Remote working has become the new norm. Ever since employees have got the option to work remotely, their life has become much more manageable. And it is not just the employees but employers are also getting the benefit of this model.
Many sectors, such as education, accounting, etc., are now incorporating the remote working model. They understand the potential that the system offers and are now leveraging it to make the most out of it.
The IT industry is quite familiar with remote working. They have been the pioneers in adapting to remote working, so many companies are witnessing significant success. The benefits of hiring remote resources help them to fill in the vacancies in a much more quickly and efficient manner.
However, as with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, it is vital to weigh the following benefits and drawbacks of remote working. We would be enlightening you regarding the drawbacks and benefits of remote working for the employee and the employer.
Advantages
– Less Burden On Your Pocket
Being cost-effective is one of the main goals of any business. As a business owner, you would always find yourself looking for ways to save money. But sometimes, you might find it challenging to do so. However, with remote working, it is more than possible to cut back on cost significantly.
With most of your team working remotely, you might need a substantial physical space or might not need one at all. This helps you by cutting back on overheads such as electricity, office furniture, supplies maintenance, and most importantly, rent. Having a small office space in San Francisco or New York can be expensive. Even in smaller states and cities such as Delaware and Idaho, real estate prices have skyrocketed. Through implementing remote working, you can save some extra bucks, which you can use in business expansion.
Talking from the employee’s perspective, they can also save money as they longer have to commute to work. Also, they can now save the time and energy that they use to waste on traveling to work.
Furthermore, the employees can now save money that they spend on eating lunch out and on wardrobe. Buying an office wardrobe can be costly, but it would not be necessary for them to wear informal clothing since they are working from home. However, you would need to put on your formal dress in a meeting or a video conference.
All of this would have a considerable impact on the productivity of the employees.
Flexibility
The flexibility that remote working offers is something millennials are always attracted to. In this era, the most important thing that people have a flexible work schedule. It is vital for work-life balance since it is easy to manage it when working remotely.
And it is not just working from home. You will find many people prefer working from a different location. Through remote working, they can now move to any other place without any issues simply.
The flexibility makes the employee’s commitment and dedication much stronger. They would not look for any other opportunities due to the feasibility of working remotely. This would ultimately improve your employee retention rate and reduce labor turnover.
Training and hiring a new employee can be costly and time-consuming. You don’t want to go through the process repeatedly, especially when you have people who are an asset to the company. Therefore, you can make sure that your current employee stays on board with you by incorporating remote working.
– Enhances Productivity
As we have mentioned earlier, employees working remotely have a much better productivity rate than those working onsite. And there are significant factors that are contributing to it. Remote employees tend to have much more time in their day to participate in physical activity.
Since remote employees have no rigid timings, they tend to choose to work in those hours to feel much more productive. Instead of sitting in front of the screen from 9 to 5, you can now simply choose your own working hours.
Moreover, it removes any sort of disruptions that occur in the workplace. It eliminates office politics, gossips, or any other disruptions or troubles that can distract or demotivate the employees. Working remotely helps you to concentrate on your work without any disturbances by workplace gossip and socializing.
A motivated and satisfied workforce is bound to give much better results compared to a demotivated workforce. With remote working, you can significantly enhance your employees’ productivity without giving out any extra incentives
Disadvantages
– Need For High Self-Discipline
The biggest challenge that many managers fear is managing remote workers. It is the main reason why many are still reluctant to adapt to remote working. Since there is no physical supervision, it isn’t easy to track the progress of the employee.
As there is no physical supervision, employees need to be selfly disciplined to ensure that the work is done correctly. Though there are many tools available now that can help you monitor the progress of the employees. Tools like Monday.com and Jira enable you to assign a task and get regular updates on it.
– Communication Barriers
Communication can be a big challenge that can cause hindrances in work. Though you have the feasibility to go over to someone’s desk in an office, that is something not available in a remote setting. However, the obstacle of communication can now be removed easily. With tools like Skype and Slack, you can quickly and instantly communicate with your peers.
Effective communication is essential for the success of the business and, more importantly, instant communication. If you are still relying on email for communication, then it is time to change the communication method.
Conclusion
So, should we go for remote working or not? With a comparison like this, you would want to know that whether remote working is good for you or not. So, to conclude, we can say that the benefits outweigh the cons of remote working.
There is no denying that remote working is the future. So why not take the first-mover advantage and leverage it to get a competitive edge over others? And if you need some help, then you always have Aspired on your side. Aspired is a remote working agency that can help you build a robust remote team in no time. From hiring to managing your remote team, everything would be our responsibility. Let’s collaborate, and we can help you take your business to the next level. Feel free to contact us anytime or visit our website to learn more about us.