4 Reasons to Allow Your Employees to Work from Home

The benefits of allowing your employees to work from home are wide-ranging, with evidence to support both the financial savings your business can enjoy as well improvements for the workers themselves.

And happier workers, many of whom want shorter commutes and more time with their families, have been proven to be more productive.

For example, multinationals such as British Telecom and Dow Chemical have reported productivity increases of 35-40 % from teleworkers. Not only has productivity been boosted but, as a result, almost three quarters of those employees, are more loyal to their companies.

The benefits are clear and your business too can gain from sending workers home.

Productivity

Remote workers have fewer distractions than their office-working counterparts. So you can rest assured that when two o’clock comes, Brian from HR won’t be making going on his daily trip to talk with everyone about nothing for half an hour.

Taking away the many distractions of the office also creates an atmosphere that is beneficial to work. A study of 2,060 American workers found that 86% preferred to work alone to reach maximum productivity.

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Ability to hire whoever you want

Running your company from an office hub means the pool of potential employees is greatly limited. Having these geographical constraints means you may have to compromise heavily on the people you bring into your business. Are they the best you can get? Or even the most suited to the role?

With remote workers the shackles are completely lifted. Suddenly there is a freedom to pick the best candidate for the job regardless of where they are based.

Better work life balance

Sleep helps us all to be more productive and effective. However, people don’t get the recommended seven hours per night and it’s a big problem to both them and their employer. This cost is to the tune of £40 billion a year to the UK economy.

One way to counter these lost moments of shut eye is to cut the morning commute out of your worker’s schedules entirely. This way they can enjoy the comforts of their beds for a little longer, getting the required amount of sleep they need to work at full capacity.

Smartphones are another main culprit in the ‘sleep deprived’ society we now live in. Shutting them down a few hours before bed then settling into a room with blackout curtains can greatly improve sleeping patterns. And with that comes a much improved employee throughout the working day.

Lower Overheads

One employee costs the average business around £7,500 a year in rental fees for an office space. Taking into account other costs such as stationary, computers and other office hardware you can expect to invest in for new workers, the cost gets even higher.

Add in unscheduled absences in the UK cost an estimated £29bn a year, and the benefits of a remote workforce soon start to make real monetary sense. Companies with teleworker programs have reported unscheduled absence figures cut in half.

Working with Friends Rather than Colleagues

Working hotspots and hubs have sprung up across the UK, allowing friends to meet up and spend time working together.

A nice change of scenery in the company of a few friends can give someone a mid-week boost, while allowing them to talk through their project ideas with an outside influence. This supports creativity and increases problem solving abilities.

Away from those physical hubs, there is a growing trend of millennial workers staying connected with friends online during the day. It’s another case of workers feeling comfortable and content as they get their work done

No question it steers away from the modes of what we regard as the traditional workplace, but it looks as though these varying trends of remote working are here to stay.