Are you thinking about increasing the number of employees that will be working remotely? Since the pandemic, the shift toward employee remote working has increased dramatically. In fact, many employees will not work if the position doesn’t include some form of remote working.
46% of employees say they would take a 5% pay cut if they can work remotely. Therefore, the practice can save employers money. However, as you’ll learn in this article, there are pros and cons to the revolutionary way of doing business.
Pros of Employee Remote Working
Let’s start by taking a look at a few of the advantages of allowing employees to work remotely. This may help you make the leap if you have not yet introduced the practice into your business.
Lower Costs
You may experience significantly lower operating costs since there is no need to rent commercial real estate. It’s one of the bigger expenses for businesses, which means that profitability should go up.
Also, as mentioned above, some employees are willing to work for less if remote working is on the table. You can use this to your advantage by cutting costs even further. You’ll need to take a look at the amount of costs you can save by going remote and decide if it’s worth it given the negatives we’ll discuss later on in this article.
Higher Productivity
Some employees work better when they don’t have to come into the office. They may have more peace and freedom at home to complete tasks faster. This is especially true if they have a long commute that can now be avoided.
It may not lead to them working longer hours, but they may be more rested for when work time arrives, which means they can work faster. On the other hand, some employees will work longer hours if they can avoid the commute, which is another way your business will receive more productive employees.
More Employees
Remote work job positions allow businesses to recruit from anywhere in the world. This means that the talent pool for the job increases since you can hire employees from other cities, countries and continents.
This is especially important if company headquarters are located in a small town or city where you’re struggling to find the right employees. However, keep in mind that you may need to specify what hours they need to be online. Hence, you may want to hire from a similar time zone so the team can work at the same time. This depends on the nature of the job and if regular meetings or collaboration is required for tasks to get completed.
Employee Happiness
Some of your employees will be far happier if they can work remotely. That’s because they get to choose to build a life around the world. For example, they can travel more or see the kids around the house while they are working.
Happy employees are great for business since they will be more productive and eager to do well.
Use Project Management Tools
The sophistication and quality of project management tools is at an all-time high. It means that complicated projects can get completed without anyone getting lost along the way. This includes tools like Trello, Asana, Slack, and much more.
Also, the tools can be used for onboarding employees, which ensures that it’s easier to train new employees and get them integrated as part of the team. Finally, less communication is required between employees since anyone can see the progress of a task on the project management board.
Cons of Employee Remote Working
Now let’s tackle a few of the drawbacks of remote working to help you understand why it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Knowing these cons will also help rescue their severity.
Employee Distractions
Working from home might seem like a good idea for some employees, but they may get more distracted than they initially realize. This varies from one employee to the next, yet most employees will have more distractions at home compared to a traditional office setting.
For example, employees with families may hear the kids running around the house and that’s distracting. Or, they may get asked to do chores or get interrupted – this is especially true if they don’t have space for a dedicated office.
Likewise, people alone can get distracted since they may end up watching the TV, or playing video games.
Less Teamwork
You may find that your employees are unable to do the same amount of teamwork as they would be able to in a traditional office setting. That’s because it’s not possible to walk to another person’s desk and ask a few questions for clarification.
Of course, online tools are now better than ever before, allowing for multi-way video calls and instant chat. However, these tools might not be comparable to what you get at the office with in-person meetings.
Slow Work Submission
You may find that employees work at a slower pace at home than they do in the office. This means that projects can get delayed. Even with constant attempts to make employees check-in you may have problems getting them motivated at home.
Less Ability To Monitor
It’s not possible to monitor employees the same way you can in an office. Therefore, it’s harder to assess who is working hard and who isn’t. Of course, you can use screen recording software and other metrics to view employee efficiency, but that only works up to a point.
Final Thoughts
To conclude, there are multiple good and bad points about employee remote working that you have to consider. You should take a look at both sides of the coin to ensure that you decide what’s best for your business.
Still don’t know if you should add remote working to your business? Then consider phasing it slowly by offering a hybrid model. This ensures that you can test the waters to see if the format is a good match for your business.
