Why a Hybrid or Remote Workforce Is the Best Option for Your Company
October 5th, 2022 by William Wentowski
When the pandemic came around, it brought about many changes to our everyday life. Some of these changes have persisted, even as the world has shifted back into a pre-pandemic routine.
One such persistent change is in the realm of employees working remotely, rather than in-person at the office. While this option existed in some capacity prior to the pandemic, its popularity and value with employees have skyrocketed since. Let’s explore some of the reasons behind this shift by first defining what these terms mean:
- Remote Workforce – employees do not come into the office, and instead work remotely from their home (or another location of their choosing)
- Hybrid Workforce – employees have the option to work in the office, or may be required to do so sometimes, but spend the majority of their time working remotely.
Below are some explanations for why adopting one, or both, of these options is beneficial for both the employer and the employee.
Benefits of Remote-Hybrid Workforce for Employers
1. Recruiting Talented People from All Around
A remote workforce widens the available pool from which you’re able to hire employees. Not being restricted to a specific geographical area means that you’re not limited to only hiring candidates within range to drive to your office building.
2. Cost Savings
Working remotely reduces or eliminates costs associated with office building rent, electricity, office furniture, data transfer, etc. You may be able to leverage payroll savings if you are otherwise in a high-cost-of-living metropolitan area, due to being able to hire from outside that region.
3. Reduced Absences
Remote workers have a lower frequency of calling out sick. In addition, events that make it difficult or impossible to commute to work, such as flooding, traffic accidents, unexpected winter storms, etc, have a substantially lower impact on remote workers.
4. Builds Trust and Loyalty
The improved work/life balance from removing or reducing commute times improves employee satisfaction and happiness levels, which generally translates as increased loyalty to the company. Happier employees tend to work harder and produce better results.
5. Keeps You Competitive
Your competitors are moving in this direction already. If you’re not also providing this benefit, then you are at a competitive disadvantage when it comes to hiring quality employees.
Benefits of Remote-Hybrid Workforce for Employees
1. Freedom and Flexibility
With not being bound to a desk, employees can pick up and drop their kids at school, cook, and spend time with family while doing work according to their flexibility as long as they submit it on time. A child that needs to stay home sick from school does not necessarily mean that the employee now also has to take leave.
2. Better Opportunities
Just as employers have a wider selection pool to hire from, employees have greater opportunities for where they can apply to work for.
3. Cost Saving
Similar to employers, employees save some significant costs by working from home too. In addition to the reduced expenditures on gasoline, lowered vehicle wear and tear, and other commute-related costs such as tolls and parking and/or public transit, there is a knock-on effect from saving money on all the little extra expenses that come hand in hand with commuting. Employees working from home can experience day-to-day savings on the costs of food, snacks, beverages, dry-cleaning, and more. This is particularly valuable in a high-cost-of-living metropolitan area, where employees may otherwise be faced with spending multiple hours commuting every day.
4. Work / life Balance
All the little improvements add up to be quite significant. Being able to throw in a load of laundry and take the dog for a walk on a lunch break makes for better quality family time when work is over for the day. The combination of having the ability to accomplish some chores in tandem with their workday, along with no longer wasting all that time commuting, results in a substantial improvement to the quality of non-work hours.
BTS Technologies - The Company Hosting the Right Tools for the Major Switch
Before any company switches to a remote working lifestyle, they need to make system changes to help with the new mechanism. What are these changes?
Well, better cloud computing and collaboration tools to keep everybody in sync and able to communicate effectively, fool-proof cyber security (as every worker at home is now an additional access point that needs to be protected), and a data protection and recovery system. BTS Technologies is the right place to provide all of this.
With over four decades of experience in telecom, BTS has experts in the technology fields that making this transition requires.
Posted in: Hybrid / Remote Workforce
