Remote working via the internet could boost South Africa\u2019s economy by R17 billion annually, according to a study.<\/p>\n
Mobile workspace solutions company Citrix and the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) have studied the potential economic impact of a \u2018work from anywhere\u2019 culture in South Africa.<\/p>\n
Just over 1 250 South Africans took part in the survey with respondents representing knowledge workers such as architects, software engineers, lawyers, doctors, accountants and academics.<\/p>\n
Chief findings of the study indicate that remote working via the internet could add 0.4% to gross domestic product and cut commuting costs by R39.5 billion.<\/p>\n
Workers could then also save 320 million hours spent travelling to and from work annually, according to the study.<\/p>\n
“More interesting for me was the focus on flexible working potentially enabling employers to tap people that have skills; people who are currently not engaged economically or economically active because they can’t work in a formal workspace,\u201d Brendan McAravey, country manager of Citrix South Africa, told Fin24.<\/p>\n
“For example, a large portion of that is housewives or househusbands,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McAravey also told Fin24 that of the people who were surveyed, over 90% of those people said that if they were given the tools to work remotely, or flexibly, they would be happy to re-engage with the economy.<\/p>\n
Other findings of the study indicated that there are 574 000 part-time workers in South Africa who would like to work remotely.<\/p>\n
Enabling these workers could potentially also create an additional R5.2 billion in gross value added output for the economy.<\/p>\n
South Africa currently needs every economic boost it can get.<\/p>\n
According to figures released by Statistics South Africa this week, the country\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 1.3% in the second quarter of 2015.<\/p>\n
Problems with electricity shortages as well as a negative growth in the agricultural sector and mining sectors have hit the economy hard.<\/p>\n
Shifting focus<\/strong><\/p>\n McAravey said that local organisations need to consider shifting their focus from hours spent at work to productive outputs.<\/p>\n However, McAravey also said that some corporates\u2019 opposition to remote working is a challenge for South Africa to overcome.<\/p>\n “Technology really isn’t the barrier now; it’s really a cultural mind shift,\u201d McAravey told Fin24.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the reason why we’ve engaged with the centre of economic and business research was because we wanted somebody independently to look at the South African environment and give people a view of potentially what the impact would be if we ever made cultural shift,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Here is how many domestic workers South Africa has<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n How much it costs to live in South Africa\u2019s biggest cities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nNews24<\/a><\/h3>\n
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