10 Reasons Why Remote Work is the Future

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Business Daily: Startups, Business Development, Management

5 min readApr 18, 2016

According to the US Department of Labor, there has been a 50% increase in companies that have the majority of their teams working remotely over the past 5 years. With an increase in remote work, employers are questioning whether working remotely is the future or if it’s just a trend.

Our team at THAT SOCIAL AGENCY work remotely. We don’t have an office, we are a nomadic agency and we work with digital nomads distributed around the world.

Here are 10 reasons why we believe remote work is the future:

1. LESS COMMUTING (& LESS C02 EMISSIONS)

Simply put it, commuting isn’t good for your well-being. The UK Office of National Statistics stated that “commuters have lower life satisfaction, a lower sense that their daily activities are worthwhile, lower levels of happiness and higher anxiety on average than non-commuters.”

Less commuting can also help to save the planet by not taking a car to work, or by lowering the demand for public transport!

2. REDUCES STRESS

Remote workers are more likely to control their own schedule without somebody watching over them (and that can be pretty stressful!) It then becomes a case of getting the work done in a given time, as oppose to being at your desk “doing work” for an allotted time.

A 2011 study from Staples found that employees who worked from home experienced 25 percent less stress.

3. COST EFFECTIVE

Money saved on commuting can stack up fast, according to Total Jobs, workers travelling into London spend on average £305 a month, adding up to £197,377 over a lifetime!

Remote working is not only beneficial to the employee but also to the employer. If there’s less employees in the office, this means there’s less need for office space (less real estate costs).

Forbes highlighted American Express as a great example for saving on remote employment. American Express reported a saving of $10- $15 million annually in real estate costs due to expanding remote working opportunities. Research for a broader range of companies showed these savings were consistent for employee turnover and absenteeism in addition to real estate costs (approximately $11,000 per employee, per year).

4. HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY

Office environments can often lead to distractions. Unnecessary meetings, office politics and micro-management. If you’ve worked in an office, we bet you can name a few more examples. Interacting online, over the telephone and occasionally face-to-face can avoid over (and sometimes unnecessary) communication.

If you do work remotely, there are more and more excellent online organisational and collaborative tools surfacing to help thousands of companies to continue working as an efficient and productive team. Here’s 5 of our favourite tools from our latest blog post:

5. ACCESS TO A LARGER TALENT POOL

Usually employers only have the options given to them within a determined geographical location. But what if there were no borders? Employers can now hire professionals from all over the world, with the only constraint of different time-zones.

Harnessing remote working opportunities can give you a much better chance of finding the best individual for the role through a larger talent pool.

6. LESS UNEMPLOYMENT RATES

What happens when employers start accepting candidates from around the world? There are more opportunities for those geographical areas of which lack sufficient employment.

The rise of digital media has opened the door to thousands of jobs worldwide and distributed working professionals across the globe.

7. TRAVEL MORE

One of our most favourable benefits for working remotely is the freedom to travel!

We are a team of digital nomads and there’s nothing more we enjoy than learning from new cultures and interesting people on our journey. Working remotely is our secret to staying creative, open-minded and resourceful in an ever-changing world.

8. MORE VARIED WORKING ENVIRONMENTS

The monotony of routine can seriously limit productivity. So much so that a growing number of companies are trying to solve this problem by adopting a “hot desking” policy (basically, you can’t sit in the same seat for 2 days in a row). Well, imagine if every day was a “hot desk” and you could choose not only where you sat but what city you were in!

The growing market for remote work has resulted in increasing numbers of WiFi cafes and co-working spaces. Websites like www.desksurfing.net and www.wework.com can help you find these in just a few clicks.

9. HEALTHIER WORK/LIFE BALANCE

A healthy work/life balance is important for your overall happiness and health. Working remotely offers flexibility so you can enjoy what matters to you the most.

A recent survey by AfterCollege, a leading career network for college students and recent graduates, reported that 52 percent of respondents said work-life balance was a significant factor in their search for post-graduation work.

10. LESS ABSENTEEISM

Instead of taking sick leave, remote work offers the opportunity to continue working productively from home. And overall, with happier and healthier employees, absenteeism will decline.

In fact, CIPD’s survey found that absenteeism dropped by 56% of employers after they adopted flexible working practices.

So, there’s our 10 reasons why we think working remotely is the future. What do you think? Let us know by tweeting us @thatsocialagenc or commenting on our Facebook page.