Benefits of working from home (For employers and Companies)



The spread of working from home is opening up a wide range of possibilities on how businesses can work and structure themselves. Some employers think that allowing their employees to work from home will make them happier and more productive. There are still those employees that think allowing their staff to work from home will get them nothing done. After being working from home for 3 years, I think a distributed workforce is the most effective way to build a company.

Recent studies are showing that allowing the right people to work from their homes can help increase their productivity. The success of every business depends on the employer’s creativity and employee productivity. Allowing your employees to start working from home is a great idea, but before implementing it, you need to understand all its advantages and disadvantages.

What are the benefits of working from home for companies?

1. Rent

If you are renting your office space, you will not need a large office anymore. Office space is expensive and is one of the fixed costs many businesses struggle to pay. You don’t have to do away with an office altogether, but by allowing some of your employees to work from home, you will reduce the amount of office space that you need. Renting a small office will save you a lot of money in the long run.

2. Office furniture and equipment

By allowing your employees to work from home, you will also reduce the need for office furniture and equipment. You will not have to provide your employees with computers and laptops. You can ask them to use their personal home computers.

The fewer the employees and office computers and other electronic equipment you have in your office, the more you will be saving on power and internet bills. Having your employees working from their homes does not require you to pay their bills.

3. The cost of providing an enabling environment for every employee

As much as you may want to provide your employees with a conducive working environment to increase their productivity, they have different tastes and priorities. To be able to give them an environment that will satisfy all of them, you will have to provide each of them with a confined office. Allowing them to work from the comfort of their homes will remove the burden of providing them with an enabling working environment, which is expensive. Remember, a closed office plan does not allow employees to share resources, which makes it more expensive.

4. No office snacks

When your employees are working from their homes, you will not have the burden of supplying them with snacks and coffee.

5. Increased productivity

Allowing employees to work from home has a bad reputation. Some employers think that employees will skive when given the freedom to work from home. That is not true. Stats are proving the opposite. Recent studies are showing that working from home boosts employees’ productivity.

6. Fewer sick days

Remote working is the only way to reduce employees’ absenteeism. Many people are now looking for jobs that can allow them to work from their homes, especially parents that have a small child to take care of. When working from home, your employees will know how to schedule their time. Morning sickness that only lasts for about an hour increases the rate of absenteeism. When working from home, employees can resume work immediately as soon as they start feeling well. Employees who are mildly sick will still be able to work if they can work from their homes and not have to go to the office.

7. Improved employee retention

Every business has those employees that make it tic. Losing such employees is a hit to the business’ productivity. Many small and medium scale businesses lose some of their most loyal employees because they don’t provide them with an option to work from home.

Of course, a small business can’t compete with large companies when it comes to salary. Every worker wants to work for large companies because of the high salary. But do you know that many people will take a pay cut to get the flexibility to work from their homes? Employees are always craving the freedom to work from home. We don’t mean that you reduce their salary to allow them to work from home, an employee can stick with you for long provided he or she has the freedom. Homeworking gives employees with childcare responsibilities the flexibility they need.

8. Access to a wider pool of applicants

For many young employees, work flexibility is an important factor they consider when looking for a new job. Offering your employees the flexibility to work remotely young and highly skilled employees that could otherwise not be interested in your advertised roles. Remote working is the only way small and medium businesses can be able to hire talented individuals. If you can’t pay the highest salary and you don’t allow your employees to work from home, it will take you some months or even years before getting the right employee. You also get a chance to higher professionals that may not be available at your location.

Unless you’re in a role where specific hours are important, you can hire someone who lives, works, wakes up and goes to sleep wherever they are in the world.

9. Make better use of technology

Embracing the latest technology is the key to success in the current competitive world. There is no way your employees can be working from home without technology. Technology will let your employees communicate and collaborate instantaneously.

Apart from communication and collaboration, embracing technology will also boost content management and give you access to analytics data that you need to be ahead of your competitors. Technology will make it easier to monitor your employees remotely. You can even be able to run your business without a physical office. The Internet will make you connected with your employees every day and at any time.

What are the benefits of working from home for employers?

1. Less stress and work conflicts

Most employees experience stress and anxiety as a result of juggling work and home life. Employees working in open-plan offices and those in cubicles are regularly affected by workplace stress compared to those working from home. Offering your employees with flexible work arrangements is the best thing you can do to reduce workplace stress and increase their creativity. Stress reduces your employees’ productivity by reducing their ability to concentrate and multi-task.

2. Reduced commuting time

Commuting from home to work and back takes a lot of time that is enough to do something more productive. When working from home, companies will not be dealing with cases of late reporting to work every day. Employees will manage their time to make sure work is done and on time.

It’s very stressful bailing traffic during rush hour and by avoiding that completely not only getting extra work time, but you are lessening your stress levels getting to work and coming home from home. And you are much better off because of that.

3. Fewer distractions

Open-plan offices are distracting places for a job that requires total concentration. Putting all employees in their individual offices is expensive and does not worth the cost. When working from home, the worker won’t be distracted by colleagues walking, office noise, and general interruptions. The absence of distractions allows them to concentrate and get work done faster.

The ability to work from home in your own quiet environment is a huge benefit to your ability to focus and really be more productive through your workday.

4. No time wasting on useless meetings

When working from home, your employees will not be wasting time on meetings that are not essential. They will be collaborating and may even be able to work on the same projects, but whenever they hold a video conferencing meeting, they will be discussing important issues. When working in your office, they are likely to be calling for meetings to address minute issues.

5. Improved working relationships

Communication to and from your employees is essential for the success of your business. If there is no good flow of information, productivity is affected. You can be holding physical meetings, but some members might be absent and end up missing important updates. Some people are shy and are unable to address others face-to-face. When your employees are working remotely, you can be holding online meetings. Everyone will be able to participate in the meeting, no matter the location. Those who are shy will be able to address their colleagues confidently.

6. Work from anywhere

You can actually work from everywhere. If you have the freedom to work from home that does not mean you have to work from home. You can have the choice to work from home or you can work elsewhere. A coffee shop,  maybe you can go on vacation and work remotely that way. You can take the work everywhere with you and have that location independence.

7. Better Health

Having the work-life balance not being locked in a very strict office schedule will provide you overall better health. So not only won’t need to stress yourself out from the commute, but the distractions as a said before, and that stress that causes you are going to make you feel happier because of you don’ ’t have to subject yourself to that stress anymore. For example, you can avoid the flu season going into work, you can have more family time, and you can join more to gym time just by having that freedom and flexibility around your schedule that working from home will offer for you.

8. environmentally friendly

With this environmental conscious emerged through the carbon foot you can do you part but not spending gas and burning fuels you actually are saving the environment but not contributing to the carbon footprint.

9. Save Money

You will save money from being able to work from home. You are not going to spend money on gas, on parking, you will stop spending money on unnecessary expenses. For instance, you can prepare your food at home, you won’t need as many clothes to wear because you don’t need the professional clothes required for the company or office space in a conventional job.

Conclusion

Allowing your employees to work from their homes will help reduce your overhead expenditures.  At first, you might think that adding a remote worker in your labor pool will disrupt your business’s operations, but you need an open mind. It is an opportunity to increase your employees’ morale and loyalty while reducing your overhead. It benefits the business owner and the employees.

Even though introducing a remote working program will increase your employees’ morale and productivity, you should now allow all of them to work from home. Some people can’t work when no one is watching them. Allowing such people to work from home will open room for inconveniences such as late submission. To be on the safe hand, you should start by allowing only those that can work without supervision to work from home. To make it easy for you to monitor your employees working from their homes, you also need to find the right tools. There are so many apps and services that help with day-to-day communication, video conferencing, project management. So experiment with different tools that enable collaboration, see what works.

I feel so valued and respected that my company allows me to work from home or in the office. Having flexibility has absolutely improved my health, wellness, and productivity

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