Ever since the first lockdown more and more companies have adopted a much more flexible approach with their employees and how they work. Before the pandemic, all the way back in February 2020, only 5.7% of people were working from home. Today this is nothing more than a distant memory, now nearly everyone has experienced working from home. Due to having to introduce home working with no choice, thanks to the pandemic, as of September 2021 more than two-thirds of businesses continue to offer employees the option of remote working. Many places have now adopted a hybrid working approach, whereby staff have the option to spread their time between both the office and home working – giving employees the best of both worlds.
Here are a few reasons why remote working, or introducing a hybrid approach to working, may help you and your staff in the long run.
Increased Productivity
Many people have said that when they were given the opportunity to work from home they find they have an increase in productivity. When staff are in the office, it’s easy for noise levels to rise, people to chat and then you also get the time spent moving around from one meeting room to another and so on. With remote working, employees are often more likely to be working in a much quieter environment, with less distractions and not having to worry about moving around everywhere as everything can be done in one room. Adding all these small things together has resulted in increased productivity.
Several studies carried out last year showed that there was 10 minutes less a day spent being unproductive, staff were happier to work one more day a week and overall were 47% more productive when working from home, which as you can imagine is nothing short of beneficial for the company.
No Commute
In the UK, on average, employees spend around an hour commuting to work and home everyday. This can be hit with many different issues adding extra stress to the employees day, even before they get to the office. This could be from transport being canceled to delays due to weather and traffic.
When you have staff that are able to complete work from home or even just away from the office you completely cut this out. Less stress results in happier employees, and there is also no excuse for anyone being late. I’m sure this is one of the many reasons why remote working is becoming so appealing to the masses.
Work-Life Balance
As I’m sure many can agree there never feels like there is enough time in the day to do everything you need to do. When you have the option presented to you that saves you so much time, why wouldn’t you want to jump straight on to it? Time is saved from not having to get ready to leave the house, the extra time for the commute and maybe the traffic. Employees can do the school run, complete some errands during their lunch break, as well as just feeling like they have some more control over their lives. Not to mention even further reductions in stress, leaving a majority of people feeling happier and healthier.
Saving Money
There are more benefits that come from a hybrid way of working. On average a company can save around £10,000 per employee who works on a flexible or remote contract. This is money that could then be directed elsewhere in the business.
Money is also being saved by the employees as they do not have to commute or be tempted to buy lunch every day. The average saving from this change is around £44.78 every week. This doesn’t include the savings for parking fees, car maintenance, a professional wardrobe, general work expenses and child care. All these small things add up in the long run.
Some unexpected advantages from the increase of people being able to work from home include a positive impact for the environment as it is estimated that over 3 million tonnes of carbon could be saved every year. The fact that having more and more people working from home can offer part of a solution to helping the planet recover to some extent is definitely an incredible benefit- who doesn’t love supporting the planet and reducing the harm that is being caused!
The flexibility that remote working gives you can potentially allow you to establish routines and working styles – that may include schedule, pay rates, tools, and more. As a result, you can decide how much time and effort you can dedicate to your work – deliver your work by just sharing documents online with one another.
Undeniably, The future of work will include working from home opportunities, even now there has been such an increase in flexible working positions. Although it began as something simple and informal, it is exponentially growing and being adopted by many people from all over the world
It is now a trend and it seems it will continue growing for years to come, so why not start doing it now, and see how much of an impact it can have within your company and the benefits it will reap.