The benefits of remote work for both employees and managers

Define which employees are eligible for the four-day work week (e.g., full-time, salaried, or remote employees). Outline why the company is offering a flexible schedule and its expected benefits for both employees and the organization. A four-day work week is a compressed schedule that allows employees to work four days instead of five. Some companies implement a 32-hour work week, while others retain a 40-hour structure by requiring employees to work four 10-hour days.

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• Remote workerssave approximately $7,000 annuallyon commuting costs, food, clothing, and childcare compared to in-office employees.
• Still, with increased social support and systems put in place by managers and organizations trained in managing hybrid teams, research also suggests there’s plenty of benefits to working from home.
• They don’t feel micromanaged, either, despite being out of the office and outside the eyeline of their bosses.
• This shows workers value the flexibility of remote work and have, to an extent, built their lives around it.
• So another of the benefits of remote working for employers is that employees will use their time more productively if they work from home.

When remote managers prioritize outcomes and communication over face time, there’s less BS and fewer pointless meetings. Some of us rightfully fear the return to office gossip, power plays, and empty flattery. While remote work can’t save your team from office politics, it gives you the time and space you need to opt out. Develop a comprehensive knowledge base where employees can easily access important information without extensive searching. Standardize documentation practices and organize information logically so it remains clean and navigable as your knowledge repository grows.

Organizations also must contend with the possibility of confidentiality breaches. This could include someone overhearing a confidential discussion or seeing sensitive documents on an employee’s computer. Businesses must stress the importance of maintaining confidentiality, and consider limiting work in public spaces.

The landscape of work has undergone a dramatic transformation in recent years. Remote collaboration has shifted from a nice-to-have option to an essential business capability for several compelling reasons. Many terms have been used to refer to paid work that is flexibly performed outside the premises of the employer, such as WFH, telework, home office, or remote work 8, 9. No one’s internet connection is completely stable at every possible second. Electricity and internet outages aside, connections can vary in speed and reliability over the course of a day.

You may lose the creative spark and speed that comes from in-person collaboration.

Specifically, we calculated the average months WFH in the months after the previous wave up until the next wave. The cut-offs were based on when most participants completed each wave of data collection. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home (WFH) was not a completely unknown phenomenon 1, 2. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, “home office” became the norm for many, mostly white-collar office workers, and the number of employees who performed telework in the EU doubled between 2020 and 2021 3, 4. WFH appears to be here to stay, with many companies downsizing their office space and adopting enduring policies regarding remote work, profoundly changing the conceptualization of the workplace 5,6,7.

Keep reading to discover some explanations behind the numerous advantages of remote working. Despite the increasing debates surrounding workplace models post-pandemic, the benefits of working from home are indisputable. Create structured communication protocols that specify which tools to use for different types of communication. Determine when to use video calls versus messaging platforms and establish expectations for response times.

The role of coworking in communication and remote management

Mitigating this challenge, especially for teams that live in time zones 6+ hours apart, is quite difficult. Our guide on when to use synchronous versus asynchronous communication is a good starting point to help distributed teams communicate more effectively. Another common challenge in remote work is the lack of visibility and recognition for contributions. It can be hard to showcase one’s work and accomplishments when not physically present. This can lead to a lack of acknowledgment, which may impact employee motivation and job satisfaction. This lack of training can lead to ineffective management practices that compromise team cohesion, productivity, and employee satisfaction.

• I work with clients in Europe, North America, and Australia, which created opportunities I would never have had in my in-office position.
• As they learn what works (e.g., one-on-one calls), they build on that.
• Even as more companies have returned to the office in recent years, many workers with disabilities are continuing remote or hybrid arrangements as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Team members can keep in touch through a modern company intranet, so it’s as if they’re in the office anyway.
• This guide helps businesses create clear, effective remote work policies that set employees up for success while maintaining operational efficiency.

Benefits of Remote Work

As you may know firsthand, when work expands and seeps into your free time like this, it can throw off your work-life balance and accelerate burnout. In the busy world we live in time is invaluable and we never seem to have enough of it. So another of the benefits of remote working for employers is that employees will use their time more productively if they work from home. As well as less time spent traveling, working from home reduces office gossip time, lateness, and time wasted in the coffee shop. Another one of the benefits of hiring remote workers is that there are no relocation costs for the company, which can run into thousands of dollars.

As someone who works remotely, you’ll also have more freedom and autonomy to do your job the way you want to. For instance, you won’t be micromanaged as closely as you might in a traditional office setting. If you’re currently looking for flexible work in the tech space, you’re in luck. There are plenty of great remote work opportunities out there, even for people without much work experience. In addition to attracting better talent, remote work can help businesses keep the talent they already have.

This policy applies to all eligible employees at Company Name who have received approval to work remotely, either on a full-time or hybrid basis. Eligibility is determined based on job responsibilities, department needs, and employee performance. The pandemic has brought on a new awareness of mental health and work-life balance. For many, it was the catalyst for a reassessment of personal priorities and the introduction of new demands for permanent remote work, personal time off, great culture, benefits of working remotely and more. Given how expensive, time-consuming, and downright exhausting it is to replace team members, increased retention rates benefit both employers and employees.

There isn’t much firm research as to whether companies with a five-day in-office policy perform better as a business or on the stock market. “But we do find significant evidence that return-to-office mandates hurt employee job satisfaction,” Ma says. And nearly half of employees who work remotely at least some of the time say they’d be unlikely to stay at their job if they were called back to their offices full time, according to data from BambooHR.

Working together efficiently like this can promote positive feelings and motivation. This can lead to employees going the extra mile, when perhaps you need them to work late or produce a stunning presentation. Remote employees also tend to be happier than office workers, making them good advocates for the company.

With no commute, you contribute fewer greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere. At home, you can have more control over the environmental impact of your office. Turn off most of the lights in your home, use surge protectors, and set your office equipment to power-save mode. There are also federal and state incentives to improve the energy efficiency of your home. Day-to-day comfort is personal, but working from home gives you choices beyond business or business-casual looks—especially on days that are light on virtual meetings. Plus, even when things go perfectly, even a relatively short commute of 20 minutes will take 40 minutes out of your day—that’s more than three hours a week.

Benefit from asynchronous communication perks

A March 2023 study out of the University of Melbourne found that women ― especially mothers and caregivers ― reported improved well-being when they’re given the option to work from home. The researchers posited that such flexibility helps women balance paid employment with unpaid caregiving and household duties, which women disproportionately bear the brunt of. Black workers reported a 50% increase in their sense of workplace belonging and a 64% increase in their ability to manage stress when they began working from home. More Black professionals want flexible work policies than their white, Asian and Latino colleagues, according to a 2021 study conducted by The Future Forum, a research consortium organized by Slack.