Internet Enabling Lifestyle Changes, According To Report

According to a new report published on Sunday, work flexibility is enabling Australians to swap the big city life for small coastal or regional towns which offer better lifestyles and lower costs of living. The shift to working remotely and working from home has allowed people to opt for "lifestyle towns" that are near capital cities. There are now 3.7 million people living in more than 600 Australian towns that are between 75km and 175km from a capital city, according to the report commissioned by NBNco.

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This flexible, remote lifestyle is a major benefit for freelance consultants working through Expert360, who are branching out without the constraints of a traditional 9-5 role. "A lot of the clients that I have worked with so far have been quite flexible," said Hannah Lee, a full-time on demand consultant with Expert360. For one of her first projects, Lee got a taste of the ability to work remotely by consulting for a Dubai-based client. "The client was doing a project in Dubai and needed some analysis support. I could work from Sydney and didn't have to be in an office as long as I was able to get the work done in a timely manner," said Lee.

Flexible work is allowing people to work from more comfortable locations. Yet it is not just Expert360's consultants who are able to harness the powers of the internet to work remotely. Australia is in the midst of an internet-driven working revolution which has fostered a greater work-life balance. "Super connectivity gives the Australian people even greater scope ... or more precisely, greater control over where they live and how they work," said KPMG demographer Bernard Salt in an article in the Australian.

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A January 2016 study suggested that this ability to work flexibly greatly increased job satisfaction. Similarly, a University of Chicago study of 4500 workers found that job satisfaction was materially higher for workers who had some discretion over their hours and place of work. The leveraging of online talent platforms such as Expert360 in order to work remotely is innately a millennial endeavour with 71 per cent of young Australians suggesting they would consider earning income during the coming year through such platforms.  

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And enabling people to escape the hustle of the city[/caption] However, more baby boomers are looking to adopt online platforms which might allow them to work outside of big cities. A US report found that 56 percent of pre-retirees expect to transition from full-time work into flexible work before retirement. Evidently, we are in the midst of a working revolution which favors flexible and agile businesses who can remotely access top-tier talent from platforms like Expert360.