The road to success is paved with remote resources

By TRISOFT team

In an ever-changing business environment, taking on newer and more challenging adventures may be the key to success for both employers and employees.

We all know people who have taken the leap from their office job to a freelance career or some who have that kind of a job that allows them to work from home every now and then — and we have come to learn about the advantages that these two options can bring.

Fewer people know, though, about the many upsides that a working from home policy may bring to the employer — small company or Multinational Corporation equally.

Does working from home really work?

As we move forward in this constant technology-development era, our tools and means are becoming more and more efficient, allowing companies to create the proper environment for home workers, thus ensuring their work conditions and productivity remain just as professional as in the office.

In the US, over 13 million people work from home at least once a week. In the UK, the number of home workers has increased from 2.9 million in 1998 to 4.2 million in 2014. All over the world companies are more and more drawn to this practice as it proves extremely beneficial.

1. Less money spent on office expenses

When it comes to an office space, one needs to consider a few factors. First and most important, there’s the rent — quite pricy depending on the location. In Bucharest you might be able to get a great space downtown for EUR 50/square meter (if you are friends with the real estate agent), else you will end up paying more in a less attractive area of the town. Of course, rent is not the only thing to worry about — there’s electricity bills, phone bills, Internet bills and all sorts of other small costs that add up at the end of every month — like kitchen supplies, bathroom supplies and all kinds of office supplies. And while this might not seem much, just think about a small, startup company trying to make it on this market with such expenses. 8 out of 10 cases, these costs will weight a lot and even make a difference when it comes to survival.

But let us look at some more famous examples — IBM for instance has decreased their office space by 78 million square feet since 1995 and made $1 billion from selling 58 million feet of that. Also, Dell saved $14 million in 2012 by having 14,000 employees in their Texas office work from home. McKesson saves $2 million a year and Sun Microsystems saves $68 million a year in real estate costs.

The software company PGi has conducted a study that showed how a company could save approximately $10.000 per employee if they switched to a working from home policy. And this only from skipping office expenses.

2. Less worries on salaries

Now for a company that has decided, in the light of all circumstances, to partially or completely switch to telecommuting, the financial perks are just beginning. So here are another two great advantages, this time related to salaries:

• Location will matter in terms of salary negotiation. This means that even if you are based in a city like New York, where the business market can be quite expensive, you will be able to hire someone from a different part of the country, just as qualified, but who will ask for less.
• Location will matter in terms of geography. Which basically means that if you want to hire a great guy from Alaska, but he wouldn’t normally dig all the moving across the country experience, it won’t matter. You will no longer be restricted by the geographic region, so you’ll be able to get the best people you can, from anywhere in the world you find them.

Not to mention that some will even consider a slightly lower salary, given the conditions. The IT job sourcing company Dice.com conducted a study that showed 35% of IT professionals would accept a 10% lower income in return for working remotely.

Very important! Saving up based on location doesn’t mean employees will get smaller pay checks. On the contrary, taking into account all the money the company is saving on all sorts of other stuff, it will still be able to pay competitive salaries. They will just be adjusted depending on the market of that specific location.

3. Less money spent on employee absences

One of the great advantages of telecommuting is its flexibility. This is why the weather, your city hosting the Olympics or even a small health or personal issue won’t get in the way of home workers.

It has been shown in a recent experiment, conducted by the Harvard Business Review, that remote workers take fewer sick days and personal days than office workers. Harvard Business Review also pointed out that throughout the study, home-workers reported substantially higher work satisfaction and less “work exhaustion” in a psychological attitudes survey. This means people who work from home are doing both physically and emotionally better than office workers.

And for the hiring company this means two achievements in one — better productivity and significant savings on the long run. It is indeed something to look into.

4. Less money spent on hiring and training employees

It’s easy to imagine that hiring people comes with many, many costs. There’s first the time the company needs to spend with the selection and the interviews. Then you need to consider the fact that they won’t be able to get down to work from day 1. So take the pre-hiring and post-hiring accommodation time and add the decreased productivity of a new-entry compared to a senior, well trained employee and you will have a pretty complicated image. Especially if this happens every other month. In terms of money, Oracle estimates a 30–50% of the employee’s salary is spent on its training.

Things are different though in the telecommuting business environment. As I said, people are happier, people are healthier, so they are more loyal and less likely to leave the company in the long run. In 2014, Alpine Access Remote agents close 30% more sales than traditional agents the year before. Also, customer complaints decreased by 90% and turnover decreased by 88%.

The Harvard Business Review experiment with a famous Chinese travel company also showed that, over the 9 months they conducted the study, staff turnover dropped with a staggering 50%.

5. So much more money for your business

So when you look at all these advantages from a company’s perspective, it’s easy to see the benefits of building your business on remote resources.

The financial side is awesome, but the human side is even better. Think of all that positive vibe you will be getting from working with happy, healthy, satisfied employees, who will be more productive, will stick with you longer, and last but not least, will most probably be the best and most talented you can get. This might just be your company’s way to success!