Australian businesses must back the rise of the corporate nomad

As Australian employees emerge from lockdown and organisations grapple with worsening talent shortages, we can finally look beyond the old office/home choice and see that the new norm will be genuine flexibility and the ability to work from anywhere. 

They’re digital nomads, and they’re not new – freelance creatives have been bouncing round South East Asia for years, but this corporate flavour certainly is. The new nomads are full-time employed, but travelling while they work for a single boss. There’s no robust Australian data yet, but new research out of the US found that the number of digital nomads increased by almost 50% in 2020. The number of corporate nomads rose by 96% in just 12 months, from 3.2 million in 2019 to 6.3 million in 2020. 

In an unusual turn of events, I spent more of this year than not working remotely. A series of advantageous mishaps (cancelled flights, closed borders, blind luck) have seen me work at airports and cafes, in hotels and AirBnBs, and – best of all – a dreamy co-working space on Magnetic Island in Far North Queensland.