Remote work is a working system that allows the employee to work from his home or any other place outside the company’s headquarters.
There are two types of remote work: freelance work and remote employment.
Self-employment relies on hiring freelancers to carry out a specific project that is often not ongoing.
As for remote employment, it depends on companies employing their employees remotely, either full-time or part-time and allowing them to work from their homes or anywhere else.
Nowadays, telecommuting has become the most flexible option for companies that want to source the best global talent at the lowest costs, save on infrastructure costs, while increasing productivity and improving employee retention.
One study revealed that globally 70% of employees work remotely at least once a week, and more than 50% of them work remotely for more than 3 days a week.
The Arab world was not immune to these developments as well, as Arab companies and even governments are increasingly adopting the remote employment system.
For example, you’ll find dozens of companies offering their remote jobs on a remote site.
But what are the advantages of working remotely? Is your company ready for this change? This is what we will try to answer in the next lines.
What are the advantages of working remotely?
Many advantages obtained by companies when adopting the method of remote work vary between the direct material advantages that are represented in increasing or improving productivity through the recruitment of high and rare competencies.
The human element is the main factor in the success of any company or project, and perhaps the biggest plus that the company gets from adopting remote employment is that it allows it to hire talent from anywhere in the world, without being restricted to the geographical region in which the company is active.
Among the advantages of working remotely are the following:
1. Increase productivity
Let’s take a look at the experience of Ctrip, the largest Chinese travel agency that employs about 16,000 employees, during the year 2014 it allowed some of its employees to work from home, and then after some time on this new business model, I compared their efficiency and productivity with their counterparts who adhered to traditional working hours in offices.
Taking all other factors equal, the results indicated that remote workers made 13.5% more calls than their office counterparts, which is equivalent to the productivity of a full working day over a week.
Other statistics say that productivity increases by up to 30% in teams when they start using group remote work applications.
2. Job satisfaction
The concept of job satisfaction refers to the amount of happiness and the positive impact of the job on the psychological and mental state of workers.
Therefore, the good rates of job satisfaction enjoyed by the employees of a company make them valuable assets of the company, ambassadors of the brand, always ready to defend it, and the consequent sense of belonging and loyalty.
There is no doubt that job satisfaction is linked to many other factors, and it is not just about working remotely.
However, it is certain and according to the available data on this subject that the new business model is one of the important factors that play a major role in the extent of job satisfaction those employees can enjoy towards the organizations they work for.
3. Flexibility in management
Thanks to teamwork applications, it becomes easy for remote work teams to interact with each other through these applications, as the interaction becomes faster, easier, and more efficient, and anyone can communicate directly with anyone within the team regardless of where either party is located.
Add to that the presence of a complete list of team members in one place (within the application) and can be accessed directly, and each member has his profile in which he displays his job in the team and the tasks he is responsible for, making it easy for team managers to search for the right person for a task.
4. Lower costs for both the company and employees
One of the main reasons that prompted Chinese travel agency Ctrip to adopt the remote working model was the high cost of office rents in Shanghai, the company’s main workplace.
Remote work provides more options to reduce costs, and it is not limited to the costs of workspaces only, the supplies for operating and managing offices and the consequent expenses in terms of operating service bills, transportation allowance for employees, services for operation and maintenance of office equipment, and other details that can be dispensed with Totally relying on remote work teams.
Now, you may have been convinced of the feasibility of working remotely, but how do you know if your company is ready to work remotely? How do you ensure that the transition to this system will go smoothly, and will not negatively affect the workflow?
Are there tasks in your company that can be performed remotely?
Tasks that can be performed remotely.
Does the nature of the work in your company allow the possibility of carrying out some tasks remotely, and the completion of work via the Internet? Do your employees or some of them sit all day in front of a computer or even their laptop?
Does the work run efficiently within your company without the employee being in the office?
If your team is already using remote distributed team tools, they can collaborate using various online business tools. This means that your company can deal with remote work and that it already has a framework that enables it to move from the traditional work system to the teleworking system.
Do your employees want to work from home?
One study found that work-life balance is the key to job satisfaction. Employees who live a balance between the responsibilities of their job, and the responsibilities of their personal, family, and social lives are more satisfied.
For the employees themselves, teleworking allows them to have more flexibility in working times and suits them with their other personal and family responsibilities, for example, and the role of this in achieving a balance between professional and personal life.
The global workforce is turning towards this type of work to reap the fruits of freedom, flexibility, job satisfaction, and many other benefits.
If your employees express a desire to work remotely, this may be a good time to seriously consider adopting this policy as one of the company’s employment options, as if you ignore it, you risk losing highly qualified employees.
Are your competitors moving towards remote work?
One factor that shows if your company is ready to work remotely is taking a look at what your competitors are doing. If you notice that your competitors are starting to rely on remote recruitment, this may be a good indication that you should turn towards it as well and take advantage of its advantages to maintain your company’s competitiveness.
Of course, you are not only competing for sales and customers but also talented employees. If your competitors are moving towards remote work what is stopping you from that, this is the best solution to ensure that your best employees do not move to your competitors just because they offer more flexibility in the work environment.
During a survey of business leaders at the Global Leadership Summit in London in 2015, 34% said that more than half of the company’s full-time workforce would be working remotely by 2020, and another 25% said more than 75% of the workforce would not be working. in traditional corporate offices by 2020.
Globally, global leader PGi Global conducted a survey that showed that 79% of knowledge workers surveyed worldwide now work outside the office.
Do you find it difficult to find talent?
Your company’s presence in a particular geographic area may limit your ability to find the skills and experience you’re looking for.
In addition, the procedures, laws, and costs of international labor recruitment may be a major obstacle to attempts to include any expertise or competencies that are scarce for small and medium-sized enterprises with limited budgets.
If you notice that you are finding it difficult to find employees with the competencies you are looking for, this may be the perfect time to move to remote recruitment, because it will allow you to hire people with high and rare skills and experience from around the world, and join them to your team with minimal efforts and costs.
