Is the end of Silicon Valley nearing?
Not the innovation and the creativity rising from the IT hub. But with the pros of remote work gaining momentum, such IT hubs may soon be irrelevant.
Over the past 10 years, the number of remote workers has increased by 400%. Upwork has predicted that over the next 8 years 73% of all teams will have remote workers. Remote work is winning across all industries.
As the head of hiring or a wizard of hiring a staff of your company, you might want to know why. So we have lined up 15 fabulous advantages of remote working to make our case.
Before we dive in, let’s see what research shows us.
Pros of Remote Work in Numbers
Over the past couple of years, research has been pouring in on remote work. Let us tease you with a few numbers on the advantages of working remotely.
- The working-from-home population has grown from 27.6 million in 2021 to 80 million in 2022. (Source: My Credit Summit)
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that more than 22,000 employees of the social media giant will be working remotely in the next 5- 10 years. (Source: Washington Post)
- Coinbase, Masterclass, Shopify, Siemens, Twitter have started to adapt their companies to a “remote-first” work policy. Source:
- By 2030, the USA, China and India will add $4.5 trillion, $1.4 trillion, and $376 million annually. This is due to the decentralization of opportunities resulting in increased work-from-home opportunities. (Source: IWG)
- One of the extensions of remote work, remote onboarding, will reduce hiring costs by 160%. (Source: Talentlms)
- If you get to collaborate with your remote worker right, productivity on collaborative tasks is found to rise twice.
- 40% of employees are ready to take a pay cut if they are allowed to permanently work from home. (Source: Indeed)
- One of the startling advantages of remote work is that employees are found to be 1.8x more productive than when working in an office. (Source: Owllabs)
- 52% of remote workers are less likely to take time off when working remotely—even when sick. (Source: CoSo Cloud)
- More than 5/10 employees believe that they’ll choose an employer who offers the flexibility to work remotely than someone who doesn’t offer one. (Source: Owllabs)
- 8/10 employees believe that they’ll support remote work once the pandemic subsides. (Source: Owllabs)
- 64% of employees who did not work from home before the pandemic believe they now have a better work-life balance (Source: My Credit Summit)
- The future looks strong for remote setups, as estimates reveal that by 2025, almost 70% of the workforce will be distributed. (Source: My Credit Summit)
15 Advantages of Remote Working
Based on the above findings we see 5 themes emerge on the pros of remote working. They are:
- Onboarding benefits
- Jacked up productivity
- Guaranteed health benefits
- Happier employee
- Richer employer
Based on the themes above, we have dissected specific benefits in advocating remote work.
Remote Onboarding Benefits
Let us begin by unraveling the benefits of remote work on your onboarding experience.
Quicker onboarding
Your onboarding helps you make a good first impression.
Tailoring a good virtual onboarding experience is easier, quicker, and less clumsy than a traditional onboarding – courtesy of the absence of any paperwork.
If your new recruit should be prepped up quickly and be show-ready soon, a remote onboarding process is better than an in-house onboarding experience.
Remote workers are the beneficiaries of such virtual onboarding processes.
Lower costs
With the absence of duties such as printing contracts, agreements, signing papers, you are set to gain on the cost-front in a remote onboarding process.
Advantages on Productivity
Increased productivity
One of the most repeatedly emphasized benefits of allowing employees to work remotely is its impact on productivity. This has been recognized by both employers and employees.
Based on a Hubstaff report, it is revealed that 65% of workers believe they are super productive working from home. Businesses too agree, with over 85% backing up their employees – the latter are more productive when they work from home.
One other advantage of remote working is that asynchronous communication rules the roost – meaning, there are lesser distractions.
Asynchronous communication can lead to issues like lower frequency of replies, poor email turnarounds, etc. However, these are found to happen only in the beginning. As employees settle down with a fixed routine, the remote employees develop better communication techniques.
More work for free
It has been found that remote employees work for 1.4 days/month more than their office. This loosely translates to 3 weeks a year.
Each of our experiences working from home is a standing testimony to this phenomenon. However, let’s take a look at what happened at Sun microsystems. When the software stalwart surveyed the productivity of its remote workers they found that they worked 5 hours more per week than their office-based counterparts.
Working from home is found to have an impact on employee’s loyalty towards the company. It may be a sign of gratefulness as well. It may also be a result of all the hours and energy wasted on commute translating into extra work hours for the company.
Nevertheless, switching your workforce to connect remotely can earn you these advantages.
Advantages of remote working on health
Reduced stress levels
Work-related stress creeps in due to a plethora of reasons. They include but aren’t limited to:
- Boredom
- Commute
- Anger
- Work-family conflict
- Workplace politics
- Frustration
Honestly, these are just the tip of the iceberg.
One of the advantages of remote work is the flexibility it allows. This results in employees being able to manage their time better. They can sneak out a few hours for a dentist appointment or their child’s soccer match. In case of emergency, they need not wait to get themselves permitted to leave.
The flexibility allows employees to work around the clock. 84% of employees agree that this increased flexibility will aid in better managing mental stress.
Higher levels of gratefulness
Employee loyalty is a crucial metric to nurture within your company. Particularly, in these circumstances, carefully managing trust levels can go a long way in impacting your team’s collaborative and standalone productivity.
As employees become less stressed they are more inclined to be grateful. Working from home is still a privilege for many workers. They are likely to be thankful for many reasons such as increased family time, a flexible working day.
Let us explain why nurturing gratefulness is a useful advantage derived from remote working.
For your business, it translates into requesting them to pump a few extra hours. Grateful employees are more likely to do a favor. Hence they’ll invest more time to work, respond to emails, offer support, etc.
Impact on physical health
Remote working is not all about parking your tushy on your rolling work chair and staring into the pixels for hours together. With the evidence of higher productivity, we can also safely conclude that it is not about sneaking an episode of Friends inside office hours.
It is found that employees get in more exercise thanks to remote work. One of the benefits of allowing employees to work remotely is that it enables them to spend the saved time commuting to exercise sessions.
Here is the math: In a Coso Cloud survey, it was found that approximately 35% of employees agree that they are able to get more exercise. This is a god-send remote working benefit for employers.
Here’s why: HR staff is expected to ensure employees don’t suffer from work burnout. The pandemic adds to this experience by introducing digital burnout.
Remote work offers an advantage where employees have enough work hour flexibility to craft personalized diet plans and exercise routines for a healthier lifestyle.
Other benefits for your employee
Improved satisfaction & Higher morale
Remote work has many pros both at the micro and macro levels of an employee’s life. Personally, remote work has saved me several thousand bucks that otherwise would have drained courtesy commute, lunch, office-wear, and much much more.
The time wasted while trudging through traffic and waiting in the subway is another horror story. According to the Census Bureau Data 2018, US workers lose 117.7 minutes a week in mundane commutes. That’s a horrific 96 hours in a year.
These benefits wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for the affluent class. However, for several fresh students and business graduates with several mounds of debt, these savings are a great deal. No wonder 50% of employees would choose companies that offer remote work over companies that don’t.
This is why remote working is advantageous. These monetary and time-based benefits directly result in higher levels of satisfaction and employee morale.
Gone are the days when simply the job would yield satisfaction. Millennials and Gen-Z demand the right to have a say in how they work.
By saving so much time and money, they can in turn invest in hobbies or even a side-hustle.
Fewer distractions
Although workplace friendships and water-cooler conversations are an interesting aspect of one’s work life, you cannot deny the fact that several minutes a day are wasted here and there.
Remote workers do not have these distractions. The added flexibility allows you to seamlessly fit other forms of socialization into their life without affecting their productivity.
Another advantage of remote working is that workers can craft and sculpt a productive work environment.
As a knowledge worker, I personally find a quiet place to be a must-have. Working from home enables me to choose the most productive, hassle-free place.
Not to brag, but my workplace sports a garden view. What about yours?
Less absenteeism
Did you know that 78% of employees who call in sick aren’t actually sick? That leaves you only 2 honest abes per team. However, equally pressing issues may be the reason for such employees.
There are several reasons that lead to employee absenteeism:
- Illness
- Bad weather
- Appointments
- Emergencies
- Family functions
One of the biggest pros of remote working for employers is that they face lesser issues of absenteeism and leaves.
Remote workers aren’t affected by the cold or rain outside. Confined within the most productive walls of their homes, they have fewer reasons to not log in from their homes. Research has shown that absences fall by 63% when employees work remotely.
Remote work benefits employers
Saves you from 6 different costs
Dell was one of the earliest proponents of work-from-home policies. It has been flirting with remote working policies dating back to 2016 when it found that it was able to save $12 million every year in real estate costs.
Cost is the biggest advantage of remote work for employers. The next time you feel like you have to cut down costs, shift your focus from human resources and marketing budgets.
The pandemic has already resulted in a paradigm shift. Remote work is the new cool. Take advantage.
Saving costs is the biggest benefit of remote work for businesses. According to Indeed, businesses save up to 50% on operational costs.
You save anywhere between 15%-25% by reducing costs on the plant, equipment, property, stationary, parking, etc.
Moreover, a remote workforce results in a 31% reduction in spending on health insurance.
Another advantage of remote work for businesses is the saving done on energy – printers, laptops, cooler systems, lighting, etc.
As employees commute less, they’ll no longer require travel allowances from employers. Large companies also subsidize transportation costs. Remote workers ease this toll on your balance sheet.
Employer branding
Offering remote work is a great opportunity to market your company. This is a great advantage of remote for employers as it helps them hire fresh talent.
Firstly, a remote-first policy puts you on the map as a progressive company. It also shows that your company is tech-savvy.
Secondly, companies that offer remote work are environment friendly. You build stories on how you are helping reduce the carbon footprint by increasing your company’s ability to scale using a remote workforce.
One of the benefits of remote working is work-life balance. As a proponent of remote work, you portray yourself as a pro-work-life balanced organization.
By using these narratives surrounding remote work, your chances to hire extraordinary talent increase greatly.
Get work done around the clock
One of the advantages of a remote workforce for employers is that you can have world-class teams from around the world. By hiring across different time zones, you simply enable workers to work for your company all the time. This is particularly useful to build vibrant, 24/7 support teams.
Pre-trained employees
Pre-trained employees result as a benefit of remote working policies.
Remote working just doesn’t result in cost benefits – it opens up talent pools across the world.
So, how does it benefit you as an employer?
Simple. You stop hiring employees whom you have to train. Instead, go around the globe to look for that specific skill set you want.
Make your business more competitive
Remote working also offers a competitive advantage for employers. It helps you tap into precious talent from around the world. It also helps you tap into regional markets.
By hiring employees across different vernacular contexts, you solve language barrier problems that commonly emerge from market entry.
How Can Multiplier Help in Remote Work?
Now that we have established the advantages of remote working, let us introduce Multiplier to you.
Multiplier’s SaaS-based PEO and EOR solution helps you generate locally compliant contracts without having to face compliance issues. Hiring across the world throws obstacles such as language barriers, compliance, and payroll management.
Multiplier’s platform offers 50+ local entities and legal partners that you can use and hire to help you onboard employees without having to establish a local entity on your own. Also, you can pay your freelancers, contractors, and permanent employees with a single click. Simply put, you hire, pay, and manage their day-day tasks but we take legal responsibility for them.
