There’s no doubt about it -- the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an exponential increase in the number of people working from home. And while it may be more obvious to see the benefits of remote work from the employee point of view, the truth is that allowing staff members to work from home is beneficial to employers as well. What follows are some reasons why remote work is a win-win for everyone.

The Employee Wins

There are good reasons why so many employees now prefer to work from home rather than return to a traditional office setting. Here are just some of the advantages that remote work provides to the worker:

• Increased flexibility equals better work-life balance. Whether an employee is married with a family or simply lives alone with a dog, the flexibility of working from home allows that person to carve out time from their workday to take care of personal business. Activities like going to their kids’ baseball games, attending medical and dental appointments, renewing a driver’s license, etc. are so much easier to tend to if the worker knows that he or she can simply adjust their work hours accordingly.
• It’s cheaper to work from home. This is a particularly important benefit that remote work provides given the current economic conditions. Commuting back and forth from an office costs a lot of money nowadays, not to mention parking garage fees, eating lunches out, childcare costs, etc.
• Working remotely means you can live virtually anywhere. Before the advent of remote work, employees had to live close to where their offices were located, and that became the priority when choosing a community. But remote work enables individuals and families to choose where they live based on other considerations – such as cost of living and quality of life, for example.
• Working from home is healthier for most people. This benefit was especially true during the COVID-19 pandemic, when it became obvious that employers simply couldn’t ask their workers to come to an office where they ran the risk of being exposed to what could potentially be a deadly virus. But even without a pandemic, people who work from home can avoid being exposed to colds and flu, resulting in less lost time due to illness. And for most people, working from home is much less stressful than a hectic office environment. Less stress equals better health for the remote worker.

The Employer Wins

As it turns out, remote work doesn’t just benefit the employee. What follows are some of the advantages that employers can enjoy by allowing their staff members to work from home:

• You’ll save money. When you stop and think about the overhead costs for maintaining any type of brick and mortar business, it won’t take you long to realize how much you can save by employing a team of remote workers. You’ll save costs such as rent, building maintenance, utilities, office furniture and equipment, cleaning costs, etc.
• It will be easier to recruit, hire and retain good employees. Several recent studies have shown exactly how much workers value being able to work from home. In fact, a majority report that they would gladly take another job that actually paid less as long as they were able to work from home! Giving your staff the opportunity to work from home will make your company and your job openings much more appealing to high quality employees looking for jobs, and will make it much easier to retain those workers once they’ve hired on.
• You’ll experience much less absenteeism. If you’re a business owner or manager, you know all too well how much productivity can suffer when employees are absent. Remember earlier, when we listed better health as an advantage for remote workers? Not only will your work-from-home employees be healthier overall, they will also be more likely to continue to work from home even when they are a little under the weather.
• Your staff will be more productive when working from home. That may sound hard to believe, but it’s true! Some managers have hesitated to allow employees to telecommute because they believe just the opposite. But thanks to products like MySammy, you’ll actually see higher rates of productivity from your work-from-home team members than if they were working in a traditional office environment! Our cloud-based software allows you to measure productivity levels of remote workers and do so with their full knowledge – without resorting to spyware or website-blocking software.

Remote work truly is a win-win for employees and employers alike. Start enjoying all the benefits of the work-from-home revolution by signing up for your free trial of MySammy today!