What are the benefits of remote work for employees?
Quite a few like saved time and money on commute, increased flexibility and better work-life balance among others. 

What about the benefits of remote work for employers? Scratching your head?
Contrary to popular belief, remote employees bring numerous benefits to the employers as well. But unfortunately, it’s not discussed as much.

Let’s take a deeper look at some of these perks we talk about. 

What are the perks of remote work to employers? 

1. A larger pool of talent

It goes without saying that remote work is more attractive to several applicants now, ultimately signifying you have a larger pool of top applicants to choose from if your organization is a remote workplace.

For example, an on-site workplace would have lost if they go through 3, 4, 5 stages of their hiring process, find an excellent candidate, but get rejected because the candidate accepts another job offer with an organization that provides a remote working option.

Sadly, the above scenario happens frequently, as many top employees have stated multiple times that they’d accept an offer from a remote workplace over an on-site one with less pay.

Thus, the traditional on-site working arrangements limit the talent pool you can access when hiring employees. However, providing opportunities for remote work expands your talent pool as you can now select your perfect candidate from a much broader demographic. You also have access to applicants with specialized skill sets, such as proficiency in a particular language or expertise with a specific software package.

2. An effective way to reduce costs

Employees can save about $3500/year working from home, but does the cost-effectiveness of remote work extend to the organizations that hire these remote workers?

Yes, yes, it does!

Some examples of the ways organizations can save costs when they employ remote workers are: the reduction (or total absence) of the costs of utilities, office supplies, “on-site” gadgets, monthly internet bills, real-estate expenses, office maintenance, etc.

Usually, all you have to do in a remote workplace is give your employees a laptop and other essential gadgets. You may even tell them to work on their personal computers since it’s usually not an issue with the employees. 

3. Employee retention 

The happiness of your employees goes a long way in determining their focus on their jobs and, ultimately, their decision to keep working in your organization.

With COVID-19 and lock-downs, many talented employees have figured out that time saved in commuting to work helps them become more productive.

This way, you can avoid high employee turnover that leaves your organization spending extra resources (time and money) when an employee leaves (especially a high–performing one).

Some tips for high employee retention at a remote workplace are:

• Make sure onboarding and remote training are streamlined.
• Set expectations before an offer is given.
• Check their satisfaction using remote workplace tools like Zoom and Google Meet regularly. You could also do this through a poll or an anonymous Google form link.
• Never micromanage your employees.

4. Productivity

One of the biggest reasons the productivity level of remote workers is high is that they can customize their work environment. 

Many studies show a clear relationship between one’s workspace and productivity. In fact, one Forbes study found that employees who take control over the design and layout of their home office are up to 32% more productive than those who don’t. 

The opportunity to work under a natural light source and the perfect temperature, and curate their working environment so it’s designed to help them be most productive (this could mean playing music or white noise from a stereo, clearing their desk of any distractions, working without interruptions from their coworkers), is a luxury that helps remote workers focus and achieve more.

Now that we have discussed the benefits of utilizing remote work, here are 4 tricks to help you go about it:

• Keep morale high by ensuring employees feel valued and recognized.
• Implement tools to encourage collaboration.
• Provide structure by scheduling weekly team meetings to discuss the status of everyone’s projects, monthly goals, and any challenges or obstacles your employees have been facing.
• Develop an excellent IT team to ensure all online operations run smoothly.

Final Thoughts:

As an employer, one often wonders about the merits and demerits of remote work and hiring remote employees. While there is less interaction and visibility on work, there are huge benefits like no overhead costs, greater talent pool across the world, higher employee retention and productivity. 

Wondering what kind of work setting is best for your business? Is it remote or hybrid?