When an employee feels their boss trusts them to do their job in their own way this builds respect. Reflecting on the impacts of the pandemic on today’s workforce, this white paper explains the most critical trends in management and how you can improve processes in your company. If you telecommute or are a freelancer and work from home you can set up your desk where you want it, close the door if you wish, and listen to music if it helps you express your creativity. You’ve got travel costs, parking, lunch, coffee and snacks, birthday cakes, colleague presents, clothes for work… the list is endless.

• Even if an employee has their own office in a physical office building, they see others in the hallway, elevator and parking lot throughout the day.
• 25% of organizations added additional paid leave or time off for illness, as well as more personal days being offered to employees.
• Being able to create a comfortable home office is an excellent benefit of remote work.
• Many people—and their companies—were surprised to find they were more productive when working in remote settings.
• Employers and managers can capitalize on this by setting clear goals and expectations, and providing the necessary resources and support for remote employees to succeed.
• A report from Airtasker based on the habits of 1,004 workers shows remote employees devote more time to work tasks and breaks throughout their workday.

The researchers looked at the scenario in seven nations, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the United States. They concluded that the pandemic’s economic impact would have been far more significant if remote working hadn’t been such an easy choice. To a considerable extent, tools like Zoom allowed knowledge workers to continue doing what they were doing before. A recent Kellogg Business School study looks at how things may have gone differently if the epidemic had arrived before such tools were widely available.

Challenge #3: Tracking employee performance

In a time when employee engagement is essential for company success, a remote work policy for every level of employee is important for every company, agency, department, and organization to consider and apply. When employees feel cared for, they often care more for their organization and its goals. Studies and reports over the last two decades have shown increased productivity, higher employee engagement, and higher levels of key performance metrics for companies that maintain a robust remote policy. Successful and productive companies often embrace remote work for all employees who can reasonably do it. However, organizations often decline to fully embrace remote work for senior management and top executives.

Remote working can enhance team productivity if you have the correct connectivity. So said Neil Parker of GM of EMEA at intelligent automation vendor Laiye. When you haven’t met someone, the nature of the connection is intrinsically different.

best practices to maintain efficient remote teams

But new hires to an organization might feel overwhelmed if they are going from a traditional office to one primary based at home. Not only do they have to learn how to perform in their new role, but they must also learn to navigate new technology. As a result, managers may spend more time coaching a new remote employee. In a study by Zogby Analytics, remote workers reported a lack of information from management and timeliness of the information as the largest obstacles of working from home. It can be challenging to coordinate teams made up of employees located across time zones, not to mention the added difficulty of communicating without the tone and body language so crucial for understanding.

Employers who expand their job pool improve the quality of their organization. This is especially important for workers with critical skills who are in high demand. Leveraging technology and allowing flexibility helps smaller companies compete with larger companies like Facebook, Google and Verizon. Smaller businesses need to offer competitive opportunities to the new generation of workers to attract the most effective workforce. When companies embrace this new business reality, they will discover many benefits for employees and the company itself. Remote work can lead to greater job satisfaction, as employees have the opportunity to enjoy a better work-life balance and less time spent commuting.

Improved time management

At home, you can have more control over the environmental impact of your office. Turn off most of the lights in your home, use surge protectors, and set your office equipment to power-save mode. There are also  federal and state incentives to improve the energy efficiency of your home. On the flip side, you’re home more often which may mean using more power than you would if you were at the office, for instance, or buying yourself some home-office furniture—like a comfortable chair or desk.

The benefits of remote working can be just as advantageous for the employer as the employee. Working out a mutually agreeable situation for both is ideal, as remote working is growing in popularity. Those who work from home no longer have to commute to work every day which helps more cars stay off the road leading to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

How Companies Benefit When Employees Work Remotely

Employees are more productive with fewer distractions, so long as leadership is supportive in equipping teams with the requisite tools, structure, and culture to thrive. With employees located all over the world working asynchronously, contributions can continue even when one time zone’s working day is over. Consider relocating to a lower cost-of-living https://remotemode.net/blog/how-remote-work-can-benefit-employees-and-companies/ environment, and look to integrate work into life rather than vice-versa. Remote work enables you to optimize for things like superior air quality and medical facilities, a healthier community environment, and better schools for your children. All of this requires premeditated action — to embrace the reality that work is now decoupled from geography.

Whether you’re on the hunt for a remote job or you already work remotely, check out ten of the many benefits of working from home. There are many distractions at home that can detract from an employee’s focus on their work. Some of these factors include screaming children, noise from passing traffic, ringing doorbells, dogs barking and household chores.

So if employees are just as productive at home, it makes sense to keep them there. Experts discovered the findings after collecting GDP statistics for each country, the number of people employed, and the number of hours they worked each week. They also gathered information on people’s and their employers’ spending on items like office furniture and equipment and commercial electricity usage as a proxy for workplace utilization. Finally, they analyzed Google mobility data to determine how many hours each person spent working at home or at work. Set daily or weekly meetings to discuss and prioritize projects and set deadlines so you can stay on track.

Until recently, the idea of working from home was firmly in “must be nice” territory for most employees—the stuff of wistful conversations during post-work happy hours. The Pew Research Center found that before the COVID-19 pandemic, only 20% of people whose work could be done remotely were working from home most or all of the time. One of the considerable benefits of telecommuting is having access to a broader range of job opportunities that aren’t limited by geographic location.

Mental health can also improve with remote working, as there is less stress, and working in your own environment can be relaxing. And happy employees are productive and motivated which leads to better quality work. Commuting every day and being in an office isn’t the healthiest way to spend time. Remote workers have the advantage of not coming into contact with other people (which is especially important in the light of Covid-19) and catching unwanted germs from coughs and colds. Whilst this is great from a social point of view it can be difficult to work in this environment.