The benefits of a remote company model have been highlighted abundantly over the past few years. Several studies have confirmed the advantages and the facts speak for themselves—remote work is improving employee productivity, happiness, and loyalty, while saving companies a substantial amount of money in office space and supplies, leading to a win for everyone involved. But really, that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Our company has been completely remote from day one in 2009, and we’ve never contemplated moving in-office, because we’ve discovered that in addition to those obvious reasons for working remote, there are a whole raft of subtler benefits that we couldn’t have foreseen.
Here are six of the lesser-known benefits of a remote company model:
1. The ability to tap into virtually untapped talent pools, such as moms, military spouses, and expats.
Being able to access global talent is a well-represented benefit for hiring remotely, but it goes further than that. It’s not only the benefits of location you’re tapping into, it’s the sectors of society who not only want, but need remote work. Military spouses, expats, and moms are all highly employable members of our communities who have difficulty finding the quality of work they are capable of due to the need for flexibility in time and location. By hiring remotely, you’re offering a viable option to these candidates who may have all the right skills but for whom a traditional office-based job isn’t viable.
We’ve hired many of our team members in these ‘non-standard’ life circumstances, and they’ve proven to be some of our best employees—adaptable, hard-working, and willing to go to bat to retain the lifestyle remote work offers. If you hire right, you get to work with people who are both skilled and passionate about making remote work successful.
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2. You decrease HR hours spent on unproductive outputs.
When you motivate staff to work remotely in a setting and at a time that’s personally productive for them, they become laser focused on getting things done. While it’s natural to wonder about the productivity of team members you can’t see, managers discover that without the distractions of a traditional office space (pop-ins, loud conference calls, mandatory break room birthday parties) employees can focus solely on their work, accomplish what they need to, and are motivated to be efficient so they can move on to other important parts of their life like their families and hobbies.
3. Working online keeps you from being lazy about processes and forces you to be innovative.
When your team is working independently from different locations, the need for clear and effective processes becomes abundantly clear. Where an in-office environment can mask inefficiency because of a team’s proximity, a remote environment highlights process deficiencies very quickly. Working virtually reduces skipped steps by almost mandating employees to direct work through the correct channels. Along the same lines, when your work depends entirely on technology, keeping up with the latest and greatest is no longer an option but more of a constant expectation.
Working remotely has forced our company to continue searching for the best ways to do things, the most innovative software to help us with projects, and more—things that may have been replaced with dragging meetings in a corporate environment. By being constantly exposed to the newest leaps in technology, we’re able to implement and adapt to new programs quickly.
4. You’re forced into learning better communication.
Virtual communication has its challenges. Emails and online messages can sometimes get misconstrued or tones can be misinterpreted. In an office setting, those things can sometimes be forgiven by proximity to the person you’re talking to and habituation to their personality or communication style. When you work virtually, there’s a spotlight on the ways in which you need to strengthen communication. Are your instructions too broad? Is your tone too short? Are you giving enough detailed information? You need to be sure you’re able to provide clear, actionable written communication, which is a skill that shouldn’t be underestimated.
5. Sick days will be a thing of the past.
Of course, while we offer sick days to our team, we know that sometimes illness is unavoidable. But we’ve come to find that they go virtually (pun intended!) unused. Whether this is due to less exposure to coworkers germs, lowered stress from a flexible schedule and no commute traffic, or just the ability to work more comfortably with a blanket and some hot tea, we’re unsure. But what we do know is members of our team VERY rarely take a sick day. Giving our team the ability to work from home also allows them to stay home with their sick children and still work, which also greatly reduces leave.
6. You protect the environment.
All responsible business owners should be concerned about their company’s environmental footprint. Working remotely saves on gas and traffic emissions, wasted paper, trash, electricity, heat, and so much more. In our current environmental climate, where every small change truly does matter, you can make a difference with a remote company model in a way that costs you nothing and in a way that actually saves you money. What could be better than that?
It’s understandable that transforming your company to a remote model can be a scary thing. But it’s worth putting some serious thought into. Sit down with your company decision makers, outline the pros (even the hidden ones!) and the cons for making the change, and if you feel you can make it happen, put the process into motion. Great ideas are only great when they are acted upon.
Sandra Lewis is the founder of Boldly, a premium virtual assistant company connecting demanding founders and executives with highly skilled, meticulously matched help. You can connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.
Photo Credit: bigstockphoto.com
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