Today, it’s possible to work productively from anywhere, with the right tools and a strong Wi-Fi connection, and there’s no reason why we shouldn’t take advantage of that. At a time when competition is driving a need for higher productivity, allowing employees to work outside of the office — at a time and place where perhaps they’re more energized or inspired — makes good business sense.
To demonstrate that there’s less and less of a need for us to remain seated at our cubicles from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, Dell, Intel, Marie Claire and JetBlue are sponsoring a unique conference, 30,000 feet in the sky. The event, called Power Trip, will give attendees the opportunity to network and use Dell Latitude 2-in-1s on a flight from New York City to San Francisco, March 21-22.
The invite-only conference in the sky is for female entrepreneurs to gain inspiration from their impressive peers and test the Latitude’s battery life, performance and mobility. After Power Trip attendees land, they’ll have the chance to meet influencers.
“The goal of this event is to communicate the importance of technology when it comes to running a successful business,” said Allison Dew, vice president of client solutions marketing. “Dell understands that entrepreneurs live and breathe their business, and this laptop will allow them to be ‘Future Ready’ and keep running their business while on the go.”
By 2020, 50 percent of the workforce will be millennials and Generation Z, who will bring new behaviors, new technologies and the expectation that mobility is the norm. This will be a global transformation, according to a report by PwC.
Perceptions of at-home workers are shifting, as 52 percent of employees surveyed believe that those working from home are just as productive or more productive than those in the office, according to Dell’s Evolving Workforce Study. Additionally, more than half of employees globally are using a personal device for work purposes or expect to do so in the future.
“This means that the ‘office’ isn’t defined by a desk within an employer’s walls — work gets done at home, in coffee shops and even on public transportation (this, of course, varies depending on the type of work you are doing),” Dew said. “This foreshadowing of a mobile and fluid workforce is the fundamental basis for the technological changes we are seeing worldwide in the workplace.”
Robin Raskin, founder and CEO of Living in Digital Times, sees this as positive.
“The lines have totally blurred, between work and home, to a large degree, for better or worse,” she said in the Dell report. “I think it’s for better because I think it makes you have a passion for your job.”
Small-business entrepreneurs as well as leaders at Fortune 500 organizations need to be prepared to adapt to the way the work gets done while addressing IT concerns over company-issued devices and employees’ personal equipment.
“Even though there are still security concerns, employers know that they are more likely to attract and retain top talent if they provide the best technology and workforce policies to support it,” Dew said. “What that does is unlock access to the best possible human capital, which in the end is the point.”
