Working from home is fast becoming a more viable option for many people whose work requires only a computer and a phone. The office can offer some benefits such as a level of camaraderie, quick communication and easy monitoring, but growing studies are finding working from home to have equal, if not more benefits for your employees. If you’re a business considering taking the step to working from home, take into account some of these factors – they may motivate you even more.
It’s cheaper for you and your employees
As an employer, you can cut out so many costs from working at home. These include office space to extra furniture to tea and snacks. With cloud hosting now making it possible to store bulks of files remotely, you needn’t buy extra storage or servers for your office. You yourself can even work from home, or downsize office if you still like that space to escape to or invite clients.
As for employees, they can cut costs on travelling to work, as well as lunch.
No commutes
Commuting is not only expensive, but stressful. Having to deal with delays and disruptions can help bring on high blood pressure, musculoskeletal problems and anxiety. By cutting this out, your employees start the day feeling fresher and more cheerful. Not only that, but cutting out commuting means everyone can get up later and feel more well-rested.
More productive
One of the more alarming results of studies into working at home is the discovery that those who work at home on average are actually more productive than those that work in an office. For example, telecommuting companies found that on average employees at home made 13.5% more calls than their office counterparts. It may seem that working at home might make people lazier knowing they’re not under the watchful eye of a boss 24/7, but in fact not having the distractions and pressures of other people can more often lead employees to get their head down and work.
Hire from any location
Another great bonus of allowing your employees to work remotely is no longer being limited to hiring locally. There may be someone on the other side of the country who is perfect for your role, but the impossible commute distance previously proved a barrier. Those that prefer to interview face-to-face can still do so thanks to recent video calling technology. They needn’t even make the travel once.
Fewer sick days
Working from home has also proven to have the benefit of resulting in less employees taking time off sick. Because there is no commute or face-to-face interaction required, those having a bad day in which they don’t feel like being active can still work from their bed in their pyjamas. On average, employees working at home stated that they were happier than they were working in an office. Happy people are healthy people – or at least have more motivation to work.
