11 Reasons Why Employers Should Offer Remote Work

How and where we work has forever been reshaped. Remote work has gained widespread acceptance as employees proved that it not only has a positive effect on productivity, but it improves their quality of life.

Many premier employers - like Yelp, Airbnb, and Twitter - chose to make remote work a permanent option for their employees. But some are still evaluating whether it’s the right choice for their organization. While some executives worry about the impact of in-person collaboration, it’s important to recognize these crucial benefits:

Access to a larger talent pool 

Let’s say you’re the CEO of a company in San Antonio, TX. The success of your company depends on recruiting top-tier data scientists. If your company doesn’t embrace remote work, the talent pool is limited to those data scientists who live in the San Antonio area. 

By expanding your candidate search outside of your local area and looking for the best engineers for the job, not just the best data scientists that live close to your office, you’re increasing the chances your company succeeds. 

Hire employees faster

When you don’t limit yourself to the talent pool in a small geographic area, you’re less likely to be searching for the proverbial “needle in a haystack.” When you do find qualified candidates in your area (if there are any to begin with), they may not be interested in your opportunity. The candidate may be satisfied with their current role, your pay may not be as competitive, or they may not just be interested in a change. If you exhaust all of the qualified candidates in your market without making a hire, your position may remain unfilled for an extended period. By opening the search to employees who can work remotely, you’ll be able to find more qualified candidates who will be open to joining your company, reducing your time to hire.

Decreased real estate costs

Many companies recognize the talent pool challenges listed in the first bullet and open offices in the cities that have the widest pool of talent to recruit from.  However, this move can significantly increase real estate costs for the company. 

If you’re a technology company looking to recruit software engineers, you’re probably looking to rent office space in Silicon Valley. The good news is that you’ll have access to a wider pool of talent, but you’ll need to spend over $13,000 a year per employee on office space for them. 

Need to open an office in New York because you need finance pros? Budget nearly $15,000 a year in rent for them. 

By the way, that doesn’t include the cost of a desk, chair, a phone, and the other office perks you’ll need to provide to entice employees to work at your company. With top employers offering perks like free food and coffee, gyms, and on-site daycare, staying competitive with those employers to attract the best employees can get expensive.

Remote work can slash those costs to zero. By offering potential employees the ability to work remotely full time, you not only enable your company to recruit from the best talent pool, there’s no need to dedicate expensive office space to them. 

When your company allows remote work, you’re also giving employees a benefit they actually want. In fact, most workers are willing to take less pay if their employer would give them the option to work remotely.

Employers in this situation can also extend a hidden benefit of remote work to their employees – the ability to write off their dedicated work space in their taxes.

Happier employees 

Now that you’ve recruited these top-notch employees, there’s the matter of keeping them happy so they stay with your company. The great news is that the data shows that remote employees are happier than those who show up at the office every day. 

A main driver of that happiness can be linked to eliminating timely, frustrating, and possibly dangerous commutes. Remote employees don’t have the burden of those commutes, which researchers directly linked to personal well-being. Researchers also showed that cutting a commute can save workers $40,000, and those savings can make your workers very happy. 

Those that have long drives or rides to the office may even be less productive while at work, as 40% of them spend much of the workday worrying about their commute. 

It adds to your company employer value proposition

Let’s go back to you being an employer that’s looking for engineers in Silicon Valley. The area has some of the priciest homes and cost of living in the country, making it a less attractive place to live for many people. However, those engineers know they have to live there to find work. 

When your company offers remote work options, you’re adding a tremendous point of differentiation between you and the rest of the employers in the market: you’re enabling your potential employee to live where they want. Offices in high-priced areas force employees to make a tough decision: pony up for an expensive house or apartment close to the office, or spend hours a day commuting from an area that’s affordable. 

When you give people the flexibility to live in a less expensive area, a place that’s closer to family, or just a cool city they want to try out for a while, you’ve added a unique differentiator to your employer value proposition.

It also sends a critical signal to those potential employees – they’ll be trusted. Research shows that:

“Employees who are less trusted by their manager exert less effort, are less productive, and are more likely to leave the organization. Employees who do feel trusted are higher performers and exert extra effort, going above and beyond role expectations. Plus, when employees feel their supervisors trust them to get key tasks done, they have greater confidence in the workplace and perform at a higher level.”

There’s a level of trust that’s implied with your remote employees. You won’t see them walk in the office to make sure they’re there at 9 o’clock on the dot, and their manager won’t be able to stand over their shoulder to watch them work. By enabling remote workers, employers are telling their employees that they trust them to do their job effectively without being micromanaged.

Decreased spend on employee devices

Show up on your first day in the office in a new job, and you’ll be issued your corporate computer. Many organizations count that as the “cost of the device” for an employee, but the truth is that 80% of the cost of that computer comes after the purchase; upgrades, maintenance, and labor are expensive.

Organizations that support remote workers often turn to “Bring Your Own Device,” or BYOD, policies. For a company that is fully distributed, managing devices that are owned by the organization can be very challenging. When a new employee starts at the company, a computer has to be mailed to them. If the computer breaks or needs to be upgraded, the employee needs to mail it back to the IT manager so the work may be completed. This process is expensive and the productivity of the employee can drop down to zero while their computer goes through repairs.

BYOD policies enable organizations with remote employees to be much more agile. These companies give their employees a stipend to purchase the device of their choice, and maintenance of that device is the responsibility of that employee. Employees love BYOD policies because they can work on a computer that’s comfortable, the choice makes them happy, and they’re working with a device that’s going to make them the most productive. Meanwhile, the employer that supports telecommuting through a BYOD policy enjoys lower cost of ownership for devices.

Decreased salary costs 

We’ll go back to you being the CEO of a software company one more time. You have your great idea, but you still need engineers to make it happen. You open your office in San Francisco, where you’ll not only pay above average rents, but you’ll also pay those engineers 18% more than the national average.

What about hiring a team that can work remotely, and focusing your search in several cities that have great talent. For example, you can start by looking for those software engineers in Raleigh, NC. It’s become a technology hotbed, but because of a lower cost of living, software engineers command 16% less salary than the national average. By hiring a remote team, you’ll be able to offer salaries that are competitive in their market while reducing your overall cost.

Business continuity 

What do hurricanes, blizzards, protests, and parades all have in common? They’re all reasons why businesses have had to close their offices and lose worker productivity. Companies that encourage remote work can gain a competitive advantage in one of two ways here. 

First, if the company is fully distributed, the workers aren’t concentrated in an area where a disturbance is occurring. For example, if all of your employees work in Florida and a hurricane blows through, your business stops as employees prepare, suffer through, and clean up from the hurricane. With a fully distributed team, the number of employees in an impacted region may be greatly reduced. The rest of the team can focus on supporting the impacted team members however they can.

A second way to gain an advantage is to leverage remote work as a backup plan if your company is concentrated in an area. 

Here’s an example: your office is located in the downtown area of your city. Your local football team wins the championship, and is going to have a parade to celebrate! Great news, right? Well, it turns out your office location is on the parade route, every street in a 20-block radius will be closed, and your employees won’t be able to get to the office. 

While this may seem like a once-in-a-lifetime problem, there are countless unforeseen scenarios that will prevent your employees from getting to work.

Companies that don’t have a plan for remote work have no choice but to lose productivity. Companies that have embraced remote work will gain a clear advantage, as their employees have the tools and freedom needed to successfully do their jobs from wherever they are.

New employee connections 

Employees that work remotely aren’t always working from their house. They need time around others as well, and seek out coffee shops, libraries, and co-working spaces to get their jobs done. Know what happens in those spaces? They make connections with people. Those people may be potential customers, employees, or just someone with a great idea that you might be able to use in your next project.  

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing

Many companies make the mistake of thinking a remote work policy has to be an “all or nothing” proposition. They think they either need to make full-time, remote positions for all of their teams available or that they can’t make it available for anyone. The reality is that different teams will have different needs, and that should dictate the company policy for remote work.

This also means that employers can consider offering employees the flexibility to work remotely a few days a week. Many employees prefer this set-up, as it gives them the opportunity to be close to co-workers a few days a week while having the benefit of remote work on other days. 

Employers who offer employees the ability to work remotely a few days a week can benefit, too. Many organizations have eliminated dedicated desks for their employees, instituting a “work anywhere” policy. Employees can grab any desk that’s available when they get to work, and that’s their spot for the day. By staggering the days employees can work remotely, companies can rent smaller spaces and write a smaller check for rent each month.

Technology makes it simple

There is no shortage of technology available to stay in communication with your remote employees. Instant messaging tools makes quick communications simple, video conferencing software continue to improve in quality while prices lower, and 91% of us keep our phones within arm’s reach at all times. Communicating with those that aren’t near us has never been easier, and the cost of keeping in contact continues to drop. 

Using those communication channels effectively and making sure there’s no misinterpretation of what’s being communicated takes a different skill set than what’s needed for a co-located team. There is no substitute for being in the same room with someone to have a conversation. However, the technology that’s available to facilitate communication far outweighs the benefit of being in the same room. 

You’ll find out who your good employees are, fast 

Many companies, and their managers, oppose remote work because they “want to keep an eye on their employees.”  And it’s true that some employees, if not watched closely, will slack. By enabling remote work and watching productivity, not activity, closely, employers will truly understand who their self-directed, motivated employees are. 

What do you think are some additional benefits of telecommuting for employers?