Remote working was once restricted to a handful of industries and the bane of human resources managers across the land. However, post-pandemic, it’s become a concept the majority of the UK’s workforce has embraced. But is it here to stay?
While there will always be a place for face-to-face contact in working life, allowing your employees to work from home even once a week can reap significant rewards for your business. Here are five benefits of home-based work.
Allowing your team to work from home rewards them
Some employees enjoy the office environment but working from home allows your team considerably more flexibility and benefits. Remote work provides employees with what they crave, such as greater autonomy, freedom and flexibility to manage other commitments.
It contributes to a better work/life balance and improves your engagement when appropriately managed. Happier staff are also more likely to be retained, lowering staff turnover.
Home-based work is proven to improve productivity
Navigating public transport or our roads influences how tired and alert we are, particularly when you can shorten that commute to simply walking to another room in your house. So surely losing that extra stress equates to an increase in productivity?
Several studies have shown just that. WFH research found that close to 60% of workers were more productive, with Stanford University discovering back in 2015 that the increased productivity per employee was 20%. Airtasker learnt that employees were 17% less likely to procrastinate by seeking out ‘work distractions’.
Employers are agreeing, CIPD finding they were becoming increasingly “likely to say that the shift to homeworking has boosted productivity”. They reported a 5% increase from survey respondents in April 2021 compared to June 2020, evidence of companies making the changes work.
Remote working is cheaper for you as well as your employees
Heading to your workplace results in several extra costs. The cost of travelling is joined by the price of clothing and eating, alongside anything else you end up spending money on during your commute.
Remote work lessens this expenditure. Although there will be a slight increase in household bills, it will be significantly less overall, and the UK government even offers tax relief towards these costs.
It won’t just be your employees making the savings, as remote working also saves businesses money. Lower office-based utility bills are an immediate gain, but if successfully managed, you can downsize your premises which also downsizes your costs.
This saves on your rent or mortgage, while if you own your office, you could partially rent it to increase revenues. And that’s before we get into the costs saved on recruiting.
Remote work improves the quality of talent you can recruit
If you require your team to be in your office five days a week, it restricts your recruitment geographically to people able, and prepared, to travel to it. Remote working expands your talent pool as you won’t need to have a base where there are talent hubs. Employing people from different countries and time zones is no longer a fantasy.
And in line with our first point, this makes working for you much more attractive to a broader pool of candidates even if they live near your office. If the best person for your job needs a flexible work pattern to avoid commuting or work around childcare, they’ll go to an employer that caters for them. Don’t let that be your competitor.
Finally, remote working improves performance
We’ve saved the best for last. Saving money and attracting happier employees that get more done is one thing, but the bottom line is studies suggest your employees deliver better work when they work from home.
Gallup conducted research into working from home in 2019, well before it dominated conversations, finding performance increased. Even innovation, something long attributed to face-to-face collaboration, is an area Scientific American have argued can be improved through remote working.
Home-based work is not without its challenges, but more businesses are capitalising on the unique advantages it offers. If you want to learn more about how our communications solutions can help your business thrive through remote working, get in touch, and one of our experts will run you through the options available.