Ever since the Great Economic Recession hit in 2008, many companies have downsized their offices to save money. Since then, the paradigm has always been shifting to working remotely.
Currently, two-thirds of the US workforce works remotely at some point or the other. As per the OWL Labs research report- employees are fine in taking a 5% salary cut if they are allowed to work from home. People are keen to be allowed to work from the comfort of their homes.
By working remotely, both the employer as well as the employee get the best of both worlds.
Benefits to Employers in hiring remote employees
Below listed are benefits to employers when they hire remote employees on the roll.
Access to greater talent pool: No geographical boundaries, time zone differences, cultural differences, or relocation constraints can come in your way of hiring the right talent. With remote working, you can hire people from the farthest continent on the planet constantly.
Cost Cutting: Flashy air-condition offices with proper work furniture, conference rooms, refreshment centers, cafeterias, etc. come at a considerable cost. A huge investment is made to build up and maintain such a level of infrastructure.
Imagine with remote working, your need to run such flashy offices is ZERO. Big organizations are cutting down on millions of dollars by shutting their physical office spaces. Can you get a better deal than this ever? The profits automatically shoot up manifold when you choose to work remotely with your teams.
At the most, the companies can make a small headquarter in a financially viable place for them. Increasingly in organizations, only 50% of space is now used for heads-down work in the US.
Better engaged employees: A happy, contented employee is always the best bet for any organization. The productivity and quality of work shoot up tremendously when the employees are happy.
Reduced Employee Turnover: As we read earlier in this write-up, more than 90% of employees wish to work from home. Employees are ready to take a pay cut to a certain extent if they are allowed to work remotely and are much more productive. This dramatically reduces attrition in an organization as employees are better engaged and are working happily.
Loyalty and Trust: Working remotely helps the employer to build trust in his employees. If the work is delivered as expected without supervision, it shows the dedication of the employee sitting miles away.
However, there are cons of working remotely
- It is challenging to build an influential work culture when the teams are distributed and only virtually connected.
- The official work is devoid of any personal communication. People’s facial expressions, body language, and general feelings are things we pick up subconsciously while interacting with people around us. We tend to pick up the body language and facial expressions of people and communicate accordingly. These softer aspects of communication play a crucial role in effective communication, which is missed out on staying connected virtually.
- Lack of discipline in working. Employees who are not self-starters may find a lack of motivation to work online. Such employees might feel a lack of motto to work and needs to be pushed to deliver work on time.
- Poor work-life balance can be seen in some cases. Often, Always Remote = Always Working. The line between official work and personal work keeps getting blurred the longer one stays at home. At times, people always feel the pressure of work at home as they are always technologically connected.
Benefits of working remotely for Employees
Increased Productivity: In a recent study of US Patent and Trade Office workers conducted by Harvard Business Review, the employee output increased by 44% after the transition to remote work.
The employees are no longer bound to work in 9 to 5 set-up. Thus, they have the liberty of choosing to work in their most productive hours. Working remotely suits all kinds of people who are early morning or late noon risers.
No Commute: All those hours that were getting wasted in commuting from office are all utilized to do productive work. The jam-packed metros of New York in the morning hours show the chaos that each employee has to go through every day to reach the office. If given a choice, people want to stop commuting to work to avoid all these hassles.
Healthy lifestyle: How many people can follow a healthy diet while they work from the office? Most people resort to ordering food or skipping the meal entirely at work.
When you work from home, you have a well-equipped kitchen which is stocked as per your preferences. You tend to eat healthy, freshly cooked food, and stay hydrated when your home becomes your office.
Working from home also helps pull out ample time to go for a walk or take short breaks to rejuvenate one’s energies.
A balanced life: Working remotely allows people to spend more quality time with their loved ones. People can work around their schedules in such a way that they can balance their time between work and family more efficiently.
The comfort of Home: Employees who work from home operate from a comfortable environment that is self-designed to suit their needs. Distractions like tea/coffee gossips or general conversations in the office are waived off at home. There is a liberty to sit on your couch and work from the cozy environment of the home.
Reduced cost of living: Working remotely is redefining the ways people live and work. In recent years, it is seen that America’s three important business cities, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago, are shrinking.
The cost of living in San Francisco, LA, NY, and Chicago is way too high. Even a well-paid business consultant cannot afford to buy a house there. So, people are shifting to smaller cities to cut down their expenses and reunite with their families.
Increased happiness Index: The comfort of being with family through the day and being able to take charge of life and health will definitely raise the happiness index of employees working remotely. A happy employee is far more productive.
Remote working builds greater trust in employees and which helps them to be better engaged at work.
