12 Benefits of Working From Home (And Tips For Succeeding)
The benefits of working from home, for both employers and employees, are very real. But, you need to look at each of them from different angles to truly understand and appreciate how they can benefit organisations.
In this article, we talk about why businesses should consider transitioning to a work-from-home model and what are the most important benefits of this operating model.
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6 Benefits Of Working From Home For Employers
There’s been a lot of discussion about how working from home benefits employees, but it’s rarely mentioned how it meaningfully benefits employers and organisations.
There are a collection of benefits for installing a work-from-home culture in your company and the following six serve as the biggest ones:
1. Positive Impact On The Environment
FlexJobs performed a study, prior to the pandemic, where they calculated the amount of emissions prevented by having employees work from home. Analysing the results of over 3.9 million employees, the initial results were quite promising:
A total of 7.8 billion fewer miles driven
530 million fewer vehicle trips
617,000 cars less on the road
$498 million saved on traffic accidents, $980 million saved on gas
3 million tonnes fewer greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere
Estimate peg approximately 4.7 million remote employees in the United States alone, and this trend is potentially only set to rise.
2. Streamlined Communication
Even though employees are no longer in the office, they can remain connected. A variety of today’s communication tools provide all the necessary access and availability for employees to stay connected even though they’re not in the same location.
Employers can provide their employees with centralised communication hubs, video conference calls, messaging apps, file-sharing services and visual collaboration tools like virtual whiteboards and sticky notes.
3. Increased Talent Pool
Employers are no longer limited by local talent pools. Employers using a work-from-home policy can hire employees from across the country or globe. The worldwide talent pool is enormous and employers can find the perfect talent, no matter where they’re based.
For that reason, hiring processes and candidate experience matter a lot. Your organisation needs streamlined ways to source, track and hire candidates and turn them into talent seamlessly – ideally, with the click of a button.
4. Higher Job Satisfaction Levels
Employees who work from home have greater levels of job satisfaction than employees who are working strictly from the office. There are a multitude of reasons for this, but the biggest one seems to be the lack of time spent commuting.
As an employer, satisfaction is often tied quite clearly to overall productivity. Ultimately, higher levels of productivity correlate to organisational success, retention rates and higher engagement levels. Simply put, it’s a win-win for everyone.
5. Reduced Overhead Costs
Employers who employ solely remote workers don’t necessarily need to rent out a big office space to fill with employees. Especially for small businesses or startups, you can save quite a lot in rent, utility and insurance costs when you have your employees work from home.
The average overhead cost of a small business in the UK is around 20-30% of its gross revenue. As a company, you will save quite a bit of money if you decide to invest in a fully remote workforce.
6. Checking Biases
When you have employees come to the office, you may find yourself rating the things that don’t really matter. How “visible” the employee is, if they’re coming to the office early and leaving late are just a couple of things.
When employees work from home, you will only measure their success by looking at their productivity and output. This can help remove biases from the performance process by only focusing on objective performance.
Employees who have been productive at the office will continue being productive at home; your line managers will simply be able to spot it more easily.
6 Benefits Of Working From Home For Employees
Employees enjoy many benefits when working from home. The following six are those that drive the most impact…
1. Better Work-Life Balance
The beauty of working from home for employees is in the ability to create their ideal schedule. This might be different for each employee — some might create their schedule around kids or taking care of a family member. Working from home provides better work-life balance for most employees through flexibility.
2. Less Stress During A Commute
Do you know that the average commute time for a UK employee is almost an hour? Commuting is one of the leading drivers for employees who work from home, and the benefits are clear. Less time spent commuting, less expenditures on things like petrol or public transit and happier employees who can stay close to home.
3. Location Flexibility
Employees who work from home are, most of the time, location independent. They can choose where they want to live and still perform their job. Employees can choose cities with more affordable rent and/or more pleasant weather.
4. Comfort
Employees working from home can be more comfortable than when going to the office. If they have a cold, they can make a cup of tea, wear comfortable clothes and still be productive at their job.
5. Health and Food Benefits
Employees that work in an office usually buy their food, but when at home, employees can prepare their own meals. They can create better and healthier alternatives than the food they would just buy when in the office.
6. Creating Your Own Office
Having a standing office might be a bit over the top for a regular office environment, but doing it at home is completely fine. Employees have the option to personalise their home office and create the best working environment possible.
Best Practices for Working From Home
Even though there are many benefits to working from home, there are also some challenges that both employers and employees should be aware of:
Ensure there is a dedicated workspace | It’s quite easy to get distracted when at home; the laundry, lunch, kids etc. Ensure that you have a dedicated workspace where the only activity you do is work. |
Set working hours (but still give employees flexibility) | You should set daily work hours when employees need to be available for contact, communication, and meetings. This can be 2-3 hours every single day. When it comes to the remaining time, allow employees to create their own schedule and they will pay it back with high productivity. |
Maintain a professional atmosphere | It’s easy to lose the line that separates life and work when working from home. That’s why employees should still dress for the job. This will make a distinction between their working time and their leisure time. |
Ensure that communication flows | Set up a communication, tracking, and follow-up system when working from home. Apps such as Slack and Zoom can be quite helpful for this. |
Is Working from Home Right for Your Organisation?
Working from home is a change for any organisation. To help become more resilient to widespread change, consider an all-in-one HR software solution that can help manage your employee data, streamline your processes and maintain top-notch security.
Personio can help your team upgrade their people operations for now and into the future. Speak with one of our HR experts today to talk about your pain points and how a cloud-based software can help solve for them.
