With COVID-19 ravaging the globe, many businesses have switched to remote work. Many of these businesses are realizing that remote work is not only better for the employee but also better for the business.
Current panic responses to COVID do not represent the optimal way to organize a remote working structure. When remote work is done properly, it can provide substantial advantages to your business.
If you’re still on the fence about remote work, or simply want to better understand what it brings to your business,
We’ve assembled 5 proven benefits of remote work for businesses and their employees.
1. It Lowers Your Expenses
Having your employees working on-site is simply more expensive than having them work from home. Companies supporting remote work can save on some standard business expenses such as office space, travel, and equipment costs.
It has been estimated that a company can save around $11,000 a year on an employee who works remotely 50% of the time. This allows the employee to participate in on-site operations, while still saving you money.
While this may seem obvious, there’s another way of allowing telecommuting can help you save on business expenses.
While lowering your worker’s salaries is usually a quick way to find yourself with a pile of resignation notices, 36 percent of workers would sooner take remote work than a raise. This can be used for the benefit of the company.
2. It Increases Productivity
There’s still a lot of debate about how remote work affects productivity. This year, data science has led a mounted attack on the myth claiming remote workers are less productive. The untested hypothesis (up until recently); if a worker is unsupervised and working remotely, then they will be less productive, has been disproven by data.
Certain studies such as this one done by Owl Labs, show a significant increase in productivity – sometimes an increase as high as 79%. Employees also appear to work for more days a year on average – up to 1.4 days more each month.
If productivity was kept at the same level during a time of stress like a global pandemic, then that shows that working from home doesn’t result in a net decrease in productivity.
3. Better Potential Candidates
Recruiting the right people for the job is a huge part of owning a business. With 40% of workers preferring to work remotely, it’s a huge advantage over your competition. Over 50% of employees would leave their current job for one that allows remote work.
Past this, by allowing remote work, you no longer need to think about the employee’s location. This means that instead of having to consider, say, just one city’s worth of employees, you now have access to the whole globe.
There’s also the fact that the best employees know what they’re worth. If they want a remote position, they’ll only apply to those that offer it. By giving your employees more freedom in this way, you will attract more talented workers.
Finally, if you need to hire a lot of people on short notice, that’s much easier to do when you’ve got access to the whole English-speaking world, rather than one city, or at most, state.
4. More Employee Satisfaction & Higher Retention Rates
The ability to work remotely is one of the most highly sought-after attributes of a position. This especially applies to the new generation, ages between 18 and 34. They would be willing to take up to a 10% pay cut to get the additional flexibility remote work gives.
A happy employee is one who not only does work more efficiently but is also more willing to do extra work after hours or cover others’ shifts. According to another study by Owl Labs, remote workers are 13% more likely to stay in the same position for an extended period.
This means that by allowing your employees to work remotely you make them more likely to stay loyal to your company. In turn, you have less turnover, fewer new employees who need training, and more consistent worker performance.
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5. Easier Coordination
At first, remote working environments can feel a bit haphazard. It can be chaotic to start up and get used to working remotely. With that being said, once you’ve gotten used to it, it’s significantly easier to coordinate.
Rather than making sure everyone’s on the same shift, you can simply send a specific group a message. If you work in a large building, you no longer need to walk to the other side to deliver a message, you can just ping them on Slack.
It’s also a lot more organized. Papers can get lost, but that’s much less likely to happen with messages. Furthermore, how many times have you had a meeting, only to spend ⅓ of the time simply getting everyone into the room? Instead of this, you can just turn on your favorite screen-sharing app and give everyone a couple of minutes to connect.
