Since technology has developed so quickly and digital technology is the new norm, it’s much easier for a range of jobs to be carried out at home. The requirements for a remote worker are a strong Wi-Fi connection, time tracking tools, apps to monitor productivity, and excellent skill sets.
Aside from the benefits for the workers, companies are also able to take advantage of employees working from home. An employer can now access talent from anywhere in the world, often at much lower rates than locally.
Whether you want to hire remotely or work from home, you will need to do some research first. To help you on your way, here are 6 things you should take into consideration.
Remote working will compete with office locations by 2025
The AND CO conducted a survey that showed remote work is on the increase. From those who were asked, 55% said that they worked remotely 100% of the time. A further 28% said they combined office work with remote work.
As the practice becomes more common, BlueFace has predicted great competition between the two options by 2025. Here are some of the benefits for both employers and employees:
It allows for flexibility as well as productivity.
When studies were carried out on JD Edwards teleworks, it should that those working remotely were 20%-25% more productive than their colleagues working in the office. When the same question was asked to American Express, they reported 43% more productivity from remote workers.
Both employers and employees can save money.
If you took all of the jobs that could be worked remotely, and these employees worked half of their time at home, there would be more than $700 billion in national savings. Each business would enjoy annual savings of $11,000 par part-time remote worker. Each worker could save between $2,000 and $7,000 per year.
On top of this, you could include savings made from hiring remotely compared to hiring in-house.
There are benefits for the environment
Obviously, if you are working from home, there is less need for you to drive, or use public transport, having an impact on the reduction of climate change. It’s scary to consider that if US workers spent half of their time working from home, it would have the same effect on greenhouse reduction as taking the entire New York workforce off the road for good.
Remote work is a great motivator
A massive 74% of North American office workers would change their job if there were an option to work remotely, according to Softchoice.
An increase in job satisfaction
In order to appeal to developers today, you need to consider more than high salaries. 53.3% of developers put remote work as a priority when looking for employment. The highest rates of job satisfaction came from developers who worked from home or spent the majority of their time working from home.
More Productivity, Fewer Distractions
The main reason for the increased productivity of people working remotely is because there are fewer distractions. Flexjob reported that 76% of people felt less distracted. Below are some more significant statistics.
- According to Workforce Futures, 83% of workers don’t need an office to be productive.
- Call centers, performance increased by 13% when working remotely, 9% more working time and 4% more calls per minute.
- AT&T reported saving $150 million in overtime from remote employees
- The Polycom Inc. survey stated that two-thirds of people felt more productive working at home, with another 75% saying it helped with work-life balance.
Real Estate Savings
Business owners are constantly looking for ways to increase their profit margins. Remote working is a guaranteed way to start cutting costs. This should give you some ides of potential savings:
AT&T saved an impressive $30 million in one year just from real estate
By reducing office space, Dell reported savings of $12 million per year
It’s not only the businesses that save money.
On average, a US worker spends 1 hour commuting to and from work, a total of around 300 hours a year. Dell calculated possible savings of $350 per year if an employee worked 10 days a month from home.
According to Global Workplace Analytics, on-site employees spend approximately 11 days per year stuck in traffic. Annual costs for commuting to and from work can range between $2,500 and $6,000.
Reduced Staff Turnover
- The hiring process takes time and money. When staff is happy in their jobs they are less likely to look for another job, therefore decreasing turnover.
- Tasks that do not generate income, including hiring, occupy 40% of small business owner’s time.
- The cost of recruiting a new staff member can range from 15-25% of their annual salary.
- Click and pay job ads can cost between $1.20 and $1.50
- Advertising a job on Monster costs $375 for 60 days, this only covers one position.
- If you have to run a background check you might have to pay anywhere from $5 to $80.
- Training a new recruit takes between 8-26 weeks. At this time, the average company can lose from 1% to 2.5% of its total revenue.
- If your company has less than 500 staff members, recruiting one new employee can cost $7,645. Others believe this is more like $4,129 and it takes around 42 days.
Imagine being able to reduce such costs. One report suggested remote working reduces turnover by 25%, while another study put the figure at 50%.
Improved loyalty Because of More Flexibility
Flexibility is so important for the modern workforce. As much as 79% of employees said they would be more loyal to a company if there were more flexibility. Flexjobs reported 32% of people leaving a job because there wasn’t enough flexibility.
- Remote work is particularly enjoyed by mothers. 50% of women wanted to leave their job or at least reduce their hours after having a child. This dropped to 25% for remote working mums. 51% of mums found it was difficult to progress in their career and 56% in the tech industry left mid-career.
- Both older workers and Millennials want more flexibility. 74% of older workers wanted the option to work from home. 85% of millennials would like to work remotely 100% of the time. 50% said some remote work would be acceptable.
70% of remote workers felt isolated in the workplace
It’s not practical to only look at the benefits! Both Igloo and Buffer stated that around 70% of remote workers had issues feeling part of the office and were lonely.
If you are about to hire remotely, here are some ideas to help prevent the potential downfalls:
- Keep in touch digitally-By keeping workers in different locations connected, you create a sense of unity. Try communication and meeting software and even chat programs.
- Invest in productivity apps- this is necessary for anyone hiring remotely but more so if there are from different parts of the world. Trello, Asana, and CoSchedule are great tools to help keep your team up to date on their project. Having one central platform for work will help everybody work together better.
- Organize meetups- Think of all the savings you have made by remote hiring. Invest some of this in annual get-togethers. If your team is relatively local, this can be more than once a year.
In Conclusion
There are far more advantages to remote work than there are disadvantages, for both employees and employers. Employees are happier and more productive while being able to improve their work-life balance.
Employers can take pride in their happy workforce and enjoy the benefits of higher productivity and reduced costs.
