A case for Remote Teams
How could remote working soften a crisis impact on businesses?
War, diseases, natural disasters, and other crises… What happens when you suddenly can’t go to work, but your business must go on? You go remote, at least for businesses in which day to day operations are handled mostly over computers and online. A survey by Owl Labs says that 16% of global companies are fully remote, and 52% of employees around the world work from home at least one day a week, meaning it is not a new concept but still a widely underused one.
…16% of global companies are fully remote, and 52% of employees around the world work from home at least one day a week!
What is a remote team?
A remote team is a unit of employees that works outside of a traditional office environment. They could be working from co-working spaces, hubs or even from a city that’s time zones away from one of your company’s headquarters.
Remote teams come in all shapes and sizes, with some companies opting to be fully-distributed so that every employee works remotely. Other companies offer remote work opportunities to their most successful employees as incentives. In contrast, others still encourage their employees to embrace work-life flexibility and work remotely as they see fit.
What are the benefits of remote teams?
Workers are not the only ones benefiting from remote work; businesses are also experiencing positive impacts from its implementation. Some of the most mentioned are lowering overhead costs, increasing workforce productivity, helping to attract and retain talent, and healthier employees — nobody wants disease spread around the office. Remote work empowers businesses to prepare for the next wave of the digital economy or in the current situation, a crisis.
The benefits of remote teams: Lowering overhead costs, increasing workforce productivity, helping to attract and retain talent, and healthier employees.
- Attracting and retaining talent
Attracting and retaining the most skilled workers is one of the hardest challenges any business faces in today’s fast-moving economy. Statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labour and Statistics and Deloitte show that 3.5 mil people left their job voluntarily each month in 2019., and the cost to onboard a new employee is 4,000$ meaning high turnover is very expensive and can have a harmful effect on company morale and worker performance. Also, Roko Roić correctly noted in his blog post that workers have no contractual obligations to help you once they leave, which is another set of problems.
With the right infrastructure and processes, it is possible to cut onboarding costs and lower employee turnover by allowing remote workers the flexibility to work when and where they are most productive while still providing a sense of connection to the rest of the organisation. Good communication via different tools is key to achieve this.
And lastly, you can draw from a larger talent pool, if you only hire local people or try to convince them to move to your location, there is a big limitation on who you can hire.
2. Operating costs
Another great benefit is reducing operating costs. Rented office space remains one of the highest fixed operating costs a business can have. PGi found that average real estate savings per remote worker per year are around 10,000$. Working remotely can not only reduce costs but also increase overall business output.
3. Productivity
Numerous researches show how workers are more productive when they have fewer distractions (we all know how important it is to be “in the zone” while working) and spend less time traveling to work so they can focus more on driving the business forward, they are also more self-motivated.
According to a study from CoSo Cloud, workers reported being 77 percent more productive when working outside the office. In that same study, 52 percent of employees said they are less likely to take time off when working remotely, and 42 percent said they feel just as engaged and connected with their colleagues as when they are working on-site. In contrast, some said they feel even more connected when they work remotely.
…workers reported being 77 percent more productive when working outside the office.
4. Delivering solutions
Like we stated at the beginning of this blog post, 16% of global companies work fully remotely, which means they can provide and deliver solutions and services no matter what local events are taking place (or even global), whether it is a geopolitical issue or epidemics.
Final thought and how we do it
At AGENCY04 we have fully embraced the possibilities of remote work, even before this world-changing epidemics. Different tools and processes are already in place, which ensures productivity and delivery in spite of the lack of “in-person” interaction. We will write more about these in our future blog posts.
In these challenging times, business still needs to go on. This is not just about developers; it is about all of the supporting departments. If nothing, COVID-19 taught us that we can stay connected more than ever before.
Luckily, all of our employees are alive and well, working from their home offices. If you feel that your company could benefit from our remote software development teams in this situation, check out our website and feel free to drop us an email.
