The idea of your employees working remotely can be a troubling one for some companies, especially if they have existed in the traditional work space for some time and have got used to the physical presence of colleagues in an office environment. Howeverwe know that most of the arguments raised by company bosses as to why they don’t hire remote workers are little more than unfounded fears, and bear little resemblance to the statistical reality. So what is that reality? We guide you through the top advantages of hiring remote workers for you and your business.
1. Hiring remote workers reduces outgoings
Sometimes the most obvious answers are the hardest to see. Hiring remote workers can have a substantial positive effect on a company’s outgoings, purely because of the reduction in real estate costs that goes with needing a smaller office space, and the related reduction in cleaning and supply costs. Some estimates put the saving at as much as $10,000 for each employee each year, which can instead go to growing your business.
On the other side of the coin, hiring remote workers also reduces the outgoings of the workers themselves. Not only is a significant financial burden lifted from no longer having to stump up for fuel or tickets on public transportation – that can cost several thousand dollars a year – but remote workers are saving huge chunks of time too, with the average city commute lasting somewhere around an hour each way. For the remote worker, less time commuting equates to more time doing the things they enjoy, which equates in turn to a happier and more productive worker.
2. Hiring remote workers increases productivity
Contrary to popular belief, remote workers are actually more productive on average than their office-based colleagues, to the tune of a staggering 20% in some industries. There are a huge number of reasons why this is the case. Firstly, presenteeism – the idea that you have to be seen in an office environment – means that around a fifth of the working day is spent on non-work activities by office-based employees, with team members doing everything from checking personal social media accounts to booking holidays.
Then there’s the fact that office environments can be quite distracting places to work. There’s background noise to contend with and informal unscheduled meetings with colleagues among much else, all of which can break concentration again and again. By contrast, remote workers are able to focus entirely on the work in hand without having to deal with these issues.
Another reason why remote workers tend to be more productive than office counterparts is the fact that they are able to choose the times of day that best suits their own body clocks. Some employees find they work much better and more productively continuing long into the night, while others prefer to complete their most complex tasks first thing in the morning, way before the office opens at 8 or 9.
And then there’s the fact that remote workers feel more trusted by their employers, and are therefore more stress-free. The inherent trust that has to exist between a remote worker and their managers gives these staff members a sense of control and of being a valued member of the team, able to use their own judgements to complete the necessary work. As Jack and Ferdi has previously noted, remote workers want to feel like a valued member of the team, and trust goes a long way to creating that sense of being valued.
3. Hiring remote workers frees businesses of geographic constraints
When a business hires for a traditional office-based role, it is fundamentally limited to employing a member of staff living in that city or region. Away from the big cities, this can make it difficult to employ staff with the essential knowledge-base your company might be seeking.
Hiring remote workers does away with all of that in an instant. Instead of being reduced to seeking new talent locally, suddenly a company is free to access talent wherever it may be around the world. The option to remote work will also make your company more attractive to potential employees – especially from the millennial cohort – that have the skills you need to thrive as a business and who rank remote working as one of the top reasons they would apply for a posting.
Hiring remote workers has at least one further advantage that shouldn’t be ignored in a period when businesses are hard-pressed for time. Hiring remote workers is generally a much faster process than traditional interviewing. Most remote workers will respond to queries and interest within hours, and making use of online platforms such as Upwork can see a new employee installed in as little as three days.
Deciding upon hiring remote workers should be a no-brainer, since it results in lower costs for you and the employee, improves productivity across the board, and enables you to employ the very best talent, wherever it may be geographically found.
