Australian workplace: the digital transformation and the distributed office, which may boost regional Australia.

Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s Marnie Barker said: “People should live where they love, not necessarily where they work.”

Telstra’s Andy Penn said there had been fundamental changes in “how we work, when we work and where we work. Work is now something you do, not somewhere you go.”

Working from home is not something everyone supports, with Incitec’s Jeanne Johns saying the computer screen cannot replace “the connection and energy you get from being in the same room” as someone.

Latitude’s Ahmed Fahour noted “remote working is here to stay” and IAG’s Nick Hawkins praised the “inclusiveness of working in a distributed way”.

READ MORE : CEO Survey 2020

Johns pointed out that “COVID has reminded us of the value and power of face-to-face contact. I personally miss the richness of the connection and the energy from being in the same room as my family or work colleagues — something being behind a screen fails to replace.”

Andrew Harding of Aurizon said: “Our company cannot fully collaborate on key challenges and be fully productive with 100 per cent remote working. You do still need face-to-face communication.”

But for National Australia Bank’s Ross McEwan “the way we work has changed forever”.

Lendlease’s Steve McCann said he would encourage people back to the office to ensure the company didn’t lose “some of the benefits of collaboration and social interaction that is widely recognised as driving creativity and innovation”.

Tabcorp’s David Attenborough is probably right in saying “a hybrid model of onsite and remote working is what the workplace of the future will look like”.

Online shopping has boomed.

Officeworks’ Sarah Hunter noted online sales were already 27 per cent pre-COVID “which will help set us up for further growth online”.

Woolworths boss Brad Banducci says the retailer now has 12 million digital visits a week and 19 million physical transactions and that order will reverse soon.