To the question "What is telecommuting?", the most obvious answer in 2020 is nothing like the one we would have given in 2019. It's a way of organizing work that involves carrying out an activity away from the company's official premises. In other words, working away from your office.

In November 2019, DARES estimated that 7.2% of French employees teleworked, a large proportion of them "occasionally". Barely 6 months later, the figure has risen to over 30%! This very significant change was brought about by the coronavirus health crisis.

Confinement has put us several years ahead of schedule in our total disinhibition in the face of digital technology! Small, medium-sized and large companies are making frequent use of it, and are going to make this change a permanent part of their organization.

Let's take a look at what the development of teleworking means for employees and the self-employed.

A more flexible organization and a more balanced lifestyle

According to teleworkers, the first advantage is undeniably the independence they enjoy on a daily basis. Telecommuting gives youmore freedom to organize your day, andsaves you time spent in transit or between meetings.

In the past, a one-hour meeting might have required one or two days' travel, with flights or trains, cabs, visits to reception, and so on. With telecommuting, it takes just one hour. It also enables employees to better manage their sleep time, by avoiding morning traffic jams (especially in big cities).

Many teleworkers report a reduction in day-to-day stress. It's easier to switch from one meeting to another, or to take a lunch break at the most opportune moment. It also means you can take better care of your family.

During the confinement period, production fell by less than company presence and time worked. On the other hand, macroeconomic data indicate that the reduction in economic activity is similar to the proportion of employees who stopped working. This confirms that much of the daily time spent in the company is not productive.

Is there really such a thing as teleworking?

Contrary to popular belief, not all teleworkers work from home. In fact, some also decide to work from collaborative workspaces. Quite often digital nomads invest in co-working spaces in the cities they visit. This solution is favored by self-employed workers who don't want to work from home.

As a result, some employees and entrepreneurs have decided to work as freelancers abroadfrom home or a shared location.

What are the best practices for successfully working remotely?

Teleworking also deprives employees of many day-to-day interactions. Some spontaneous exchanges take place around the coffee machine, during lunch breaks, and are solutions to the disorganization and lack of hierarchy in some companies.

To be efficient, an employee needs to equip his or her home to work in the best possible conditions: a quiet room, an organized workstation and a high-performance Internet connection.

Let's not lose sight of the fact that the benefits of teleworking are only potential. Some employees have been marginalized and disengaged from the task. This blind spot must lead managers to rethink their role in providing greater flexibility in day-to-day organization. In this sense, the emergence of teleworking must not be accompanied by a multiplication of management structures, at the risk of drowning companies in complexity.

The future will undoubtedly lie in a hybrid solution between office-based and remote working.

For the self-employed, telecommuting has fewer drawbacks: free to organize their work as they see fit, they already have all the flexibility they need! In addition, using the services of a domiciliation company is a practical way of protecting your privacy, offloading low value-added tasks and saving on taxes!

Domiciliation companies provide their customers with a registered office as well as a postal, business and administrative address. They enable you to benefit from a head office address located in the most sought-after areas of major French cities, while protecting your personal home address. This way, you avoid the risk of a customer ringing your doorbell on a Saturday morning, in the presence of your whole family!

They also enable you to benefit from a number of services designed to lighten your daily workload: switchboard, legal and administrative assistance, meeting room hire, etc.! Finally, the amount of the CFE (Cotisation Foncière des Entreprises) depends on the address of your head office. You can choose it strategically to target communes offering partial or total CFE exemptions (ZFU, BER and ZFU-TE).

Last but not least, having a head office close to your target customersimproves your SEO ranking in search engines, and helps increase your online visibility!

With SeDomicilier, you can obtain your certificate of domiciliation in less than 5 minutes, in a 100% online process. What's more, all your services are then available in a personalized, secure virtual office!