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The Best Reasons to Let Your Staff Work from Home

on 26 December 2017

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Posted by Kevin Senior
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The move towards remote working has seen millions of people all across the planet start to work from home in recent years. This is a change that works on a number of levels, giving both employer and employee some huge benefits in the long-term. 

If encouraging remote working is something that your company is interested in then there are some extremely persuasive reasons for going ahead and doing it. 

Make Employees Happier

Numerous surveys have shown that employees are happier to stay at home and work than go to an office. How keen they are to do this will most likely depend upon their own personal circumstances.

For instance, parents typically benefit greatly from this type of freedom, as do people who live far from the office or have a busy lifestyle. The key is in making this an option for them, rather than forcing everyone to do it.

If your team members wake up with a smile on their face and enjoy their job more than before, then this has got to be a good thing for them and for the company overall. Even if they only work from home one or two days a week, this can still be a positive change in their lives that makes them feel happier about their job.

Keep Staff Fit and Healthy

A more surprising benefit of remote working is that the people doing it tend to be fitter and healthier once they get started. Part of this is said to come down to the fact that they can snack more healthily when they are at home all day long.

They might also move more throughout the day, as they take advantage of their breaks to water the plants, take the dog for a walk or do something else that keeps them active. In this way, they can avoid the slump in productivity that often comes in the office when energy levels start to fall.

All of this should help your team to stay fit and focused, meaning less days off sick and less time spent trying to shake off the dreaded listlessness and lethargy that can strike from around mid-day onwards.

Help the Planet

Allowing staff to work from home also brings some environmental benefits as well. This is most easily seen in the fact that a short shuffle to the home office is a lot less damaging to the planet than the daily commute.

Another benefit that could come in this respect is that less energy is needed to heat up or cool down a big office, as well as the lighting that often stays on even when no-one is around. People tend to be more careful about switching off computers and lights at home than at work.

Naturally, you will also want to look for new, modern methods of team collaboration for this way of working. By doing this, you could also automatically cut down on waste such as needlessly printed documents.

Lower Overheads

Businesses can also benefit from lower overheads when their workers are at home all day. Those lights and heating benefits mentioned in the previous point also translate to lower bills.

There can be savings to be had in areas such as parking spaces, security personnel, furniture and so on. You might also save on areas such as running a staff canteen, bringing in cleaners every night and such-like.

Some companies even take remote working so much to heart that they end up not needing physical premises at all.

Get a Flexible, Productive Workforce

Overall, this is a wonderfully modern way of getting a flexible, productive workforce. Employees tend to be able to react more easily to situations that require them to change their working hours or days when they are home.

Studies also show that team members are usually more productive at home too. While some bosses fear that they may slack off watching the worst that daytime TV has to offer or staying in bed until later, it appears that the opposite is the case.

It seems that people are more motivated to work harder when they do so on a remote basis. Therefore, they may end up working longer hours or simply doing a better job with fewer distractions and in a more positive frame of mind.

 

Glasscubes is a user-friendly collaboration software for teams. Connect everyone that you work with in an online workspace that improves the way you share files, manage projects and communicate with each other.

For more information, contact us by calling +44 (0)20 3274 2310 or email us at enquiries@glasscubes.com

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About this author: Kevin Senior

Managing Director at Glasscubes. With over 30 years experience working with businesses of all sizes and industries, Kevin brings success to fast growing companies advising on best practices and growth lead technology solutions.