Changes in workforce patterns are forcing companies to reevaluate allowing employees to work remotely. While the turnout of cost savings is different for each company, there is a steady trend in organisations around the globe. We should all note that real estate costs, office supplies, and food expenses are one of the prime cost drivers in the business.
According to a research, an employer can save an average of $11,000 per half-time telecommuter per year due to the result of increased productivity, lower real estate costs, reduced absenteeism and turnover, and better disaster preparedness.
While cost-cutting efforts and cost-savings vary per company, there are always counter results that take the place of impending business costs. Each organisation should fully assess and forecast the economic effects of permanent remote work for the workforce.
Why is Remote Work a Prominent Set Up for Companies?
The onset of the Coronavirus has pushed most businesses to adapt to current times. For the past few years, the prominence of working from has been very high. Most organisations and enterprises were forced to adjust to long periods of isolation and lockdowns as the world battled with the Coronavirus. Now, things are different as most of the same companies start returning to the office.
While many employees return to the office, companies also have remote workers. It is more common now to find a mix of remote worker demographics and employees in the workplace. Companies save money by keeping a remote workforce as well.
Benefits of Work From Home Set Up
The benefits of working remotely are different for each individual. However, the focus of remote work does not only stop at the benefit of the employees. Work-from-home arrangements save companies money and introduce a work-life balance for businesses too.
Cost Efficient
Building an office space takes a lot of budget and work, and remote working arrangement helps companies save money. However, organisations must invest in a conducive working environment that helps their people work and thrive. Work-from-home setups are cost efficient because there is less business expense in renting office spaces, keeping office supplies, cleaning services and overhead costs in maintaining the workplace.
How to Utilize Work From Home Set Up with High Quality yet Cost-Efficient Technology
Despite avoiding and lessening rental costs, businesses still need to spend on things. In the case of work-from-home setups, necessary technologies such as organisational software, cloud services, and all supporting platforms are investments.
For businesses that want to transition to a more flexible, remote and hybrid work arrangement future-wise, these necessary technologies are non-negotiable.
Video-Conferencing Platforms
The popularity of Zoom during the pandemic led to the Zoom era of the global workforce. Video conferences are one way of effective collaboration in the workplace so it is common for employees working remotely to have tools such as Microsoft Teams, Skype, or Zoom.
Several characteristics define a functional and suitable video-conferencing tool. New businesses who wish to invest in these digital tools should note the following factors:
- Cost comparisons between other software
- Features of the software
- Number of users who can dial in during a group-wide call
- Privacy and security measures
- Resolutions and audio performance during trial calls
- The geographic location of remote workers (some tools may be banned in certain countries and locations)
Team Messaging Tools
Messaging tools are also prominent investments for businesses. Many of these tools have a dual function of providing messaging and video-conference features fit for companies having distributed teams. However, a few stand out in providing businesses with seamless communication functions. Consider Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Chanty for remote work communication.
Team messaging tools are investments to keep communication smooth between remote employees. Before choosing your team messaging tools, consider these factors:
- Cost comparison between other software
- Software features
- Language availability of the team messaging tool
- Privacy and security measures
- Compatibility with devices (Operating System and hardware)
- Availability of the software in geographic locations
Project Management Applications
The rise in project management applications has been exponential over the years. Many companies and fully remote organisations already utilise these tools to manage multiple projects. With the occurrence of the pandemic and the long periods, the value of project management tools was more noticeable. Some examples are Trello, Asana and Airtable.
Assessing the right tool that works well across large groups is important. Here are some of the things to consider:
- Cost comparison between other software
- Collaboration features
- Number of users per project
- Project scalability and customisation features
- Third-party applications integration
- Availability to geographic locations of remote employees
Skyrocketing Productivity and Employee Retention
When it comes to remote work, trust is essential. When higher-up management and leaders trust their remote employees’ abilities to work from home, there is an increase in productivity. According to a study, “…mobile and remote workers are 13% more productive than their office-based counterparts.” Instead of putting effort into the pre-work rituals like commuting and dressing up daily, the same remote workers can allot time to check work earlier.
Remote working also enables team members to work efficiently while achieving a work-life balance, which in turn helps in higher employee retention and satisfaction.
Better Global Converge
Remote work improves global convergence. Organisations cannot avoid coming together with different cultures, traditions and people coming into work. There is a rising trend in business sustainability that involves diversity and inclusion. Introducing remote workers from different geographical backgrounds increases knowledge and business opportunities.
Wide Scope of Talents
Remote work widens organisations to access global talent. Since there is no office to go to, businesses can recruit and keep employees from other parts of the world. This benefits the company as the organisation can use what the employee can offer. Global talent is within reach, whether it is an additional skill set, credible expertise, and language advantages.
Reduced Payroll Cost
Many companies invest in keeping certain individuals who are already on top of their field. Often, these headhunting strategic es involve higher incentives, relocation costs and overall higher onboarding expenses for a single recruit. The remote work setup eliminates the need for higher payroll costs. The same applies to businesses that reimburse and provide transportation allowances to existing employees.
Depletion of Absenteeism
Employees have a life of their own. Unfortunately, these people also have obligations and priorities involving a day or two off work when they must show up in the office. Remote work makes schedules and workload planning more flexible, reducing absences that employees can avoid.
Drawbacks of Work From Home Set Up
Remote work is far from perfect. It has a long way to go in terms of development and refinement for all workforces and organisations. Statista states in its report, “In 2022, 25 percent of respondents state that their biggest struggle when working remotely was not being able to unplug.” Here are some other drawbacks with work from home setups:
Not Fitted for Everyone
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to remote work. Not all employees will prefer remote work; some will even thrive better in office setups. Many workers need attention and constant direction from leading figures such as mentors, leaders and managers in the workplace.
Fear of Career Progression for Employees
One of the biggest concerns with working from home is the aspect of career progression. Office culture often integrates people for work and development. Sometimes, issues arise with the lack of physical presence, equating to less impact and productivity at work. Remote work is not a good fit for employees who want to track their careers on the scale of organisations.
Not Secured Data Privacy
The rise of working from home equals the exponential increase in the demand for suitable digital tools. Applications, programs and software become an investment for organisations that want to simulate and maintain productivity levels at work. The other aspect results in threats and issues with data security and privacy. On top of these investments, businesses need to provide proper training and guidance on online tools.
Collaboration Issues
Real-time collaboration is one of the reasons that office culture is prevalent and worthy for some employees. As people gather in meeting rooms and workspaces, there is a seamless and more direct opportunity to work together. Remote work eliminates that chance for team members to have a conducive and productive time within each other’s presence.
Tax Implications
Sometimes the drawback of remote work has nothing to do with how people need to gather or work in an office space. Many businesses that employ remote workers may end up paying double taxes in correspondence with the state or location where the remote worker resides. Organisations with remote workers worldwide will have more complex tax implications, leading to higher tax expenses due to geographical operations.
Are you Ready to Go Fully Remote?
Remote work has been around for a long period. The surge in work-from-home positions and jobs started before the pandemic. Only during Coronavirus did most of the global workforce adapt to the global public crisis by implementing remote work arrangements.
The transition is imperfect, as businesses must face challenges with a wide-scale change in work setups. Not all employees prefer to work from home because they prefer office culture, a lack of conducive collaboration between teams, and unending career progression woes. Moreover, online security matters also cause a roadblock for safer work periods online. Tax implications lead to more tax expenses to cover locations on a macro scale.
Remote work is advantageous because it allows businesses to save on expenses while maintaining or improving productivity. Organisations started gaining more diverse and professional skill sets from global talent pools, bringing more value and edge to the business.
For organisations looking to switch to a fully remote setup, consider business needs first to evaluate the feasibility remote workforce. Remote work is one way to develop and adapt an organisation towards changing times.
