Remote work is more popular than ever, and it can bring a wealth of advantages to your business. It does, however, come with various challenges, such as the issue of different time zones, but managing remote teams can transform your business.
If you are looking to build a virtual team, here are the top seven benefits that forward-thinking companies can enjoy when relying on a distributed workforce.
1. Saving Money on Office Space
Saving money by managing employees working at home is probably the number one reason small and large companies rely so much on online teams. Savings come in many forms, with the most significant being on office real estate, electricity, furniture, janitorial services, and a variety of other overhead costs. Moreover, businesses can also reduce their costs with the purchase and maintenance of technology. Because vote workers use their own devices, there is no need to invest anything in technology.
Being part of a virtual team save employees a lot of money, as they don’t have to commute to work. According to Inc. Magazine, remote employees save up to $7,000 per year in clothes, transportation, child-care, and food when compared to their office-bound counterparts.
2. Accessing to a Wide Pool of Talent
When you hire people to work in an office, you become very restricted when it comes to accessing talent. This is because you can only choose from candidates who can physically commute to work every day, but sometimes the talent you need is located 500 or 5,000 miles away. By hiring work at home workers and those working hybrid arrangements, you can get a developer in New York even if your start-up is in L.A. Or you can even search for the best fit for your company in Asia or Europe.
3. Reducing Wage Costs per Employee
USA Today cited Stanford University research showing, on average, teleworkers working from home can earn about 8% less annually than in office employees. For instance, telecommuters are willing to take a $5,000 cut from an annual salary of about $60,000 just to be given the option to work from home. This is great news for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
For more aggressive entrepreneurs and small business owners, hiring rural workers or contractors from other countries can advantageous. The sky is the limit, and you can also cut costs significantly by finding talent in countries with a lower cost of living, who can complete your projects at a fraction of the cost. If you’re worried about how to deal with an international team, there are lots of solutions to help with telecommuting workforce management.
3. Improving Productivity
Numerous studies have shown that employees perform better as part of an online project team when it comes to productivity. A study published in the Harvard Business Review has demonstrated that telecommuters complete almost an extra day’s worth of work weekly compared to employees in traditional office settings.
If you’re wondering how is that possible, the answer has to do with the way teleworkers work. Some of them are night owls and use that time to complete projects at their best, whereas others are morning larks. As they are not pressured to perform in a 9 to 5 setting, telecommuters are free to find their own rhythm to improve their productivity. Besides, those who don’t work in an office are insulated from distractions such as chats with colleagues or unexpected meeting requests so that they can complete their tasks without interruptions.
4. Reducing Employee Stress
Stressed employees don’t perform well, and projects often have to suffer because of that. Commuting is one of the major stress factors for traditional employees, and it often results in lower engagement and higher levels of absenteeism. Online work can improve your workers’ lifestyle because they get to be close to their family all day and have more time to pursue their hobbies and interests. And if a cohesive team is essential for your business, team building for virtual workers is a thing. It could consist of virtual office fitness challenges, photo competitions, revealing quizzes, and a selection of ice breaker games such as Pictionary or draw the picture, which all lend themselves well to a digital format.
5. Working in an Interruption-Free Environment
Closely related to increased productivity and stress, an interruption-free environment is essential for creativity as well. When you work in an office, there’s always that colleague that pops in unexpectedly with a quick question, which transforms into half an hour of idle chat. Remote workers don’t have to deal with so many interruptions, which means their creative flow is improved, and their productivity levels are higher.
6. Reducing Employee Turnover
Replacing an employee is a significant cost for a business, but teleworking has a substantial impact on employee retention. By making communication simple with tools such as Skype, Slack, and task management software, you can reduce the possibility of your employees becoming disgruntled by a lack of clear expectations and poor communication, which often happens in traditional office environments. Virtual team members are less micromanaged, which also helps with retention. When you allow your workforce independence and the freedom to work at times that suit them, they are happier and less likely to leave your organization.
7. Improving the Effectiveness of Meetings
Meetings are essential for many businesses. Still, with the large selection of remote team communication tools, it shouldn’t be difficult to host them for goal settings, clear communication, and deliverable updates. By conducting video meetings via video software, you can set specific time limits so everybody can quickly return to work. Meetings are more effective because remote employees don’t have to spend time on redundant communication.
8. Providing Staff Flexibility
Staff flexibility is another critical benefit to telework. No longer is it needed for staff to be in the physical presence of one another when meeting, collaborating and communicating. When it comes to building a virtual or hybrid team for your business, the benefits clearly outweigh the complications. Without the need to travel, match agendas to determine shared work locations, flexibility becomes an added bonus, reduces stress, and enhances relationships.
Remote workers are more productive and often more motivated to produce high-quality work. While hiring WFH staff isn’t a solution that’s suitable for every business, the truth is many aspects of modern businesses don’t require the physical presence of a worker for the tasks to be completed successfully. The secret is to learn how to manage a telecommuting crew and let go of some of the traditional aspects that have governed organizations in the past. Remote work is continually growing in popularity because it offers a compelling set of benefits for both businesses and employees, so it’s something to start building to get ahead of the trend.
9. Gossiping while on the Job is Minimized
FastCompany shares research evidencing that gossiping while at work is minimized when staff work from home. As teleworkers spend less time in the physical presence of their co-workers, they experience fewer opportunities to ‘stand by the water cooler, cafeteria, copier’ to share negative gossip. While all gossip can’t be avoided or extinguished, it is nice to know that remote work lowers the chance of office gossip. Why would employers want to extinguish office gossip? The circulation of negative rumors, according to Inc. can ruin corporate culture and sabotage trust among work colleagues.
10. Expanding perspectives and viewpoints
Staff working from distributed locations can infuse the company with an expanded viewpoint and differing perspectives. MIT Sloan School of Business found “outside perspectives are critical for innovation breakthroughs.” For companies who want to remain on the cusp of innovation, thinking outside of the box is mandatory. What’s one of the best tactics for opening the company up to accepting and evaluating differing viewpoints? Employing virtual employees and independent contractors. MIT cited a study where they asked “groups of carpenters, roofers, and in-line skaters” on innovative ways for designing “carpenters’ respirator masks, roofers’ safety belts, and skaters’ kneepads” What did they uncover? After reviewing the solutions presented, “each group was significantly better at generating novel solutions for the fields outside their own.” This concept could be extended to remote workers with similar job titles and job functions but in differing locations (across the world, continent, region, nation, state, county or municipality). This could also apply to those who practice different religion, varying levels of education, and real world experiences).
