The world of remote work is expanding at breakneck speeds as employees prove they can maintain and even improve deliverable efficiency from home.
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The great migration from the cubicle to the kitchen table
Millions of Americans and international workers responded to the Covid 19 pandemic two years ago by swapping trafficked commutes for home offices and store-bought salads for home-cooked meals as we moved our work in-house. A report by Forbes reveals that 74% of professionals expect remote work to become the standard, pandemic or not. To further things, a whopping 97% of employees who have converted either partially or totally remote do not want to return to the office full-time.
“While this new style of work has presented some challenges, both managers and their direct hires have agreed that the benefits of remote work are well worth it for flexibility, cost-saving, and work-life balance,” says CSS Professional Staffing Group Recruiting Director, Shannon Foley Young
Here are some advantageous perks of remote work.
1. Eliminate that long commute
Time and money are two of our most valuable assets, and eliminating a commute to the office saves both. That bumper-to-bumper traffic and costly train travel cut into valuable work hours and income, two fleeting resources saved by remote communication and workflow capabilities like Zoom and Monday.com. For perspective, it has been estimated that the average hybrid worker can save up to $6,000 on commuting and the average full-remote worker $12,000.
Employers can save on business travel expenditures for employees as well if a board meeting halfway across the country can be done virtually. When you add up flight costs, hotels, mileage, etc., the savings for companies that go virtual add up quickly.
2. Lower environmental impacts
Not only has cutting commuting saved us time and money, but it is also making considerable positive impacts on our environment. A study from Spain’s Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals revealed that working from home four days a week reduces the amount of nitrogen oxide, the main pollutant produced by traffic emissions, by 10%. Going digital also saves paper, plastic, commercial real estate energy consumption, and more.
Letting people work from home reduces emissions and companies avoid what is and will continue to be a very costly carbon tax for doing so. The United States Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) is more comprehensive year by year and the companies already cutting their emissions with policies like remote work will reap the benefits.
3. Personalize your office like never before
Those bobbleheads and family photos brought some life to your grey cubicle, but there was not much more room for creativity beyond that. Remote work opens a world of potential to customize your home workspace to your desired design. Need more life at your workstation? Decorate with lush plants and lively flowers galore. Enthusiastic about your favorite sports team? Flood your space in your alumni colors and go from a cubicle bobblehead to a complete jersey collection. Manicure your virtual meeting background to have a little fun and express your personality
4. Work from anywhere in the world
Not only are you free to decorate your workspace at home, but you do not need to work from home at all. If you make sure Wi-Fi is available and your travel is approved by your manager, you have the freedom to visit friends and family or to generally explore at the drop of a hat. As always, ensure you remain productive on the road, and you will open travel opportunities for yourself.
Where employees get to flex their location, employers and hiring managers get to flex their candidate pool. Hiring options multiply when companies are not required to staff locally. Managers have access to better quality candidates through remote work who otherwise may be outside of a company’s regional territory.
5. Flex your hours around your productivity
Work flexibility from remote locations extends across time in the same way it does space. Not only can you work from wherever with the appropriate approval, but whenever you want as well. You still need to be available for those company-wide town halls and manager one-on-ones, but beyond that, you probably can restructure your hours around when you actually get your work done. If you are an early bird who likes to knock out KPIs at five in the morning, approach your manager about flexing some hours from the end of the day to the early morning and open your afternoons. If your productivity skyrockets at dusk, approach your manager about shifting your early hours into the evening for a fuller morning rest.
6. Save company money on real estate
The domino effect of shrinking office space demand allowed companies to cut unnecessary corporate real estate supply. Dell reported a $12 million figure in savings by allowing remote work and IBM reported real estate savings of $50 million with the same remote offering to its employees. All this money saved by offloading real estate costs allows companies to invest more in learning and development, employee salary structure, employee benefits offerings, and celebratory company outings among other initiatives.
7. Home-cooked meals
The best meals are the ones you make yourself, and remote work enables employees to take full advantage of the produce in their kitchens. Ditch that $15 sandwich and whip up a delicious lunch in the privacy and comfort of your home before you get back at it in the afternoon. Forbes calculated that ordering out costs an astonishing five times as much as cooking at home, so enjoy that home-brewed coffee and freshly tossed salad while fattening your pockets.
Partner with CSS PSG today to enable your work from home warriors.
Our working world depends more and more on remote labor every day to cut costs while maximizing business efficiency, and CSS PSG has the reach and resources to fill your employment requirements. Specializing in human resources, accounting and finance, office support, and call center support, CSS PSG has been a staffing industry leader for almost 20 years with stellar client reviews. Connect with CSS PSG today to meet your expanding hybrid and remote hiring needs!