5 Reasons Your Staffers and Your Company Need Remote Work

By now you’ve probably heard that remote work is the way of the future. But have you ever stopped to wonder why? What makes remote work so worthy of all this attention and emphasis? Do you really need remote work? Is this just another passing fad, or something that you seriously need to consider implementing for your own employees?

Spoiler alert: if you haven’t already given serious thought to the benefits of remote work for your team and your organization, it’s time to start.

Here are five convincing reasons why your staffers and your company need remote work:

1. Remote work decreases your turnover.

You’re familiar with all of those frightening statistics about employee turnover—like the fact that every time a business needs to replace a salaried employee, it costs six to nine months’ salary on average.

If you think there’s nothing you can do but cross your fingers and hope that your best talent doesn’t walk out the door, think again. When it comes to improving your employee retention, remote work can be a big win.

Some studies indicate that remote workers are 50% less likely to quit their jobs—meaning that offering the opportunity to work remotely can be the secret sauce to keeping your best employees around for the long haul.

2. Remote work improves productivity.

Many employers worry that providing flexible work options will send employee productivity into a drastic nosedive—that the convenience of being able to work from home will lead to more distractions and time away from actual work.

But, as it turns out, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Just look at Best Buy, for example. When the company implemented a flexible work program, they experienced a 35% uptick in employee productivity.

In a different study, 77% of respondents said that working off-site makes them more productive, with 30% stating that they’re able to get more done in less time.

So don’t be so quick to assume that flexibility automatically equates to unfinished to-do lists. Being able to escape from the distractions of a traditional office environment (ahem, chatty co-workers, for example) can actually help your employees stay far more focused.

3. Remote work boosts employee happiness.

Many sources report that the workforce is facing an engagement crisis—that only a measly 32% of us are actively engaged in our work.

How can you address this? Remote and flexible work has been proven to boost employee happiness and job satisfaction, which, in turn, improves engagement levels.

In one TINYpulse survey, on a scale of one to 10, employees were asked to rate their happiness at work. Remote workers scored an 8.10, compared to the 7.42 score for all workers.

Plus, when employees are happy at work, they actually work harder. In fact, an economic experiment revealed that happy employees work 12% harder than their less satisfied counterparts.

4. Remote work improves your bottom line.

All of these benefits carry some weight. But what about the bottom line—the cold hard cash? All of the reasons above culminate to make a pretty big impact in terms of the financial success of your business.

According to Global Workplace Analytics, an average business can save $11,000 per person per year simply by allowing them to work from home 50% of the time.

Even further, when you figure in the increased productivity and added engagement that result from remote work, that leads to some pretty serious savings. Cisco, for example, experienced an annual savings of $277 million just from implementing remote work.

5. Remote work gives you a bigger hiring pool.

Obviously, you’re always focused on finding the best fit for any open role that you’re hiring for. But, there’s no denying that there are some limiting factors there—such as geographic location.

This isn’t the case if you’re willing to let employees work remotely. By widening your search, you’re able to truly find the top-notch talent with the most suitable qualifications for that position—rather than settling for someone who is simply located nearby.

It’s tempting to think that offering remote working options is only a perk for your team members. But, as the above five reasons demonstrate, there are plenty of positives in it for you the employer as well.

Interested in hiring remote workers? Post a remote job.

Rachel Jay contributed to this post. 

Originally published June 27, 2017. Updated January 3, 2018. 

Photo Credit: bigstockphoto.com

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By Adrianne Bibby | Categories: Why Go Remote

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