by Nigel Hilton
It's becoming an increasingly popular way to live and work now, seeking out coffee shops, spending the morning at home or enjoying your day and working during the evening - working remotely and flexibly is favored by many, and a lot of companies are getting on board with this way of working too. It doesn't just have its benefits for employees though; it can also be very beneficial for a business, and here's why:
Increased Improved Employee Retention
One issue that can be very annoying, costly, and time-consuming for small businesses more so that large ones are having to deal with is losing employees and then recruiting and training again. Small businesses cannot always compete with larger organizations on things like salary and benefits, so they must take advantage of the things they do have and what they can offer this includes being able to offer employees more freedom. Homeworking can give parents with childcare responsibilities the flexibility they need, while other workers can benefit from an enhanced work-life balance.
Access To Greater Talent
Millennials have grown up being able to communicate cheaply and effectively from anywhere in the world, so it is understandable that they expect the same when they enter the workplace.
For employees, entering the workforce or in their early years, workplace flexibility is one of the many factors that they consider when they are looking for a new role, it is something that they want and that they now expect, so offering this type of benefit can help small businesses to attract the young, highly skilled employees that might not otherwise be interested in a role.
More Autonomous Employees
Giving workers the ability to work remotely allows them to operate in a way that suits them. Some people work better in a quiet environment, others thrive somewhere busy, but either way, people can be particular about how and when they like to work. If you're in an office environment, all employees have to adapt to the same approach, and this might not suit everyone whereas at home or employees have much more control.
Lower Costs
Office space is expensive and while it's good to have a base, offering employees the opportunity to work from home for two days a week and doing a hot-desking policy the rest of the time, means you will reduce the amount of office space you need.
Take Advantage Of Tech
Working remotely would be impossible without the amazing technology we have today, it is the key to this mobility, with fast Wi-Fi connections, smartphones, cloud computing, instant messaging, project management software, and VoIP, allows people to communicate and collaborate instantaneously. Check out http://www.richmondcomm.com/ for advanced audio and video systems that could be perfect in your office and mean that staff meetings could take place with no one in the office.
Increased Productivity
While it might be difficult to trust employees working from home, if you're going to offer it, then you need to be able to. It's surprising as well as how many employees say their productivity increases when they work remotely. A Canada Life survey showed that homeworkers rank their productivity as 7.7/10, compared to 6.5/10 for office workers and aThat'sthey're Stanford survey found that employees who work from home are 13 percent more productive than their colleagues in the office.