Virtual Work is Knocking at Your Door (and will not go away)
Virtual work is reshaping the world of work, whether we’re ready or not. The question is no longer if it will become the norm, but how we will adapt to it. While some still cling to the comfort of traditional office structures, the world has moved on. So must we.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the landscape of work has seen rapid evolution, with organizations turning to virtual work at an unprecedented scale. According to the World Economic Forum’s 2025 Future of Jobs Report, 43% of surveyed employers identified flexible working arrangements, including virtual work, as a promising business practice to increase talent availability between 2025 and 2030. Interest in cross-border virtual work is also rising, with 27% of employers citing it as a potential approach. This shift is not a temporary blip; it marks a fundamental change in how work is organized and delivered.
Yet resistance persists. Critics argue that virtual work erodes cohesion, hampers development, and obscures accountability. But these are not flaws of the model. These are challenges of implementation. The real obstacle is a 20th-century mindset that equates presence with productivity and control with leadership. Offices, as we classically understand them, are structures of control, not facilitation, and certainly not motivation.
One must ask, "What do we gain with this control, and at what cost?" Would it not be better to tackle the challenges of a virtual work environment rather than remain mired in the past? Many in 1910 likely resisted giving up their horses and were not always comfortable with that new mechanical contraption. We got over it. The office, as a physical concept, needs to be consigned to the same place we sent carbon paper, IBM Selectric typewriters, and shorthand.
The start/stop approaches taken by many firms thus far are akin to gingerly putting your foot in what you fear will be ice-cold water. Thus, we have in many organizations the emergence of the hybrid approach with some days offsite and some days on. This model, often touted as a compromise, is proving to be the worst of both worlds: costly, confusing, and unsatisfying. Organizations that fully embrace virtual work will gain a competitive edge in attracting talent, fostering innovation, and building resilience in an increasingly volatile world.
In this second edition of Community™, we explore the evolving nature of the workplace. Is a workplace still a place? Or is it a dynamic ecosystem of people, principles, and tools, untethered from geography?
We’ll examine the decline of traditional expatriate assignments, the rise of distributed teams, and the policies needed to support this new reality. We also share insights from our pilot projects that show how we impute skills and use this information to surface challenges across job evaluation, pay management, and recruitment policies.
This issue introduces a new companion to our Workforce Effectiveness framework: one focused specifically on Workplace Policies. Many of the fundamental features of a workplace related to ensuring safety, enabling creation of a team environment, empowering staff through the provision of resources and facilities, and articulating the employment compact between the employer and employee on the values and expectations within the working relationship need to be seriously addressed with new yet equally potent approaches.
At Birches Group, our largest office is in the Philippines, but our true strength lies in our ability to assemble teams that span continents—from Manila to Nevada and beyond. Virtual work gives us access to talent wherever it can be found, enabling us to connect diverse perspectives, skills, and experiences across borders. This global reach makes us more adaptable and innovative, equipping us to meet shifting client needs and navigate the evolving demands of the communities we serve.
The future of work isn’t coming. It’s already here. The only question is, will your organization be ready?