A recent study by AccountTemps of 2,100 CFO’s across the US said 35% of their companies have increased remote work opportunities in the last three years, but only 3% have decreased the number of opportunities.
Employees like the flexibility of working remotely, but employers are also seeing a variety of benefits. The study revealed that the 35 % of the executives surveyed see higher employee morale and greater retention rates as the primary advantages of offering remote-work options, and 28 percent said the best aspect is an increase in productivity by eliminating commute time.
Other benefits employers cite include the ability to save money on office space and gaining access to a broader talent pool when hiring.
Bill Driscoll, a district president of Accountemps, recently said in a statement “Although telecommuting isn’t suitable for every role, it can be a powerful incentive for employees who want greater flexibility. It offers other advantages to businesses, such as greater productivity, cost savings on office space, the ability to tap into talent in different geographical areas and time zones, and more around-the-clock client service.”
Accountemps offered several tips for employers thinking about setting up a remote workforce:
Security: Since Employees will be working from home, Employers need to make sure that all confidential and important documents and information is secure from the home office. Each company will have their own requirements for this, but employers must create some security baseline.
Promote it!: Working remotely is a HUGE plus for many employees, even if it’s just a day or two a week. Companies need to promote their remote opportunities (full remote or part-time) to increase the scope of their talent pool
Communication: Setting up proper communication channels is a must for remote workers. There are plenty of video conferencing, business focused chat tools, + normal email & phone calls that allow this, but it’s something that needs to be normalized ASAP for new employees.
Guidelines: Employers must set guidelines on how employees must work from home. This is highly dependent on the job, but could require the employee to track their time, to have a few calls w/ their manager, or whatever makes the most sense for their environment.
Expectations: Employers need to clearly explain expectations for remote workers, so employees don’t view it as ‘day off’ from their normal schedule. Ideally, since there’s much less of a commute time and less distraction, employees should exceed their normal work capacity on these days. However, all this needs to be communicated to the employee.
Overall, we at Remote Nation see this as just another set of hard data that proves remote working is on the rise and provides tangible benefits to both employees and employers.
Please let us know what you think of this article in the comments!
