When running a business, it’s always necessary to come up with creative, intuitive ways to enhance productivity while cutting costs. One of the simplest ways to accomplish this is to hire employees that telecommute and work from home.
Remote employees are definitely on the rise in the US. Based on information gathered in 2013, it is estimated that nearly 10% of the American population currently work from home. This figure has risen 41% since the year 2000.
Why the sudden shift in hiring telecommuting employees?
Mainly, this shift is happening because companies realize that telecommuting provides major benefits for cost savings, morale, and productivity. If your business doesn’t currently have a telecommuting option in effect, or you’re struggling to manage your current staff of remote employees, you’ll soon learn the benefits of telecommuting by reading the rest of this article.
Telecommuting: The Cost Benefits
By giving your employees the opportunity to work at home, you can save in a number of different areas. You’ll cut back on rent expenses, overhead, and other related expenses that you would typically have to pay when hiring traditional employees in an in-house office.
Additionally, when you eliminate the need to hire employees that have to meet up at a specific location, you actually have the ability to expand your potential candidates for the job. As a matter of fact, you can dip into the available talent in any country on earth. This opportunity allows you to hire qualified, yet possibly less expensive employees to work for your company.
In fact, depending on the country you decide to hire your remote employees from, you have the potential to save as much as $8000 per employee per year.
Does Working from Home Have an Impact on Productivity?
Actually, working from home certainly has an impact on productivity. And the impact is better than you might originally think.
Some people are under the impression that at-home workers are lazy and do less than those working in a traditional office environment. Those people are dead wrong. In fact, with high-speed Internet access available to just about everyone in any country, face-to-face meetings and online collaborations are easy to accomplish. Videoconferencing platforms, mobile devices, and other solutions make it easier than ever to stay connected with your remote workers.
And most important of all, with all of this technology right at the fingertips of your remote workers, you can bet your bottom dollar that telecommuting employees are carrying their weight and more when it comes to productivity.
Is It Best to Choose Telecommuting for Your Business?
For some businesses, telecommuting is not going to be the best fit. Some companies need to have management and the rest of the staff working closely together in an office environment. In some cases, this is just unavoidable, depending on the business model.
To determine if a particular employee in your company is right for telecommuting, please consider the following:
- Does this individual thrive in a solo setting? Some people work better alone than they do in a group. If this is the case, this person should be an excellent candidate as a telecommuter.
- Do you consider this person a self-starter? High producers are often self-starters and highly motivated. If your candidate is highly motivated and produces great results with very little supervision, they are definitely an excellent candidate to work as a telecommuting employee.
How to Make Telecommuting Work for Your Business
- Time tracking – to effectively keep track of your employees, set up an online timesheet system to track employee productivity.
- All remote employees must have high-speed Internet access.
- Set up programs that contain video chat and instant messaging systems so your team can stay connected at all times.
- Have a phone system that makes it easy for remote workers to access teleconferencing, voicemail, and call forwarding.
Conclusion
Many companies are benefiting from telecommuting. Is your company going to be one of them? Do you fit the criteria?