A few years ago, telecommuting was primarily seen as a way for employees to save money and time by avoiding commuting to the office. Often some companies have been uncomfortable allowing remote work for fear that workers might relax without supervision.
Increasingly, however, organizations are choosing to pay employees to work from home. In fact, an experiment conducted at Stanford University showed that employee productivity improved with telecommuting.
In addition, in risk situations such as the one that has been experienced in recent weeks due to the public health crisis of the coronavirus or COVID-19, many companies have asked their employees to telecommute to avoid possible contagions in the office. Although this is an extraordinary measure taken by organizations not to temporarily cease their activity, the truth is that telecommuting offers numerous advantages for both organizations and employees.
1) Greater Job Satisfaction
Happy employees are better workers, and working at home can increase your productivity during the workday. Not surprisingly, teleworkers report higher job satisfaction. Rather than looking for excuses to avoid more work, remote workers have a greater sense of control over their production, resulting in a better work ethic. Also, by working from home, employees can more easily balance their personal and work lives.
Today, telecommuters are also less likely to be absent from work and have the technology to do their daily tasks. They just need an Internet connection and their own device. So, in the end, more work is done and the results tend to be of higher quality.
2) No More Commutes
When many employees arrive at work, they are a little tired from long commutes. This can result in decreased performance, especially in the morning. When employees are allowed to telecommute, they can avoid the trip and dive right into the job ahead of them. This results in more time to complete tasks and also more time to spend on family matters at the end of the day.
3) Part-time Telecommuting
Not all employees adapt to the independent work atmosphere involved in teleworking, and many of them enjoy spending time with their colleagues. For this reason, many managers choose to have employees work part-time remotely, perhaps one or two days a week. Even this small amount of telecommuting can improve productivity and make the difference between a good worker and an excellent one.
4) Financial Efficiency
Companies can save 30% to 70% on expenses for employees who work remotely only part-time. Certain jobs may be difficult to fill, but offering telecommuting as an alternative can be an attractive benefit to job seekers. When projects near the deadline, teleworkers are often more open to working long hours in the comfort of home. This can include parents, whose responsibilities can make office work difficult or impossible at times. As more households include two working parents, this may also make it possible for organizations to retain the best employees who would otherwise have had to quit or switch to another job.
5) Online Data Centers
The increasing use of online data centers is one of the main reasons why companies are increasingly open to telecommuting. According to data storage experts, one benefit of online data centers and cloud services is that it enables companies to store information securely on their servers, which employees can access from work or home. In this way, the retention of confidential data does not depend on employees keeping up to date with hard drives, laptops or storage disks. With data centers, companies can save money by not only eliminating costly on-site data storage, but also by enabling low-cost, trouble-free telecommuting.
For the best results in telecommuting, organizations must choose employees with a proven record of performance and responsibility. In this way, companies can take full advantage of the profitability and productivity of teleworking that online data centers make easier. As cloud storage continues to grow, telecommuting becomes more popular with companies today.