How the Remote Employee Can Be Productive for Your Business

In today's business world, remote work is in trend. Every business prefers to hire remote employees to get the job done on a limited budget. However, what do you understand about remote work? Why are enterprises hiring remote employees? Is cost the only factor for remote work? Let's start with the meaning of remote work.

Remote work is a new way of working out of traditional offices and being more flexible. It is based on a concept that work doesn't have to be accomplished by being at a specific place to execute it successfully.

Remote work has revolutionized the old culture of working in an office. Today around 55% of companies have a common workplace with employees coming into the office five days or more each week. However, 37% of businesses have only a main office with some people working remotely and, to be honest, 10% of companies don't have office space at all.

Thus, the remote work is estimated to grow in the next coming years.

Now the question arises: Why are businesses hiring remote employees to save money?

Research was done by the United States Department of labor on remote work, and it has been noted that 50% of companies within five years in the United States have maximum remote working teams. Saving money is a factor, as you don't have to invest in hiring, training, and payroll process. This is not the only factor contributing to the question.

Remote employees offer countless benefits that include:

Boosts Overall Productivity

You know working from the comfort of home remote employees deliver exceptional work that eventually increases the overall productivity of the firm. Now business owners don't have to be worried or chock themselves with monitoring employees' performance, as you'll be receiving timely reports from your remote employee about the work done.

These reports will help you decide whether they are efficient for your business or not. You can easily stay focused on core aspects. And a surprising fact about remote workers: they are willing to work overtime.

Researchers have found that 43% of remote employees are ready to work overtime as compared to on-premise employees—as only 28% of them agreed for overtime.

Reduced Overhead

No one ever imagined that sending employees back home would reduce overhead expenses and enhance business bottom lines. Today a majority of businesses are opting for remote employees to get the work done within short turnaround times and retain top talents.

According to the national United States survey, 73% of remote workers say that they are highly satisfied with their jobs. And another 53% of remote employees say that they will not leave their jobs at any cost. You will be surprised to know what employees are demanding now:

• 83% of employees say that they will be more loyal to their business owner if they offer flexibility in working hours.
• 95% of business owners say that remote work has significantly impacted their business when it comes to retaining employees.
• 39% of employees have quit their current jobs or switch to another job because of inflexibility.

Amplified Savings

As I mentioned above, savings in money is only one factor. Remote work is beneficial for employees as well as employers. How?

If we consider employers, you can save on infrastructure, real estate, and more importantly, on maintaining technologies. However, employees make use of their own devices to complete the project; but many employees use the cloud-based software as it is collaborative, generate real-time reports and give access just with an internet connection.

Inc. magazine published that remote employees save between $2,000 and $7,000 per year on aspects like transportation, food, clothing, and childcare than those who are bound to the office.

Global Workplace Analytics reported that if the United States people work from home half of the time, they can contribute to the saving of $700 billion per year.

The Increased Well-Being of the Company

During peak seasons, businesses often find difficulty in accomplishing their tasks within the given time-frame. For instance, a CPA has a lot of work during the tax season in the United States, and he/she keeps on receiving files from businesses, individuals, etc.

Everyone rushes to meet the deadline. But with the help of a tax preparation firm or service provider, a CPA can efficiently streamline tasks like checking forms, balance sheets, previous tax returns, data entry, etc., by having the remote team do them. The CPA can focus on deduction theories to deliver better services to their clients.

More so, remote workers are also ready to work during flu season.

Best Way to Retain Top Employees

Hiring employees limited to your geographical area can limit the growth opportunities for your business. Let your HR managers find talent from everywhere via Skype and video conferencing. In this way, you are opening the gates for top talent to join your team and deliver productive results.

Moreover, you don't have to worry about retiring boomers if you are offering flexibility to your employees.

Employee's rate the option of flexibility as an eight out of ten, and 36% of employees will choose their next job as remote workers.

Keeping Track of Remote Employees

To build strong relationships with your remote employees, you should ask them the following questions every week to maintain their work efficiency:

1. How have you improved your remote working skills this month? Have you identified any challenges?

2. What has communication been like with team leaders, managers, and directors?

3. What are your primary goals this week/month/quarter?

Wrap-Up

Seize the immense benefits of remote workers in your organization and always make sure to ask the questions every week as it will help you to build good relations with your remote employee and understand their situation, working style, etc.

Tracy Watson is a business development manager at Accounting To Taxes—a well-known company offering complete finance and accounting services. She has always been a great contributor to the accounting industry and also responsible for branding and lead generation. And being a passionate writer, she helps businesses with her informative articles.

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.