Content
Some business owners may fear a lack of productivity in their employees, while others haven’t invested in teleconferencing and telework tech to support remote workers. Still, some businesses are making the necessary investments to support remote work. A decade ago, most employers would have balked at the idea of employees regularly working from home. One major concern most employers had for working remotely was a loss of productivity. As trends emerge around work environments, employees and employers are finding new ways to keep productivity levels high.
While remote employees generally earn more than their in-office counterparts, 36% of employees would choose the ability to telecommute over a pay raise. You can also hire people who live in cheaper locales if you don’t plan to use location-agnostic pay. Research from PayScale that controlled for job title and location found employees who work remotely make 1.9% more than their equivalent office workers. Overall remote workers earn 23.7% more than non-remote employees when excluding job title and other compensable factors. Having remote workers or formatting your business to fit a hybrid model means you’ll save money on office-related expenses. You can reduce the amount of office furniture and other office supplies required while keeping just enough for those who need to be on-site a few days a week.
What are the benefits of working remotely?
While remote work isn’t without its challenges, it tends to have fewer interruptions, less noise, and more efficient meetings, increasing productivity. Even if you work for a remote company that binds you to a specific time zone or country, you can still move to cheaper cities or prioritize lifestyle rather than proximity to the office. People who have to move frequently, like military spouses, can also benefit from having a remote job. Fully remote workers with no set location can live wherever they please.
- People scrambled to set up home offices and adjust to back-to-back virtual meetings and online collaboration.
- Companies need to start providing adequate mental health training and sessions both virtually and in person for all employees.
- Embracing flexible working practices does not mean shutting up shop so staff can work remotely five days a week.
- However, lines can blur between work and home life if you’re not careful, which is why fully remote companies encourage employees to maintain a healthy work-life balance.
The topic of remote work is producing a lot of attention — and research. There are many reports that tout the benefits of remote work from organizations like OwlLabs and Buffer, but privately-sourced data is in danger of biased results. Studies and reports over the last two decades have shown increased productivity, higher employee engagement, and higher levels of key performance metrics for companies that maintain a robust remote policy. If hybrid is an option, ensure employees have a laptop so they can easily move between workstations. If working fully remotely, consider providing each team member with the correct office furniture.
Positive Environmental Impact
Facebook recently released the concept of moving executives to 100% remote work, which reduces the environmental impact of a corporate office. It found further financial benefits to adjusting executives’ pay based on locality. This move could save larger companies millions of dollars by allowing executives to work in various cities across the how companies benefit when employees work remotely country and adjust their pay to the city the executive chooses. These are real dollars that can be converted for use to enhance the mission, reward and attract employees, and reinvest in future products and services. When companies embrace this new business reality, they will discover many benefits for employees and the company itself.
- Having the flexibility to attend medical appointments, watch the kids’ basketball game, or take elderly parents shopping can lighten the load.
- I can use my breaks to get dishes out of the way or cut veggies for dinner, which gives me more time to spend with my husband and the kids in the evening.
- Companies that plan for the unplanned are prepared to handle changes.
- If you imagine your ideal work environment and pursue (or advocate for) conditions that come closest—you’ll set yourself up for success no matter where you work.
If you or your company has an experience that would benefit the greater world, consider creating a merge request and adding a contribution to this page. There are various stages of remote work, which can be easily pictured as a sliding scale. From no-remote to hybrid-remote to all-remote, and all points in between, a remote worker’s experience in each setting will likely vary.
Disadvantages of remote work
Companies or organizations often give remote work to employees, but they want supervisors and managers to continue working in the office for accessibility and role-modeling purposes. However, in the digital age and in times of the coronavirus crisis, it is crucial that top executives set an example of how to work effectively from a remote location. This role model mode can help exhibit effective remote communications, the use of electronic systems, leadership in remote meetings, and distance delegating. But these savings aren’t reserved for companies in expensive cities—or fully remote employees. Based on conservative estimates, Global Workplace Analytics reports that the typical U.S. employer could save $11,000 per half-time remote employee. Companies can save on rent, utilities, cleaning services and even reduce their tax burden by switching to a remote or hybrid work model.