Working from home is a modern convenience that many employers have started to offer potential employees. With this method of work becoming more common, some are asking why workers are given the freedom to work from the comfort of their own homes. While the conveniences to the employees are important, there are numerous benefits to the company as well.
Understanding the reasons companies offer this may sway you to be one of them. That understanding will come with the top 10 reasons companies offer work from home employment and what it means for the future of business. Having said this, there are some challenges that remote employers seem to face. However, these challenges each have their own solutions. Learning the solutions from the companies that have figured it out can be a big help.
Working from Home Benefits
Employing qualified personnel to do their jobs remotely has a long list of beneficial aspects. These benefits extend to both the company as a whole and the employee as a person. While there are more than just 10 reasons to have work from home employees, the 10 listed here are the most impactful.
Modern technology encourages working from home
Because of the advances in the technological world these days, working from home is fairly easy. In fact, it is nearly possible to accomplish just about everything that can be done in a company’s office space in the comfort of one’s own home. With video conferencing, phones, remote software, and internet, the need for a physical office has significantly decreased.
Offering remote work allows employers to hire qualified people, no matter their location
Unfortunately for non-remote work, it is far too common to have to settle for the most qualified person in the area, rather than simply the most qualified person overall. With remote employment, you can hire the best because they are actually the best, not because they are the only option. With a work from home position, the location of the best candidate means nothing. Their qualifications will get them the job.
The variety of locations in which employees live means a variety of opinions and knowledge
An employee on the other side of the country might be able to tell you what is popular in local marketing campaigns or one in Japan might explain your competition is the newest gadget on the rise. The possibilities for use of a team located all over the world is endless. A person living in New York might have a completely different solution to a problem than the person in London. This allows for more creativity as a whole and better brainstorming sessions.
Remote companies don’t pay for office space!
Depending on the company’s geographic location, the cost of leasing a physical space can be upwards of $6000. In the interest of increasing profit and shelling out less money, avoiding that cost is huge for the bottom line. If office space is necessary for some aspects of the business, perhaps to have clients come in person, it can be much smaller with a portion of the employees working from home. Not all employees would need to work remotely in order to see an impact.
Save money on office supplies and furniture
Imagine the pens, Post-it notes, envelopes, and staples that an office goes through each year. For a decent sized office, that’s easily a few hundred dollars each year. Even bigger savings exist in the fact that desks, chairs, and other furniture is not the employer’s responsibility. Additionally, while some companies opt to provide a computer, it is not usually necessary. These savings begin to add up. Invest those savings into something more worthwhile.
Combining working from home and working in an office is possible
Just because you offer work remotely doesn’t mean that the employees never come to an office for a face to face interaction. It is even possible to have employees work in the office one day a week for meetings or creativity sessions. In person, work days could really be for whatever purpose fits the business. While this option may limit the hiring pool because of location, it can be necessary for some industries.
Employees will feel less stressed, which means they will be more productive for the business
Stress is known to cause a number of problems, including health concerns and decreased productivity levels. Working from home generally means more family time and the ability to work while traveling. Having a better work-life balance will improve work quality and the employee’s overall attitude towards work.
Work from home employees are less likely to need sick time
Many sick days are the result of an employee not wanting to leave their home while feeling under the weather. Perhaps they don’t want to spread it to any co-workers, or maybe they just don’t want to get out of their pajamas, but either way means working from home is the solution. Since they are not spreading their illness to others, those employees won’t be needing sick days either. It ends up being a win-win.
You’re more likely to keep long term employees on staff
Happier employees prefer to keep their jobs. Because of the ease of access to remote work and getting paid to stay in your home are just 2 reasons that people stay on as work at home employees for longer periods of time. An employee is less likely to quit when they find happiness in getting paid for being home. Long term employees mean less training expenses, people that know what they’re doing, and you know what to expect from the work they provide. It’s also easier to develop a company culture and cohesive work community if the employees have been working together for longer.
No commute means less tardiness and more working time
Traffic is an excuse for being late in an overwhelming amount of employee excuses. When your employees don’t even have to leave their homes, being late becomes much less prevalent. It also means that the travel time can be spent already working. If a commute would have been 15 minutes for an employee, the travel time to work and back home totals 30 minutes. This is 30 minutes that can easily be added to the workday.
These 10 reasons for working from home should be enough to convince just about anyone of the merit. Obviously, there are some careers that make working from home mostly impossible, but the benefits that exist for the companies that are able to provide such a thing outweighs the concerns that have been raised. From both a business and an individual standpoint, remote work can be successful.
Negatives to Working at Home
Despite the wonderful points to working from home, there are a few skeptics that are against it. Some companies have seen failure themselves and some refuse to try it at all. By approaching the potential negative aspects with a logical mind, it is possible to turn them into an easily conquered challenge.
One of the biggest concerns with remote employers is that they are unable to physically see the working process that they are paying for. When paid hourly, an employee may claim a project took them 10 hours but in reality completed it in 7. There are a couple of options to combat this – beginning with not paying by the hour, but rather the project or specific assignment.
Setting a set price for a task will improve productivity and make it impossible for an employee to lie about their time because it won’t be relevant. If the required task is to develop a PowerPoint presentation for an online meeting, you may set the rate for the presentation at $3 per slide. Doing so will prevent overpaying, but will also encourage productivity to increase so that the employee can end up making more per hour.
The second option for avoiding issues with fair payment is to utilize software that monitors time and productivity. There are some programs out there that will not only allow the employee to clock in and clock out but will take a screenshot at random intervals while the employee is said to be working. Those screenshots are provided to the employer. If they show the employee scrolling Facebook while they should be working, the employer will know the truth.
The second issue that might cause issues with remote work is the difficulty in developing a company culture and camaraderie with co-workers. Since there tends to be little to no face to face communication, the natural progression of a community is lacking. Luckily, there are a number of ways of improving the working relationships within a company.
It seems that the obvious solution to the lack of personable interaction is to provide it. If the company could host an event once or twice per year in order to engage employees and allow for networking, a portion of the issue would be dealt with. When you’ve met someone in person, online communication then becomes more meaningful.
An additional way to handle the issue is to have an online portal for chatting. Thanks could be a message board, an internal chat system, Gmail Hangouts, etc. While much of the communication would be work-related, allow other topics of discussion as well. For some employees, it would feel unnatural to start a completely random discussion, so topics might include tips on working from home or how to accomplish work tasks while traveling.
The culture of the company can be a challenge especially if you hire people from multiple countries. While this is great in some ways, it can cause problems for those that differ in beliefs of business practices. This problem is solved by making company values and policies well known.
Another challenge that comes up in the loss of motivation. When you don’t have any real structure to your day, working seems like something you could do whenever you feel like it. However, even though it might not feel like you’re at work, there is work to be done. The lack of motivation is corrected with planning out days. You may ask that your remote employees check in within a specific time frame and inform a team leader or supervisor of the tasks that will be completed that day. Deadlines help inspire workers to accomplish the required tasks.
Although there are challenges in having employees working from home, there are far too many positives to ignore the success that comes with it. I’m the next section, you’ll discover a number of companies that have maximized success with personnel working at home.
Successful Companies with Remote Employees
There are a number of companies that have found success in their remote working method. Some of these companies are solely remote while others employee both in office/ on location personnel as well as those working from home.
One of the most well-known work from home opportunities comes from VIPkid. Anyone that has ever looked into working from home had heard of this company because of their complete success with the remote business model. It is an online Kindergarten through 12th grade teaching platform. One of the biggest draws for working as a teacher for VIPkid is the pay. VIPkid claims to pay up to $22 per hour based on qualifications.
Another successful business with remote work is UnitedHealth Group. This Fortune 5 company is an insurance provider that offers work from home opportunities in addition to their in office positions. While the remote work is optional, the company has found the perfect mix for them in allowing the choice. Positions that UnitedHealth Group hires for possible remote work include consultant positions, advisors, patent engineers, and more. They plan to continue offering remote work as an option for employment.
Dell is a huge company that has found success in allowing employees to work from home. In some ways, it is not at all surprising that a technology company would have success with remote work. Given that the technology they develop is utilized in working from home, they should have trustworthy equipment to be able to accomplish goals. Dell hires engineers, consultants, account executives, and other positions that have the ability to work at home.
A company that you may not have heard of, but probably have interacted with is Automattic. This company is fully remote and is responsible for WordPress and a number of plugins for websites. Given that WordPress accounts for something like 30% of the internet, you might say that they are hugely successful with their remote work.
These few companies are hardly a fraction of the successful businesses that utilize work from home opportunities, be it fully remote or just partially. By following the lead of successful companies, one looking to employ the same strategy can learn how to emulate the same success. Working from home is the way of the future. More and more companies will allow for remote work as technology becomes more and more prevalent.
Relevant Questions
Is a home office required for remote work?
While it depends on the specific job and home set up, an office is recommended but not required for many positions. However, jobs that require a lot of phone conversations or video chats may lean more towards a requirement.
Will I make less money working from home than I do in an office?
This answer is heavily dependant on the type of job. Some work from home positions are hourly, others are per project.
What types of contract work can be done from home?
There is a number of job positions that are hired on a contract basis, many of which can be done from home. Copywriting, software development, consulting, and graphic design are just a few.