Does absenteeism trump presenteeism? 4 Reasons Why You Should Consider Remote Work Because while certain types of people need the structure a traditional office setting provides to tell them when they need to get to work, others with self-motivation and discipline like you need your environment to inspire your energetic juices. A remote team can be just as effective, if not more effective, than a local, in-house team. I am an adventure traveller who has spent the last decade building businesses on the road and now help other entrepreneurs grow theirs. Then you need our list of 10 great reasons why remote work is better for businesses. But it's remote work that's disrupting the traditional tech industry 9-to-5 grind. Numerous studies and research show that certain aspects of in-house work have negative effects on mental and physical wellbeing and these can be mitigated or reduced by working remotely. Due to the remote nature of the team, this allows for parents to make adjustments to their daily schedule that work around their families and routines. All Rights Reserved, This is a BETA experience. For Hubstaff, I estimate working remotely saves us over $100K per year in leasing fees, in-house IT, utilities, and other expenses. It demonstrates to employees that the company views them as people, recognizes and supports diversity, knows that one size does not fit all and works to provide a platform for all situations and environments. Remote workers can be happier and healthier, and the knock-on effects can have positive impacts on your business. Here are some of their conclusions. 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Among their concerns: Can you trust a telecommuter? Remote work also helps improve retention rates by 10% so you can keep more of your top talent for longer. There’s no denying that the healthcare category tends to be one of … Remote companies save a ton of money on overhead because there’s no physical office. Owl Labs conducted a survey and found that 16% of global companies are now fully remote and 52% of employees around the world work from home at least one day a week. The top reason is to save money (48%), the freedom to work anywhere (47%), and the work-life balance perk of more time with family. Certainly, you might be able to convince some people to move to your office, but that’s not going to work with every prospective employee. "You know what I want to do today? The benefits don’t just stop with removing the commute. According to PGi, the average real estate savings with full-time teleworkers is $10,000 per employee per year. CES 2021: All of the business tech news you need to know, Adobe Flash: It's finally over, so uninstall Flash Player now, Is 5G overhyped? If your business is oriented around your locality, you’re going to be a little limited in who you can hire. In the UK, workers spend on average 58 minutes commuting to work. There are certain advantages to gathering your whole team in the same space, but your costs would also increase. Remote workers change all of that as you open yourself up globally. "Choice is very important. There are a few commonsense aspects to this. The remote work revolution has been rumbling across industries for years now, and it isn't over yet. Remote work: new flexibility and what we have to surrender for it Location-independent work is a popular trend – not just among employees, but also for many companies. That’s because your boss’s job is to make the company happy and not to make you happy. Here's why. The traditional office is under attack, beaten down by remote video calls, outsourcing, and workers in coffee bars. But who wants to work in the old headquarters? It's a threat that the CEO of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer, famously tried to stamp out by forcing all employees to work onsite. They aren’t distracted by their coworkers. By now you’ve seen that remote work offers increased flexibility and autonomy for employees, as well as increased worker productivity and cost savings for employers. I founded the millennial travel and backpacking website Gap Year Escape which resulted in a 9 year adventure exploring the 7 continents. Remote work was a critical enabler of business and economic continuity during the original shelter-in-place regulations, and may continue to be for future emergencies, especially now … Nick's job stops there, and he hands over to the ... From start to finish: How to host multiple websites on Linux with Apache, Understanding Bash: A guide for Linux administrators, Video: 5 ways telecommuting benefits your company, Comment and share: 10 good reasons why working remotely makes sense. Work in your PJs, avoid the commute, answer emails from a hammock while sipping a pineapple daiquiri—you’ve heard the common benefits of working remotely (and yes, they’re true!). In their 2019 State of Remote Work report, OWL Labs surveyed 1,202 full-time workers (62% of who work remotely at least in part).More than 80% of respondents (both remote and on-site workers) stated that working remotely would make them:. Encouraging different ways of working allows companies to reduce their rent and property costs, according to Ian Adams, head of head of strategic marketing development at outsourcing company Mitie. Remote workers tend to be more productive because: They don’t need to commute into work. The insurance giant Aetna shed 2.7 million square feet of office space resulting in a cost saving of $78 million per year. You don’t need to rent office space to be in business. Do you agree that remote working offers the benefits listed here? Why a Landscape of Remote-Work Tools is Better Than One “Super-App” By Aaron Wagner December 10, 2019 2 min read On November 22, Forbes published an article titled The Most Exciting Tech Trends For 2020, From Five Leading Investors Around The World . I founded the millennial travel…. Feel more trusted at work; Feel less stressed; Better able to manage work-life conflict There … They can finish their work on their own time. In “Here’s One More Reason to Convince Your Boss to Let You Work from Home” on the Penny Hoarder, you’ll find the virtues of remote work and why it’s truly one of the greenest ways to work. Remote work, in addition to causing office attendance to decline, is having a profound effect on the design of physical offices that goes beyond just better wifi and more power outlets. Share your opinions and experiences with fellow TechRepublic members. Remote teams get more done in less time allowing them to start new projects, spend more time doing what’s working, and ultimately improve your bottom line. Nationwide's Wilkinson said, "When you're tweeting with people in your team close to midnight, it brings home that people are experiencing something beyond 'doing work' -- they're engaged in a different way.". With remote work, you can hire someone from the other side of the world. What's going to happen next? In recent years I founded Amar Digital - a full service digital marketing agency that helps entrepreneurs and startups grow their business. Remote work is becoming more common all the time, yet the arguments for it seem frozen in time. Remote teams can significantly move the needle the other way. "Flexible working isn't just office or home -- there may be somewhere near home with better facilities," said Celia Donne, global operations director of Regus, an office accommodations provider. Remote work removes the need for a commute and the associated negative effects. My work has been featured on Business Insider, TIME, BBC, Chicago Tribune, GQ, Vogue and Entrepreneur, among others. Harness the tools that make a remote company culture There shouldn't be a technology-driven compulsion to work in a certain way.". One of the most touted arguments for remote work is the increased productivity that comes with its flexibility. Ever. Remote work and the flexibility to be location independent makes employees happier overall - with 83% of survey respondents agreeing that the ability to work remotely would make them happier, because of that employees are more likely to stick with employers who allow them the option to work from their location of choice. Remote work is like a magnifying glass for underlying people issues in companies- people problems that can be glossed over or shoved under the rug … Remote work is good for the environment and, in turn, good for business. Recent studies conducted showed that nine in … And remote working is on the rise. And new business trends like remote administration, cloud-based project management, video conferencing, and BYOD are extending the effectiveness of remote work. This is because it not only creates greater freedom for individuals, but also offers entirely new recruiting possibilities for companies. Commute to the office!" All positives considered, it’s no surprise that remote work is on the rise. According to Robert Gorby, marketing director of Powwownow, remote working provides choice. Nick deals with the lower layers of the Internet - the machines, networks, operating systems, and applications. The remote workforce trend shows no signs of slowing down. There are other advantages worth exploring too that have been backed by numerous studies and research. Companies who have remote work policies experience less turnover and are more attractive to employees—and young workers in particular. Even before the workday starts, telecommuting employees are better off than their physical commuting colleagues. A US federal government report said that 47% of its employees (that's 1,020,034 people -- no, really, more than a million people) were eligible to telework -- a big increase over the year before. Expect more staff to disappear from the old cube farm as more staff convince their bosses to let them work from home. Said no one. Remote work is bound to see a larger growth spurt in the near future. For the most part, you’ll be drawing from the local talent pool. Even before the workday starts, telecommuting employees are better off than their physical commuting colleagues. Organizations are able to spend less on real estate to seat people and the environment benefits from a break in their daily commute. It's not an all-or-nothing definition. © 2021 ZDNET, A RED VENTURES COMPANY. I am an adventure traveller who has spent the last decade building businesses on the road and now help other entrepreneurs grow theirs. Some remote workers, like travelling salespeople and call center workers, are permanently away from their organization. Hiring can be hard at the best of times, finding someone suitable for the position is tricky business. So is the office dying? And less commuting means a smaller carbon footprint, making tree-huggers happier. This works both ways, once again. They can finish their work on their own time. Flexible working is a done deal, but remote working continues to spread. Working remotely calls for a different style of working, incorporating various techniques in order to be successful. However, there are issues that arise when employees work remotely that can have a real negative effect on businesses. Check out the rest of this post to read see my 3 concrete reasons why it's better. Turn to these must-read primers to get the skinny on the hottest tech topics, strategies, and analyses. For a lot of people, the entire concept of working remotely still feels completely foreign and unnatural. The cost-saving implications of remote workers alone make it a huge draw. Take this quick survey, and tell us what you think, 5 programming languages cloud engineers should learn, 10 fastest-growing cybersecurity skills to learn in 2021. Andy Lake, editor of flexible work resource Flexibility, said Department for Business surveys showed that more than 90% of companies offered flexible working of some kind, but that this was mostly flexible hours and part-time working rather than telecommuting. Being a better remote worker sometimes requires a different approach. When employees carry out their duties away from the office, that's remote working -- also known as telecommuting and telework. Conventional wisdom suggests that remote workers will work less, due to their freedom from oversight and monitoring, but REMOTE warns managers that the bigger concern should be the inability to recognize burnout and overworking when the employee is not on-site. Overall workplace stress is vastly reduced with 82% of remote workers reporting lower stress levels, and over 3000 workers were surveyed by FlexJobs who found 77% of respondents would be healthier if they had a flexible job and 86% would be less stressed. While the other school of thought claims that remote working provide workers with lots of advantages that help increase their productivity. Daryl Wilkinson, group head of digital development at Nationwide Building Society, said he wanted to encourage remote working to empower his staff and as a demonstration to the rest of the company. 75% feel very or somewhat prepared to work from home if they have to – possibly showing widescale adoption of videoconferencing and remote work technologies in recent years has better prepared companies and employees; 62% of Americans would take a pay cut to work … You may opt-out by. Try squeezing a de-stressing lunchtime doze into your office day. New ways of working require new roles in the organization. EY & Citi On The Importance Of Resilience And Innovation, Impact 50: Investors Seeking Profit — And Pushing For Change, Got A Client Who’s Stuck On The Minutiae? The power of autonomy and remote work productivity. I've hired remote workers from places such as Canada, U.S., UK, and Australia all while I have been traveling the world myself. Fried calls this "the great irony of allowing passionate people to work from home". Consider the following. Nick Hardiman builds and maintains the infrastructure required to run Internet services. convince their bosses to let them work from home, Remote workers' output, loneliness, privacy, coverage: Tips on managing these issues, 10 ways to reduce interruptions and stay focused at work. They aren’t distracted by their coworkers. Being a remote employee promotes employee well-being. I write about entrepreneurship, digital nomads and marketing. Now office workers can get some of that action. But there are some things that might surprise you about what it’s … Top reasons to work remote. I am also a conference speaker on the topics of lifestyle businesses and marketing. "It's about working with the grain of people's lives," Swan said. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Some even predict that it’s the future of the work. Commuting length has been correlated with higher blood pressure and negative mood in the workplace. According to the UK Office of National Statistics, "Commuters have lower life satisfaction, a lower sense that their daily activities are worthwhile, lower levels of happiness and higher anxiety on average than non- commuters." I am not alone in this belief. … Remote work is working for us. 14 People Share the Biggest Benefits of Remote Work: No Commute “The ability to better balance schedules by eliminating wasted time in traveling to and from the office every day.” —Karen LaGraff “For me, the biggest benefit is flexibility. Companies have a wider hiring pool, but job seekers also are afforded the same benefit. Remote workers tend to be more productive because: Additionally, according to a study conducted by the University of Illinois, telecommuters tend to go above and beyond the call of duty to be good citizens and give a little extra to the companies they’re working for. Remote work, flextime, career sabbaticals, and zero-hours contracts are all types of flexible work. Nearly half of all occupied US jobs are capable of being performed from home. Is the attraction of working from the sofa wearing pyjamas just too strong to resist? Remote work has been along for much longer than people realize. "There's less stress in the office and the workplace -- people feel empowered to work in a way that suits them and suits the business.". In “ On Working From Home, Better,” Remote.co partner company Balsamiq details what it takes in order to work from home successfully. 3. Remote working can have significant benefits for many employees, which explains why half of the UK's workforce is set to be remote working by 2020. But, before venturing into the world of remote work, businesses must take a look at their … 2. I guess it’s time to look at the benefits of working remotely and understand why people choose remote work! You Can Draw From A Larger Talent Pool. I've used remote workers for over a decade, and the main benefit to me is that by having a remote workforce, I can also work remotely and be a digital nomad. Attractive to employees—and young workers in particular: they don ’ t need to commute into work 10 % you. Work provides a competitive advantage in terms of recruiting and retention when it is offered a!, Chicago Tribune, GQ, Vogue and Entrepreneur, among others office workers can be happier healthier! Working -- also known as telecommuting and telework Escape which resulted in a certain.. 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