Working Remotely: Pros and Cons

Working Remotely: Pros & Cons

The adoption of remote work is rapidly increasing as more companies turn to the nomadic form of work and a larger talent pool becomes available. As with every other trend, there are two sides of the coin: working remotely has its own pros and cons. Let’s dig in and find what good and bad remote work offers for both the employer and the worker.

Remote Workers enjoy a flexible schedule but must be self-disciplined

Working Remotely Pros & Cons: Worker

PROS

• BETTER WORK-LIFE BALANCE: Modern-day workers struggle to maintain a balance between professional and personal life. Office hours are fixed and don’t take into account any personal needs. The life of a remote worker is flexible on the other hand, allowing them to plan their own schedule and devote time as they have to both their professional and personal lives.
• FLEXIBLE WORK HOURS: Remote work is built around the principle, “You can do whatever you want, just get the work done on time.” This approach provides the worker with freedom and flexibility — something which the millennials crave for.
• SAVE TRAVEL, SAVE TIME, SAVE MONEY, SAVE ENERGY: Many employees find working as ‘hectic’ and ‘stressful’ because of the long commuting times that are involved. The noisy traffic jams and the pressure to report to the office on time drain the energy out of the worker even before they reach the office. A remote worker is saved from all that since they have the comfort of working from anywhere.
• INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY: Since the life of a remote worker is less stressful and more flexible than a traditional employee, remote workers display higher productivity.
• LESS STRESS: For a job goer, a number of factors cause stress, such as the inability to take out time for family and personal life, long commutes, and the pending work. The flexible working hours and work location make for less stress for remote workers.
• REMOTE WORKERS LEARN NEW SKILLS REGULARLY: The results of the Freelancing in America 2017 survey point that remote workers update their skills once in every six months. In comparison, 9-to-5 job workers are half as likely to update their skill set.

CONS

• DISTRACTIONS: Concentrating on something for a prolonged period requires discipline. With office employees, the boss constantly supervises the work and ensures they complete a task. For freelancers, though, they are their own boss. They have to be disciplined themselves and complete projects on time; otherwise, they risk the job in hand. The greatest threat to discipline is distractions. The comfortable home environments and the addictive internet pose a challenge for freelancers to overcome. Several organisations with remote teams are struggling to minimize distractions.
• LONELINESS: Remote workers often work just by themselves. This can lead to loneliness which makes a person feel sad and unhappy about being socially isolated. The negative feelings impact health and hamper productivity.

Employers can tap into a large pool of remote talent with HireCream

Working Remotely Pros & Cons: Employer

PROS

• ACCESS TO A LARGER TALENT POOL: Because a remote worker can be located anywhere, employers have the choice to hire anyone with an internet connection. This allows for access to worldwide talent. And more the talent, the better are the chances of finding the best people in the business.
• INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY: One of the best parts of working with a remote team is that productivity increases drastically. Some people are most productive during the day while others are at night. The members of a remote team can work during their most productive hours and get work done quicker.
• LESS OVERHEAD COSTS: To accommodate workers who report to an office, physical space is required. This cost of such a real estate can run into thousands of dollars. Other investments required by a brick and mortar space include equipment costs, maintenance and utilities, the cost of a full-time receptionist, relocation costs, and work attire. A remote team saves all of this and is the major reason companies prefer remote workers.
• STRESS-FREE EXPANSION: A remote team requires lesser costs to operate which makes expansion easier. Traditional expansion methods require purchase (or renting) of larger office spaces, and if you want to test your business in another market, then you will have to make other investments besides purchasing of real estate. Since hiring a remote team doesn’t require purchasing a real estate, you can expand your business at minimal costs.

CONS

• COMMUNICATION: The members of a remote team use chat messengers, screen-sharing, video calls and other online tools to communicate with one another. These communication techniques are hard to decipher and might lead to gaps in communication. In addition, if the remote team is located in a separate timezone, matching times for meetings can also be a problem.
• LACK OF DISCIPLINE: Keeping freelancers motivated to work is a challenge for employers. In an office environment, people are motivated to work because they see their co-workers working, and they don’t want to be the one who slacks off. A remote worker doesn’t have the social office environment to keep themselves motivated, so they have to be self-disciplined to finish work on time. Unfortunately, not all freelancers are disciplined and they may pose as a challenge for the employer.
• DIFFICULTY IN COLLABORATION: Online collaborative tools have made remote work easier, but the amount of work that can be done using those tools isn’t the same as the work two people can do when they are present in the same physical space. Depending on the work people are trying to remotely collaborate on, there would be different challenges.

Conclusion

Working remotely has its own set of pros and cons. The flexible working hours, lesser stress and better work-life balance make remote work seem ideal for workers but challenges remain in countering loneliness and meeting deadlines. For employers, remote workers present a larger pool of talent with reduced overhead costs but managing them and collaborating with them poses a huge challenge.

You might be thinking if remote work is the future. Is it a trend just peaking right now with a fall destined in the future? Apparently, remote work is the future. The advancements in virtual offices are aimed at countering the cons we discussed. More traditional workers are leaving their 9-to-5 jobs in favor of remote work. According to the latest Freelancing in America survey , over half of the US workforce will be remote towards the end of the decade. Hiring managers are also starting to embrace the new form of work and are appreciating the benefits their companies will reap by hiring remote employees.

Thanks to Jannis for suggesting the title ‘Working Remotely — Pros and Cons’

Originally published at https://www.hirecream.com.