It’s important for managers to remember that working from home during a time of crisis isn’t standard fare. Allowing your employees to work from home benefits the environment in several ways. If you’re self-motivated, adhere to a routine well, and enjoy minimal distractions, then working from home is the right choice for you. By allowing employees to work from home, a company could hire salespeople within each of their most important metro areas. That limits your access to talent. At home, managers can’t use the crutch of “time at desk” anymore. It eliminates most of the traditional aspects of going to work, like commuting and dressing in business attire, while reducing social interaction and standard means of accountability. Since the 18th century, managers and designers have been thinking about how to use space to foster productivity. 6 4. Working from home is more common than ever, with technology continually disrupting the landscape of how and where we can do our jobs. Saves Money. That 13% could be the difference between a business barely surviving vs thriving. No more travel allowances to their employees as well. To most people, the ability to work from home or remotely is a benefit offered by the employer. Most people would agree that it’s not easy to get something done if another group is loudly collaborating on unrelated tasks nearby. They may have multiple household members working alongside them, space challenges, children at home, and more. Some organizations have already embraced flexible office design and remote working, and have discovered that there are some attractive benefits of working from home for employers. As stated earlier that work from home is … Which leads us to remote working, AKA telecommuting. Here’s an excerpt from our article about the benefits from employees: I work for a company with people from Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, Nebraska, South Carolina, Connecticut, New York, California, Texas, and Utah. In a 2019 study, OwlLabs found that “full-time remote workers say they’re happy in their job 22% more than people who never work remotely.”. Without selecting and measuring the right metrics, managers often fall back on how much employees sit at their desks as a measure of output. Add to the list: the ability to work from home (partially or full-time). Removing office space is one of the easiest ways to increase profitability, and therefore, the health of the company. This one is similar to the “expanded talent pool” benefit. Inevitably, those metrics will be better than the amount of time at your desk metric. A company with a central office can hire within, at best, a 50 mile radius of the office. On why employers might not ask for the option to work from home “It's a two-sided coin. Potential benefits and considerations of such homeworking. Benefits of Remote Work for Employers. They don’t go away completely, but they are harder to pull off. There are many benefits from teleworking for older workers and their employers. No more electricity, landline, and internet bills. Employees who maintained regular communication with managers and colleagues through email or phone experienced improved working relationships, according to the Penn State study. Once, you are going to integrate with anyone and can perform the tasks while sitting in your cozy living rooms then why there is a need to move out of the home. An employers’ guide on working from home in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 4 Contents Foreword by the President 3 Introduction 5 1. When people talk about the benefits of working from home, they usually focus on how it helps employees. EHS Software— Environmental Health and Safety, Strategic Infrastructure Asset Management, Self Serve ARCHIBUS Training Video Library, 62% of them find their offices too distracting, studies connecting open plan offices, stress, and increased sick days, saving $12 million annually in real estate costs, This 2013 study by architectural firm Gensler, The number of coworking spaces is also growing and is projected to continue growing, CEOs who are ditching their offices entirely. 9. Google discourages telecommuting, but has famously invested in flexible office designs that provide plenty of visual stimulation and unique spaces for employees to collaborate or to focus as tasks require. Are all jobs suitable for working from home arrangements? What is working from home? Many workers revel in the thought of telecommuting, or working from home: no commute, savings on gas money, and, of course, no one looking over your shoulder.But the benefits of working from home are not just for employees, businesses also benefit from at-home workers. This can be especially helpful when seeking top level talent. In a fully remote setting, more communication takes place in written form (chat, email, and shared documents). Reducing Distractions and Stress that Can Hamper Productivity. Traditionally, job applicants would analyze benefits like health care, vacation time, retirement programs, and office perks. There is no need to go by the rules of your office anymore. Benefits of Working from Home for Employers. The idea is to be able to compete to attract good employees wherever they live. Jan 04, 2019 by Dustin Smith in Trends, Mobility. 16. 11. As of 2017, 70% of companies had open plan offices according to The Washington Post. Have a sales, recruitment, support or general inquiry? This is especially important for large organizations where small improvements can add up to a big difference. Our solutions also allow you to discover what spaces are used and how often, find cost savings when planning facility updates, and help create a happier, more dedicated workforce. We offer enterprise integrated work management systems to help you manage your facility or facilities and your workforce. Tags: business solutions, office, Real Estate, technology. 1. Improved staff health and wellbeing - working from home eliminates the need for a commute to work that can be stressful to your employees. “For employers telecommuting can limit absences, increase productivity, and save money. By Nimoveri. That benefit could quickly jump up the list of importance for job applicants. Let’s take a look at some of them below. As of 2017, 70% of companies had open plan offices according to The Washington Post. Via interactive floor plans and QR codes, team members can better interface with their environment to support dynamically evolving project needs. Understanding the role of this guide The guidance focuses on regular homeworking that has been officially 5 3. The greenhouse gas emissions savings and cleaner air are another fringe benefit. Rightful Termination. 61% said that loud colleagues were one of the biggest distractions of open offices. To most people, the ability to work from home or remotely is a benefit offered by the employer. Traditional office environments don’t always inspire, but the chance to pick up the laptop and head out to the backyard, a local coffee shop, or around the world can provide fresh perspective. If working from home has any effect on the compensation and benefits of the employees, the policy should mention it. But if you work at your remote processes, you can drastically increase productivity, employee happiness, and therefore profit. That opens possibilities for different personality types to contribute because the format is a better fit for other personality types. Telecommuting allows organizations to take advantage of larger talent pool – possibly even a global one. But there are a whole host of other benefits to home working, particularly from a health and wellbeing perspective. New locations also open up additional networking and collaboration ideas as well. One part of the formula is an adjustment for standard of living based on where each employee lives. One thing is clear: decision makers in charge of facilities are looking for ways to improve workspaces. This 2013 study by architectural firm Gensler found that employees who were able to decide when and where they worked were much happier. This trend has already started to play out as a result of COVID-19 as more and more companies have announced that they’ve become remote-first companies. Increased productivity. For remote workers, disease has a tough time spreading over Slack. In addition, not only is working from home beneficial for employees it’s particularly beneficial for employers. Right now, employers must recognize that working from home is more like surviving working from home for many people. When you start to hire anywhere in the country or the world, the quantity and quality of job applicants go up. If a company had no work-from-home program, it’d likely have one office (and be limited to hiring in that city) or a number of offices (and be limited to hiring within those cities). By going remote, you can attract talent from anywhere. 1. If the main skill in driving a decision is to call and lead a meeting, and ask the team for approval of your idea, type A personalities are more likely to win. The result over time is a more talented team, just dispersed. Hurry up and add some widgets. How is working from home different from teleworking, telecommuting, or remote working? We outlined the 23 benefits of working from home here. A 2012 CIPD survey estimated that about 76% of over 2,500 managers surveyed cited retention as one of the more popular employer benefits of flexible working. But many employees, especially introverted and high-performing ones, find that the noise and other distractions of open plan offices can hamper productivity. Therefore, they need to find new metrics to measure productivity, quality, and performance. As more millennials enter the workforce, their desire for greater personal freedom has led to the increased use of homes, coffee shops, and shared offices as work spaces. Your sidebar area is currently empty. The number of coworking spaces is also growing and is projected to continue growing. Here are seven benefits of working from home for employers: 1. Employee Benefits of Working From Home 1. As a business culture, we’ve come from the manufacturing-inspired open layout, through the cubicle farms of the ‘70s and ‘80s, to the flexible workspaces lauded by many organizations today. Time savings such as this also enables staff to get extra health benefits such as additional sleep, spending more time with family, exercising or … Employees Working from Home: Pros and Cons for Employers As an employer, your concerns are likely a little different than that of the employee who would like to work from home so we won’t try selling you on the same points that your employees may find interesting. As a part-remote, part-office company, you may half have of your previous costs tied to office space. The benefits of working from home are numerous. But a benefit on the flip side can occur if you were a company previously located in an expensive city. Let me know what I missed in the comments or on Twitter! Redesigning spaces to suit tasks requiring either collaboration or undivided attention can also play a beneficial role. You can connect with anyone for the reasons of work and relationships well as the whole world is digital. Here some benefits of working from home for Employers and Employee. You can choose whichever software you like: One of the biggest benefits of working from home is that you can choose any software you please. One of the main benefits of coworking spaces is the chance to meet more conveniently with colleagues from across town, or take a break and talk about ideas with someone new who might provide fresh perspective. Probably the biggest advantage of working from home is that less people have to commute to work, which means reduced consumption of fossil fuels and reduced emission of greenhouse gases. In the 2019 Verdantix global survey, 92% of respondents said that improving the experience of building occupants is a high or medium priority. Mr Ashton, Chief executive of Worley a global engineering group exclaimed: “The way we’re going to work going forward is never going to be the same as what it was pre-COVID”. As most managers know, slowing employee turnover reduces training and other HR costs, and leads to fewer interruptions and delays while new employees ramp up. I live in San Diego. Benefits of flexible working for employers. If your office space and utility expenses are gone, office supplies are reduced or removed, salaries are potentially lower over time, and productivity has a chance to go up… there is only one likely outcome: increased profitability. Numerous other studies since then have echoed their findings, and supported the premise that remote workers are less likely to quit. To be fair, employee reimbursements for home office WiFi, phones, desks, office chairs, and more will likely go up as a result. That’s not the right thing to measure – it’s rarely tied to true performance. The first few years required a lot of effort around what to measure and how to communicate as a fully remote company. But undoubtedly, the savings are worth it. When working from home, you don’t have to share a parking lot, refrigerator, bathroom, and water cooler. More Comfortable. With all of this in place, office politics are much reduced with everyone working from home. Some organizations have already embraced flexible office design and remote working, and have discovered that there are some attractive benefits of working from home for employers. More companies are looking for a chance to leverage these benefits, and there are increasing numbers of remote workers. There are a number of companies who are successfully saving on real estate thanks to remote working. Below, we look at the seven reasons why home working is the future. Compensation and Benefits. 8. How Working from Home Saves Your Company Money. That may bring down your average cost of salaries. At my previous job, I worked with 600 other people who lived in San Diego! Working from home has more benefits as the person takes more commitment and responsibility of doing things at his own place. The in-between maneuvers like calling a last-minute meeting, stopping by a desk, flattering a boss, and spreading rumors are harder to do in a remote setting. Despite many employers being concerned about the potential lack of productivity in work-at-home environments, many actually find the contrary to be true. Employers can save billions and trillions spent on offices and workplaces. I remember more than once my lunch was stolen in an office with 100 people to one refrigerator. For others, it’s about getting relief from long commutes to the workplace. But that culture alone spreads illness quickly. Lower costs. Traditionally, job applicants would analyze benefits like health care, … Being online is being smart. When a company starts to embrace working from home, it can hire wherever it wants. We outlined the 23 benefits of working from home here. I encourage you to see the benefits to employees, as well:23 Benefits Of Working From Home (For Employees). Cons of work from home. Employee retention: This is probably the most important benefits of flexible working arrangements. We backed into it at first since we had trouble hiring into one small office south of Boston. There have been several studies connecting open plan offices, stress, and increased sick days, including a PGI study found that 82% of telecommuting workers experienced less stress. Work-From-home as a Benefit In Hiring. Posted 05/07/2019. This is mainly about salespeople. Some companies are clearly in favour, including Hubspot and Netflix, whose CEOs who are ditching their offices entirely. Allowing employees to work from home will save employers money⁠—not only on the more obvious overhead expenses of office space but also on the additional costs of supplies and energy. There are many reasons why employees like remote working options, and it goes beyond the need to focus. Employer Benefits. I’ve managed a fully remote marketing agency for most of my career. We talked about 23 benefits for employees in this article: no commute, more time for friends and family, healthier breaks, less exposure to illness, fewer distractions, and more. Working from home can be an appealing career move. And it could be the difference between an employee feeling underwhelmed with their work vs. fulfilled in their work. Working from home usually leads to fewer interruptions, less office politics, a quieter noise level, and less or more efficient meetings. American Express did similarly well, saving between $10 million and $15 million annually. So we went through why leaders don't want to grant it but we're part of this too. If your employees capitalize on only a few of these great benefits, you will have happier and more productive workers. And then Jane has it next. Working from home also reduces their travelling costs, which means your employees can spend more of their money of the things they love. In that scenario, the result is better management because there is less of a reliance on feel and touch and more on quality of work, happiness of employees, and more. The Benefits to Businesses & Employees of Working at Home by www.SixWise.com. The best ideas are more likely to win out over the most forceful ideas. A survey by SurePayroll found that 86% of employees prefer to work alone to hit maximum productivity. Many people find working from home much more comfortable. Home » News » Homeworking: The Benefits of Working from Home for Employers . Not only does that increase the overall talent pool, but it also allows for strategic hiring in certain cities or regions. Flexible spaces don’t have fixed desk assignments: employees “hot desk” with their laptops to sit where they can collaborate or where they can get some quiet to focus. Put another way, poor managers (who don’t have measures in an office) will eventually be weeded out at remote companies because they no longer bring anything to the table. 5 2. As a fully remote company, you have no cost of office space – one of the top expenses for nearly every business. Employer benefits. Others, like IBM and Yahoo, have tried it and have brought work back into the office. You know when Bob comes into the office with a cough. According to a Regus survey, 20% of workers have considering quitting a job because of long commutes, and 27% consider their commutes a waste of productivity. If, say, 20% of your workforce is working remotely on any given day, that means you need less space to heat, cool, clean, and otherwise maintain. Buffer, Nectafy, and other remote companies have implemented transparent salary calculators. Most of the benefits listed here will still apply. Working from home has been a ... shown that working remotely stands to benefit employers and employees in a ... entrepreneurial potential with Entrepreneur Insider’s exclusive benefits. Recent statistics confirm that the “gig economy” is growing, and more organizations are taking advantage of bringing in hired guns to solve key problems and get through work backlogs. And before you know it, the entire office is sick. Without seeing people at the desks, without in-person meetings, without drop-bys at the cubicle, managers need to find more structured ways to measure output and improve communication. In addition to being an effective recruiting and retention tool, letting employees work from home can save employers money in myriad ways. 1. Happier employees are more likely to stay with the company. There’s a major reason why upwards of 35% of the economy is remote. And we all bring different perspectives. Tax and reporting rules for employers covering the costs of employees working from home Skip to main content. If a company previously only had an office in Boston, but sold into the New York market, salespeople from Boston may have to travel frequently to New York. arrangements where home would be used as a base for travel. Practicalities involved, from establishing a homeworking policy to setting up and managing an employee working from home. Add in the lack of a commute, remote workers typically have more time and fewer distractions, which leads to increased productivity—a huge benefit of working from home for both employees and employers alike. While many benefits exist for the company who provides work-from-home set-ups, such as savings in overhead and 24/7 accessibility to key players, equally as many benefits abound for employees who choose the work-from-home option. Telecommuting has been shown to improve work-life balance and job satisfaction. Employees could work from home or take advantage of coworking spaces occasionally or a few days a week. Expenses and benefits: homeworking Skip to contents of guide Let’s start with the bottom line. Workers can set up a place at home where they are comfy and void of distractions. With our solutions, employees can use their phones to book spaces, find teammates and resources. It will increase employee loyalty. The result is a … These 100 companies all offer work-from-home options, but very few are completely remote. Working from home has no effect on workplace relationships as long as management is on board and good communication practices are in place. Number ten (a focus on the right metrics) is what will drive better management. An employee in San Francisco or New York might get paid a slightly higher salary than someone in rural Oklahoma. Further, strategist and software designer William Belk, who has been researching what makes high performance employees tick, has found that 62% of them find their offices too distracting. In many companies, there is a culture of “toughing it out” and coming in if you’re able to work. 11. Dell reports that (as of 2018) it’s been saving $12 million annually in real estate costs thanks to remote work. If you thrive on social interactions, feel inspired by seeing others working, and stay on track best if others see you, then working from the office is the way to go. From encouraging a better work/life balance to increasing productivity, there are many benefits to working from home for both employers and employees. Employees aren’t the only ones who benefit from working from home; a company can benefit just as greatly from a remote employee. A study done by Stanford found that employees who work from home are 13% more productive than in-office workers. When deciding whether or not to allow remote work, the key thing to remember is that it’s not all or nothing. Employer and manager opinions on remote work are divided. Here are 5 benefits and why working from home is here to stay. A partially remote workforce can create challenges in tracking a fluid workforce and ensuring productive, effective support for performance. For employees in creative or strategic roles, a change of scenery can stimulate new ideas. But by putting in that work, here is how our profit grew: If you simply replicate the same output and productivity as you did in an office, you will increase profitability (by saving on office space). By adopting working from home or telecommuting, the employer will minimize on financial resources used to build extra work facilities or renting more structures to accommodate more employees. In an office setting, the most outgoing and driving personalities often lead decision making. 1. For some, the ability to better meet both work and family commitments is significant. Fill out the form below or call us directly at 1-800-454-9366 or 613-796-3366. More and more companies are coming to terms with the fact that it doesn’t make sense to force employees to be babysat in an office. In the same OwlLabs study, “Remote workers say they are likely to stay in their current job for the next 5 years 13% more than onsite workers.”. On top of the cost of office space, utilities and office supplies go away. With work from home, employees can utilize their own computers, take care of their electricity bills and pay for other utilities. announced that they’ve become remote-first companies, our article about the benefits from employees, 23 Benefits Of Working From Home (For Employees), The 2-Person Home Office: How My Wife & I Have Managed For 3 Years, Every Company Going Remote Permanently: Nov 29, 2020 UPDATE. With a remote team, I’ve learned a lot more about the country and world through my coworkers. In News ... and when you are at home other menial tasks around the house can be included in the working day freeing up your evening time. Many employers feel uncomfortable providing the work from home opportunities because of the lack of face to face communications.